It was a major collapse for the Australian batters once again, as the Indian spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin reigned supreme to lead India to an innings and 132-run win in the first Test in Nagpur on Saturday, February 11. The home side displayed their class with both bat and ball from the home side, as the Australians fell to the spin-friendly conditions.
India now lead the four-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy 1-0.
The Jadeja-Ashwin show
The duo of Jadeja and Ashwin took seven wickets together in the second innings as the Australian batters were dismissed for just 91 runs in 33 overs. This helped India secure a much-needed victory in the context of the World Test Championship (WTC) final.
Ashwin was the orchestrator of the rout with his 31st fifer in Test cricket. He bagged the wickets of opener Usman Khawaja (5 off 9) and David Warner (10 off 41). Khawaja fell to a catch by Kohli at slip, after which Jadeja joined in on the action to beat Marnus Labuschange as well, with the top-order batter scoring just 17 runs in 28 balls.
Ashwin struck once again in the 14th over with an LBW to get Warner, and in the next five overs, it was complete carnage by the veteran all-rounder, who got the wickets of Matt Renshaw (2 off 7), Peter Handscomb (6 off 6) and Alex Carey (10 off 6) in overs 16, 18 and 20 respectively.
With the Australians reeling at 64/6, the Indians could smell an astounding victory and continued their charge along the same lines. Steve Smith tried his best to keep his team in the game but did not receive much support on the other end.
Axar Patel joined the party in the 27th over to get the wicket of Todd Murphy (2 off 15), and soon followed the wickets of Nathan Lyon (8 off 20) and Scott Boland (0 off 3), both taken by Mohammed Shami, as the bowlers wrapped up the match to take a 1-0 lead in the series.
Rohit Sharma proves doubters wrong
With 177 runs needed to take the lead for India in the first innings, captain Rohit Sharma was the main aggressor for India. after completing Day 1 with his half-century, he brought up his century on Day 2, despite wickets falling at the other end. Rohit kept his cool, and the pressure on his opponents, going on to score 120 runs with 15 fours and two sixes in 212 balls.
Meanwhile, the others around him faltered. Cheteshwar Pujara (7), Virat Kohli (12), Suryakumar Yadav (8) and KS Bharat (8) could not do anything special. He also eventually lost his wicket to a brilliant ball by Pat Cummins.
Losing seven wickets for 240 runs on the third day, Jadeja and Axar stuck to the crease and remained unbeaten till Day 3. The duo put Australia on the back foot with their 88-run partnership for the eighth wicket. Jadeja soon score 70 runs before being another one of Todd Murphy's victims, while Axar Patel was bowled by Pat Cummins after scoring 84 runs in 174 balls. Mohammed Shami then joined the show and was the main aggressor with his 37 runs in 47 balls with four fours and three sixes.
For Australia, Todd Murphy showed everyone his exceptional talent with a brilliant bowling performance. He finished the innings with seven wickets and 124 runs in 47 overs and was by far the best spin option that the Australians had in their kitty.
Jadeja returns with a bang
Earlier, Australia won the toss and chose to bat first. Jadeja, who returned to international cricket after almost five months, took five wickets in the first innings, with Ashwin bagging three more and Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj taking a wicket each.
His first wicket was that of Marnus Labuschange who was stumped by debutant KS Bharat. He was Australia's highest run-getter with 49 runs in 123 balls. In the very next ball, Jadeja got the wicket of Matt Renshaw for a golden duck.
Smith soon followed after being clean bowled for 37 runs off 107 balls, and then Peter Handscomb (31 off 84) was sent back to the pavilion. The 34-year-old completed his five-wicket haul after dismissing debutant Todd Murphy once again for a duck. and made a strong comeback. He conceded just 47 runs in 22 overs.
While Jadeja will be proud of his performance after a long-term injury, Ashwin created his own piece of history after taking the wicket of Alex Carey, which was also his 450th Test wicket for India. He is just the second Indian bowler to do so after Anil Kumble, and also the fastest to achieve this feat, having done so in just 89 Tests. Kumble himself took 91 Tests to take 450 wickets.+
