Roar Guru
It has taken less than three days of play for Australia to record a Test win that, before the first ball, the world at large agreed was bordering on impossible.
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Final score
Australia 260, 285
India 105, 107
Australia have gained the upper hand in the inaugural Test match of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar trophy as Steven O’Keefe and Steve Smith put the visitors in control. Follow the live scores and blog of the third day of this first Test between India and Australia from 3pm (AEDT) here on The Roar.
After having dismissed the Australians for 260 runs in the morning morning, India would have aimed at posting a formidable first-innings lead and putting the visitors under pressure. However, six wickets from O’Keefe saw Australia bowl India out for just 105 runs in their first innings.
Other than a spirited display from opening batsman Lokesh Rahul, who scored 64 runs for India, the rest of the home team’s batting line-up struggled to deal with the Australian bowlers and O’Keefe in particular.
Barring Rahul, only Murali Vijay and Ajinkya Rahane were able to post double-digit scores while skipper Virat Kohli was dismissed on a duck by Mitchell Starc. Incidentally, it was the first time that Kohli was out for a duck in a home Test match.
The Australians came on to bat with a first-innings lead of 155 runs and extended it to 298 runs at the close of play on Day Two. Smith and Mitchell Marsh were at the crease when the umpires called for stumps. While the skipper was batting on 57 runs, Marsh had scored 21.
Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin picked up three important wickets for India as he got rid of David Warner, Shawn Marsh and Peter Handscomb while Matt Renshaw was dismissed by Jayant Yadav.
The visitors have the Test match firmly under control at this juncture. With Smith and Marsh at the centre and some batting still to come, Australia could go on to post a formidable target for the hosts.
Seeing how well they have done with the ball in the first innings, Australia will feel that they have a big chance to score a first Test win in India since 2004.
Although there are some really capable batsmen in the Indian batting lineup, batting in the fourth innings on such a surface will be a big challenge.
Judging by the manner in which they struggled to come to terms with the surface and Australia’s bowling in the first innings, they are going to find it rather difficult to rescue this Test match.
Follow this third day’s play of the India-Australia first Test on Saturday from 3pm (AEDT).