India’s first innings begins with a confident start from Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill, who successfully navigate some serious mid-140s km/h heat from Mitchell Starc.
They end up plundering seven runs from Australia’s first over with the ball. Cameron Green has the next one, and Gill slaps a short one to the boundary for four runs. Another seven runs in total. India is 0-14 after two overs.
The innings is over, and Ashwin cleans up the last wicket, his sixth, catching the edge of Matt Kuhnemann – the ball comes off Bharat’s thigh and pops up for Virat Kohli to catch it.
The Aussie tail wagged quite well there, stretching the score out nicely to 480 all out – but the big driver was Usman Khawaja’s cracking 180 and the support from Cameron Green’s first Test century.
India manages to take one wicket as Ravi Ashwin traps Todd Murphy lbw for 41. That looks clear-cut and unfortunate for Australia. Murphy sends it upstairs but the umpire’s call is carried by the DRS, and that’s the end of this punchy little partnership. Ashwin has five wickets, and Australia is 9-479, with Lyon unbeaten on 33 and Matthew Kuhnemann in next.
India takes the third new ball. They may as well, because they weren’t getting much love out of the old ball. Todd Murphy and Nathan Lyon are putting on an incredibly stubborn 50-run stand for Australia’s ninth wicket, and so India has tossed the fresh cherry to Mohammed Shami. This partnership is now worth 66 runs. Australia is 8-479.
The Aussie tail shows decent stuff, in particular, Todd Murphy, who is growing in confidence. His partnership with Nathan Lyon is now worth a handy 43 runs and has pushed Australia’s total beyond 450. Murphy has 28 off 38 balls, including four boundaries, and Lyon has 20 from 69 with three.
India can smell blood, but they’re being held out by Nathan Lyon (11*) and Todd Murphy (15*), who are punishing the bad balls they’re seeing.
Three boundaries in the last few overs has helped Australia chug along to 8-429, and at this point, every run is gold for the tourists, who will be thinking about bowling soon against a surely knackered Indian side.
An appeal now… Ashwin to a sweeping Lyon, hits him on the arm, a shout for lbw, and they choose not to go upstairs on this occasion.
↯↯↯Read More On The Topic On TDPel Media ↯↯↯