R Ashwin bagged his 31st Test five-fer as Australia crumbled to a massive defeat by an innings and 132 runs in the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
After India’s lower order had stretched their first innings lead to 223 in the morning session, Australia was rolled over after Lunch as the spinners ruled the roost once again, this time led by their off-spinner who hadn’t got a five-fer in ten previous Tests.
In this innings, Ashwin was brought on to open the attack unlike the first where he came on as the fifth bowler. And the move paid dividends early as Ashwin lured Usman Khawaja into a second cover drive in the over and had him caught at slip. Ashwin could have had the other left-handed opener, Warner early as well if only Virat Kohli had held onto a regulation take at slip. But instead, he had to wait a little while longer, where Warner drove him for back-to-back boundaries but soon had him trapped LBW with a ball going straight on from around the wicket. Warner’s review went in vain as DRS adjudged it to be clipping the leg stump.
In between these scalps, India struck from the other end as well with Ravindra Jadeja trapping Marnus Labuschagne plumb in front with the batter guilty of staying back on a turner. Ashwin, meanwhile, was relentless from one end. He had Matt Renshaw to taking a review in hope, after pinging him on the backfoot while trying to defend, and then had Peter Handscomb LBW on the front foot with DRS siding him each time. It worked in his favor again when Alex Carey missed a reverse sweep and was adjudged LBW on the field. That gave him a five-fer and stamped his dominance over the left-handers in the top order cleaning them all up single-handedly.
The only batter to offer some defiance through the carnage was Steve Smith, who managed to hang around with some confidence at one end. But the collapse was rapid at the other end. Jadeja had Pat Cummins caught behind while Axar Patel contributed with the wicket of Todd Murphy.
Jadeja nearly had his third when he beat Smith’s inside edge to bowl him for the second time in the Test. However, Smith got a reprieve with Jadeja overstepping for the fifth time in the Test. But Australia’s joy was short-lived as Shami had Scott Boland LBW in the next over to hand India a massive win.
Their batting show was also a far cry from how India’s lower order had progressed earlier in the day, with the home team digging deep to bat nearly 140 overs. India’s lower order wagged once again on the third morning as they added 78 runs even as Todd Murphy finished with a seven-wicket haul.
The off-spinner got an early breakthrough when Ravindra Jadeja was bowled on 70 shouldering arms. With both off-spinners getting some purchase early in the day, there was a possibility of an early wrap-up to the innings.
Mohammed Shami was then put down by Scott Boland off Nathan Lyon which turned out to be costly. Shami proceeded to dominate a 52-run stand with Axar Patel, hitting three sixes and two fours in his 37. This ensured that India’s lead went past 200.
Shami finally fell trying to hit Murphy and instead got a top edge that was snapped up by the keeper.
Mohammad Siraj then managed to hold one end up with tight defence as Axar went a little more adventurous in pursuit of his maiden Test hundred. The last wicket pair added 20 runs before the allrounder was eventually bowled off a slower ball from Pat Cummins with India finishing on an even 400, a score that proved 132 too many for Australia to reach parity.
Brief Scores: Australia 177 all out (Marnus Labuschagne 49; R Jadeja 5/47) & 91 all out (Steve Smith 25*; Ashwin 5-37) lost to India 400 all out (Rohit Sharma 120, Ravindra Jadeja 70, Axar Patel 84; Todd Murphy 7-124) by innings and 132 runs.
