Honours were shared on day 1 of the first Test between India and Australia as the visitors ended the day with the scorecard reading 256/9. Mitchell Starc scored some crucial runs towards the end of the day that could be the difference between both the teams on a spinning track.
After choosing to bat, Australia batted cautiously in the first session as openers David Warner and Matt Renshaw saw through a tense 90 minutes that had R Ashwin, Jayant Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja asking the visitors a lot of questions. As expected, the wicket started to assist the spinners from the second over of the day. Warner was castled by Umesh for 38 and along with Warner, Renshaw went into the dressing room due to a stomach bug.
Shaun Marsh didn’t last long as Jayant Yadav dismissed him soon after lunch. Skipper Steve Smith and Peter Handscomb tried to resurrect their innings before the Indian bowlers hit back. From 149/2, Aussies collapsed to 205/9 with Umesh Yadav being the wrecker-in-chief as he picked up three wickets in the third session adding to his tally of 1 wicket. The tenth wicket pair of Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood showed some resistance and made that their side didn’t get dismissed on day 1.
They put on a 51-run partnership for the last wicket and took Australia to a respectable total of 256/9. Matt Renshaw top-scored for the visitors with a 68 while Starc remains unbeaten on 57. Umesh Yadav took 4 wickets while Ashwin and Jadeja took 2 apiece. Let us take a look at how the cricketers reacted to the day’s play.
Extra cover: Wriddhiman Saha takes a stunner to dismiss Steve O’Keefe
Umesh Yadav:
I was practising with Anil Kumble and Sanjay Manjrekar about what my line and length should be in the practice sessions. The hard work that I have done in the last six months has been paying off now. That is very important on such wickets. I was trying to bowl very tight lines on this wicket and hope for the batsmen to make mistakes. I was trying to minimize the bad balls and the scoring opportunities. I knew if they go for their shots they would play the false stroke and I would be helped by the reverse to get wickets. When someone takes a catch like the one Saha took, it helps a bowler immensely. There are very few catches of this kind that are taken because the ball was moving very fast. Hats off to him to take that and he showed that he has the capability to take such catches.
Former Australian skipper Michael Clarke
Indian batsman Rohit Sharma
Aussies’ tormenter VVS Laxman
Indian pacer Mohammad Shami
Former Australian cricketers Dean Jones, Shane Warne and Damien Fleming
Former England skipper Michael Vaughan
South African fast bowler Dale Steyn
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