India vs Australia, 1st Test, Day 3: 5 talking points

Before the Australians even stepped onto Indian soil, they were completely written off by most of the critics and former players. In the wake of England’s miseries against India, Australia had named a spinner-heavy squad and were well-prepared to counter the Indian spinners.

But the first impression they created in the warm-up game was different. The team from Down Under did not have a comfortable game against India ‘A’ where Shreyas Iyer scored a double century.

However, in a spectacular turn-around of events, it was Australia who had India on the mat right from the beginning of the Test match. The first day highlighted Australia’s grit whereas the second day witnessed a poor batting display from the Indian side.

Well, Day 3 of the first Test was expected to be the penultimate day of the first Test match between the two sides but credit to the Australian spinners because the match ended after few minutes of the third session of the play.

Here are the 5 talking points of the third and surprisingly the last day of the first of the four Test matches:

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#5 Steve Smith scores yet another hundred

Australian skipper Steve Smith was in great form before the commencement of the series. He had four tons to his name in the last five first-class matches. He had a score of 107 from the warm-up game, along with 130 and 165* from the series against Pakistan.

The last time Australia toured India, he was an inexperienced middle-order batsman. But this time around, he walked into the series shouldering the responsibility of the Australian middle-order. The right-handed batsman scored a watchful 27 in the first innings.

However, after his dismissal, the Aussies’ batting order collapsed and were reduced to 205 for 5. Mitchell Starc’s heroics ensured Australia reached 260. But the second innings was pretty different.

They boasted a lead of 155 runs and Smith was in his comfort zone. Smith cracked 11 boundaries en route to his first Test match hundred in India and 18^th Test hundred of his career. The skipper’s century ensured that they set a massive target for India to chase in the fourth innings.

#4 India’s woes with the DRS continue

KL Rahul needs to rethink about the decisions he is making on the shot-selection as well as with the DRS

KL Rahul had a very successful year in 2016. But come 2017, he has struggled not only with the bat but also with his decisions regarding reviews of umpire’s decisions. The right-hander was the stand-out Indian batsman in the first innings of the Test match. He scored a stroke-filled 64 which included 10 boundaries and a six.

The second innings, however, was a completely different ball game. Chasing 461 to win, India lost their first wicket and review because of Murali Vijay. But just four deliveries later, Rahul was hit on the pad and the umpire ruled him out.

Instead of walking away, the Karnataka batsman decided to use a review. The ball was clearly pitching in-line, struck him on the off-stump line and was going on to hit the middle stump. To his embarrassment, he saw ‘OUT’ displayed on the giant screen of the MCA stadium. What his decision to review meant that players like Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane walked in with zero reviews left for India to take.

#3 Australia’s smartness with DRS

Australia’s experience with the review was evident

The Australian team are no strangers to the Decision Review System. The Kangaroos have been using it since its inception late in 2009 and the experience they have with its usage was evident throughout the first Test against India. On the first day of the Test match, after the 80^th over, they still had 1 review remaining, unlike India who used up all the available reviews within 40 overs.

On the second day, they used only one review and it turned out to be a successful one. For the third successive day too, the were good with it. Although captain Smith wasted a review, he compensated for the same by cleverly reviewing a decision in the second session of Day 3.

Ravichandran Ashwin took a forward stride only for the ball to hit the pad first but the umpire had doubts over the ball hitting the inside edge. But in reality, the ball was clearly going on to hit the stumps and in turn, it turned out to be Steve O'Keefe's fifth wicket of the second innings.

Time and again in the match, Australia proved to be wiser to India – who had only one successful review out of 7 in the match.

#2 Steve O’Keefe’s second six-fer of the match

In only his fifth Test match, O’Keefe led Australia to a historic win in India

Stephen O’Keefe withdrew midway from Austalia’s BBL tournament to prepare for the tour of India. He worked with the likes of Monty Panesar and Sriram Sridharan for developing his skill set prior to the tour.

Well, it has now paid amazing dividends as the slow-arm spinner snatched six wickets in both the innings of the Test match to end up with career-best figures in a match of 12 wickets for 70 runs. In addition to this, he conceded only 35 runs in each innings of the Test.

After Ajinkya Rahane and KL Rahul stabilised the Indian batting order in the first innings, O’Keefe removed both of them within a span of three balls to become the destroyer-in-chief of the first innings. In the second innings, the New South Welshman took six of the first seven wickets to add yet another six-fer figure to his record.

#1 Kohli’s unbeaten streak is finally over

Captain Kohli will definitely be dejected

After Virat Kohli’s men defeated Bangladesh in the one-off Test match this month, he became the Indian captain with longest unbeaten run in Test matches. Kohli surpassed the record held by Sunil Gavaskar after he was unbeaten for the 19^th consecutive time in a Test match.

It was widely expected that Kohli would extend this run easily and make it 23 at the end of the series, against the touring Australians.

However, cricket is a funny game and Steve Smith’s team ended Kohli’s run unexpectedly. Nobody thought that this pool of Australian players is good enough to beat the Indians at home.

Astonishingly, not only did the Aussies manage to beat India but they defeated the hosts comprehensively in the first Test match. A double-batting collapse and poor application from the Indian batsmen stalled Kohli’s run to only 19 games, which is 8 short of the best unbeaten run ever.

Going into the second Test, Kohli will need to regroup and start from the scratch in a series which will now be extremely competitive.