INDIA: The most awaited and hyped series, the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, between India and Australia took off with a great start at the VCA Jamtha Stadium in Nagpur, which showed a good attendance of fans. This type of crowd in a test match is always good to see in the longest format of the game.
The first day of the test match undoubtedly belongs to team India as they restricted the Aussies to only 177 runs in their first inning. India stands overnight at 77-1 with Rohit Sharma (56*) and Ravichandran Ashwin (0*).
Marnus Labuschagne (49), Steve Smith (37), Peter Handscomb (31) and Alex Carey (36) were the key contributors to Australia. From India, Ravindra Jadeja took 5 wicket haul, his eleventh in Test matches, and Ravichandran Ashwin grabbed 3 wickets.
A low score was earlier predicted as the pitch doesn’t look like a five-day pitch. The ball was staying low from the start of the innings. It will soon start displacing more with the heat of Nagpur.
Australia 1st Innings
The visitors lost two early wickets at the very start of the inning with Mohammed Siraj’s late swinging delivery hitting the pads of Usman Khawaja before Mohammed Shami bowled a ripper which castled David Warner.
Smith and Labuschagne showed some guts and applied themselves on a spinner friendly strip and built an 82-run partnership for the third wicket. For a moment it looked like these two could take Australia to a big score.
But soon Ravindra Jadeja spoiled their plan by dismissing Labuschagne and Matt Renshaw in two consecutive deliveries.
Handscomb and Carey, both scored crucial 30s for their team before getting dismissed by Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin respectively which restricted the visitors to 177.
India 1st Innings
Unlike Australian openers, Indian openers looked solid. Rohit Sharma was on top of every loose ball and played with an attacking approach, scoring his half-century in just 66 balls.
KL Rahul on the other hand played steadily and looked to get in the groove. However, lost his wicket to Australian debutant Todd Murphy against the run of play just 2 overs before the day’s end which led India to send Ashwin as a night watchman.
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