Nagpur: India took a lead of 144 runs in the first Test cricket match against Australia. Captain Rohit Sharma scored a century. Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel scored half-centuries.
Australia lost all wickets for 177 in the first innings on the first day of the tournament at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground in Nagpur. Marnish Labuschenne 49, Steve Smith 37, Alex Carey 36 and Peter Handscomb 31 were the top scorers. Jadeja took 5 wickets and Ashwin 3 wickets.
At the end of the first day’s play, India scored 77 runs for the loss of one wicket in 24 overs. KL Rahul was dismissed for 20 runs. Captain Rohit Sharma 56, Ashwin continued the 2nd day yesterday with no runs. Ashwin hit midwicket for a six in the 33rd over bowled by Nathan Lyon. A brilliant Ashwin scored 23 runs off 62 balls with one six and two fours before being dismissed lbw by Todd Murphy.
Following this, Cheteshwar Pujara took the wicket for 7 runs. Pujara played a sweep shot by Murphy outside the loose leg stump and was caught by Scott Boland towards short leg. After this, Virat Kohli, who entered the field, was also dismissed easily. Virat Kohli tried to touch a ball from Murphy outside leg stump that rubbed the bat and was caught by wicketkeeper Alex Carey. Virat Kohli scored 12 runs off 26 balls with 2 fours.
Debutant Suryakumar Yadav (8) was bowled trying to drive a ball that Nathan Lion tossed from round the wicket towards the off stump. Ravindra Jadeja came in after losing 5 wickets for 168 runs. Despite falling wickets at regular intervals, Rohit Sharma hit his 9th century in 171 balls with 2 sixes and 14 fours while responding with a perfect mix of defensive and offensive play.
At the end of the 63rd over, the Indian team started to take the lead. The new ball was taken in the 81st over. Smith misses a catch by Rohit Sharma on the 3rd ball of Pat Cummins in the direction of Chile. However, Rohit Sharma bowled the next ball. He scored 120 runs off 212 balls with 2 sixes and 15 fours.
Rohit Sharma added 61 runs along with Jadeja for the 6th wicket. Next up, Khar Bharat was lbw off Murphy for 8 runs. Axar Patel, who combined with Jadeja, built the partnership at the loss of 7 wickets for 240 runs. The pair added runs steadily against the Australian bowling without any pressure.
Jadeja crossed his 18th half-century and Axar Patel his 2nd half-century. At the end of the 2nd day, India scored 321 runs for the loss of 7 wickets in 114 overs. Jadeja was unbeaten on 66 off 170 balls with 9 fours and Axar Patel was unbeaten on 52 off 102 balls with 8 fours.
The pair put on 81 runs off 185 balls for the 8th wicket. Australian debutant spinner Todd Murphy bowled 36 overs and conceded 82 runs with 9 maidens and took 5 wickets. With a lead of 144 runs with 3 wickets in hand, the Indian team continues to play the 3rd day today.
Rohit Sharma feat: Rohit Sharma became the first Indian captain to score a century in all 3 forms of cricket by scoring a century in the Nagpur Test match. Sri Lanka’s Thilakarathne Dilshan, South Africa’s Du Plessis and Pakistan’s Babar Azam have already scored centuries in T20, ODI and Test cricket.
First century as captain..: Rohit Sharma scored 120 runs in Nagpur Test. It was his 9th century in the international Test arena. This was his first century as captain.
Chepakkam Memories..: The way Rohit played in Nagpur was reminiscent of the 2nd Test match against England in Cheppak, Chennai in 2021. In the first innings of the match, Rohit Sharma played brilliantly against the spin and scored 161 runs as the rest of the leading batsmen of the Indian team were dismissed quickly. Similarly, he has played tremendously in Nagpur and scored a century.
Introductory Test 5…: Australian debutant spinner Todd Murphy took 5 wickets on Day 2 of the Nagpur Test. With this, Murphy has become the 4th Australian bowler to take 5 wickets in his debut Test match. Earlier, Peter Taylor (78/6 vs England), Jason Greja (215/8 vs India) and Nathan Lyon (34/5 vs Sri Lanka) had taken more than 5 wickets in their Test debut.
Did Jadeja tamper with the ball?: India’s spin all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja took 5 wickets in the first innings of the ongoing first Test against Australia in Nagpur. However, during this match, Ravindra Jadeja took a liquid-like substance from Mohammad Siraj and applied it to his left index finger. Despite having the ball in hand at the time, Jadeja didn’t rub any of it.
Videos related to this were released on social media. Following this, many on social media leveled allegations that Jadeja had tampered with the ball. Some players including former England captain Michael Vaughan and Australia captain Tim Paine raised questions about this. Meanwhile, India’s team management told match referee Andy Bycroft that Jadeja was applying pain-relieving cream to the index finger of his bowling hand. As a result, the matter did not become a big issue.