Australia vs India, First Test: 5 Talking Points

So, after a tough day, visitors India eventually managed to hold on for a fantastic win at Adelaide and also creating history by being the first side to win Tests in Australia, England, and South Africa in a single calendar year. This was also India's first time in the 12 Test series in Australia till date, that they opened the series with a win.

Batting first, Pujara's 123 saw India scoring 250 runs, after which Indian bowlers restricted the hosts to 235 runs. In their second chance at batting, Pujara again top-scored with 71 runs, along with ample support from the likes of Rahane (70), Rahul (44) and Kohli (34) among others, to put up a score of 307 on the board, handing the Aussies a target of 323. The hosts were bowled out for 291 runs, thus handing India a win by 31 runs. Pujara was the man-of-the-match for his combined tally of 194 runs from two innings.

Let us take a look at the talking points from the final day's play, which began with Australia at 104/4, needing 219 runs to win. Play lasted 70.5 overs and saw the Aussies making 187 runs while losing the remainder of their wickets.

1. Bowling became tougher in the final sessions

It wasn't all smooth sailing for India

Australia are always a really tough side to take on in their own home conditions, and the game that unfurled today really showed us why that statement stands.

Bowling was becoming really tough, given that it was the fifth day, and the pitch had already been subjected to enough wear and tear, any assistance offered off it to the bowlers coming down to a trickle.

There were very few bangers from the part of Indian bowlers, however, it was definitely not because they did not try. It was easy for the batsmen to judge the swing and turn of deliveries, and the Australians almost succeeded in putting pressure back on the visiting Indians.

Regular wickets across various intervals were the only thing that kept India in the game, and Virat Kohli the skipper would easily have worried, if one or more partnerships had made twenty-or-so more runs than what they already did.

2. Australian lower-order displayed good resilience

Cummins remained steadfast

Saying that the bowling was tougher than the earlier days, shouldn't take any credit away from the Australian lower order, who for their own merit, batted extremely well, even while staring down the throat of defeat.

The day began with Aussies needing 219 runs to win with 6 wickets remaining, and that they reached to a point just 32 runs shy of the winning target, speaks a great deal about how they wielded the bats for a greater part of the day.

Australia lost its fifth wicket at 115, sixth at 156 and seventh at 187, and still, the side continued to show a lot of resilience and put on another 104 runs before their wickets dried up. They managed to hold their nerves and place a load of pressure back on the Indian bowlers, with their very spirited approach to batting.

Take a look at the scores of the Australian top order: Finch (11), Harris (26), Khawaja (8), Handscomb (14), Head (14), with Shawn Marsh (60) the only exception among the remainder of the lot with their meager scores. Now take a look at the scores of the Australian lower order: Paine (41), Cummins (28), Starc (28), Lyon (38*), Hazlewood (13).

Thus, of the Australian total, their top-6 scored 133 runs only when their bottom-5 accounted for 148 runs (10 other runs were extras). Had the top order plied their trade in a better fashion, we may have seen the match move toward a very different result, given that there was time for another 15 or 20 overs till the day's actual close of play.

3. Indian pacers outbowled Aussie counterparts

India's pacers did their job perfectly

Despite the bowling becoming tougher with each passing day, it would be safe to say that the Indian pace bowlers had a better outing overall, compared to the Australian speedsters. The likes of Bumrah, Ishant and Shami continued prolonged spells of bowling in just the right areas and made batting a very tough task for the hosts.

Shami and Bumrah returned with 3-for each, in the second innings when Ishant finished with 1/48. With the exception of Finch and Khawaja, the remainder of Australia's top-8 fell to the Indian pacers.

Bumrah especially had a great outing, consistently bowling in the high 140s and troubling the Australian batsmen with his pace and bounce. Shami was a bit off-color during the first innings but made up for it with 3 crucial scalps in the second innings.

Overall, Australia's quicks accounted for 11 of the 20 Indian wickets, while their Indian counterparts outscored them, with 14 scalps out of the total 20.

4. Batting lessons from Nathan Lyon

The off-spinner almost got his side over the line

Nathan Lyon could arguably be called as the world's best tailender right now and is growing into the position of Test all-rounder, as witnessed from his recent exploits with the bat. The offie not only picked nine wickets across India's two innings but also became the fourth-best runscorer in the game behind Pujara, Travis Head and Ajinkya Rahane, with 62 runs in two innings.

His display in the second innings was especially spectacular, staying on the crease despite running out of partners at the other end, at regular intervals. He came in to bat at 187/7, and remained unbeaten at 38, as Australia concluded their stint 104 runs later.

Lyon added 41 runs with Starc, 31 with Cummins and 32 with Hazlewood in the 8th, 9th and 10th wicket partnerships. He was instrumental in spreading caution among Kohli and co., before Hazlewood's departure cleared their nerves.

This is not Lyon's first good time with the bat. In fact, he was not dismissed even once, throughout the 2013-14 Ashes series, when he scored 60 valuable runs across 6 innings. It was a rare case of a batsman never being dismissed across an entire series.

5. Rishabh Pant equals world record

Pant enjoyed a record-breaking Test

Amidst all the impressive numbers by players like Pujara, Rahane, Travis Head, Nathan Lyon, Ashwin, Bumrah and so on among others, there is something which may have gone under the radars, that is Rishabh Pant's record.

The young wicket-keeper, who recently marked his debut in the England series and has played in just six Tests so far including this one, has displayed great skill with the keeping gloves so far. And in this game, he picked up 11 catches behind the wicket, which equals the world record made by Jack Russels of England against South Africa (1995) and AB De Villiers of South Africa against Pakistan (2013).

He broke the Indian record of Wriddhiman Saha, who snared 10 catches against South Africa earlier this year. Pant was also in news for his chirpy nature behind the wickets, actively participating in the sledging of Australian batsmen, even succeeding in undoing some of them eventually.

The youngster can hopefully grow on as an exciting prospect for Team India in the years to come.