India took a 1-0 lead in the four-match series on Saturday after crushing Australia by an innings and 132 runs in the first Test at Nagpur.
Australia was bowled out for 91 in their second innings after giving up a sizeable lead of 223 in the spin-dominated match on a difficult surface.
With five for 37 from 12 overs and eight wickets overall in the game, Ravichandran Ashwin was the standout performer for India’s bowling attack as they tore past Australia.
Australia had been struggling since scoring a subpar 177 on a dangerous course, and India’s triumph seemed certain as the home team amassed 400 to take a sizable lead of 223.
The tourists were skittled out for 91 after Ashwin (5-37) decimated Australia’s top order with his nagging accuracy. All 10 wickets were lost in one frenzied session.
The sole bright spot for world No. 1 Australia, who continues to top the World Test Championship ranking, was off-spinner Todd Murphy’s 7-124 in his debut Test.
On the third day of the match, all-rounders Axar Patel (84) and Ravindra Jadeja (70) helped India seal the victory after Rohit Sharma’s magnificent 120 had put them in the driver’s seat.
Mohammed Shami (37) had a little cameo down the order before India rolled up for 400 on the stroke of lunch.
India’s victory increases their chances of making it to the Kia Oval final of the ICC World Test Championship in 2023.
Man of the Match: Ravindra Jadeja
“Perfect feeling for me. I was ready for the comeback and perform for my team. I was working hard on my skills when I was in NCA (National Cricket Academy). I am really thankful for all NCA staffs for helping me out during my tough days. They even gave their Sunday’s for me by being with me during my practices. I am thankful for those NCA staff.”
He added: “There was rough. I didn’t try too much. I kept bowling in there on right lines and lengths. Some did turn, some went with the arm and some of them kept low as well. I always up for challenges. I like to be a proper batter as well. I got the opportunity and cashed on it.”
After the match, Jadeja was penalised 25% of his match fee for violating the ICC Code of Conduct during Australia’s opening innings.
The 34-year-old was penalised for using a soothing lotion on a swelling on his bowling hand’s index finger without first getting Nitin Menon’s and Richard Illingworth’s approval.
Rohit Sharma: “Happy with the performance”
Very important at the start of the series. Happy that I could put the performance for the team. Was unfortunate that I had to miss few Tests because of injuries but I’m happy to be back. Since I was appointed Test captain, have played just two Tests. Got Covid in England, missed South Africa, got a freak injury against Bangladesh. Was ready for this one.
The last few years, the kind of pitches we are playing in India, you need to have application and some sort of plan to score runs. I’ve grown up playing a lot in Mumbai on surfaces that turns a lot. You need to be slightly unorthodox as well, use your feet. Need to put pressure on bowlers as well by doing something different.
Full Scorecard: 1st Test IND vs AUS
Australia 1st Innings
| BATTING | R | B | M | 4s | 6s | SR | |||
| David Warner | b Mohammed Shami | 1 | 5 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 20.00 | ||
| Usman Khawaja | lbw b Mohammed Siraj | 1 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 33.33 | ||
| Marnus Labuschagne | st †Bharat b Jadeja | 49 | 123 | 127 | 8 | 0 | 39.83 | ||
| Steven Smith | b Jadeja | 37 | 107 | 148 | 7 | 0 | 34.57 | ||
| Matt Renshaw | lbw b Jadeja | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | ||
| Peter Handscomb | lbw b Jadeja | 31 | 84 | 111 | 4 | 0 | 36.90 | ||
| Alex Carey † | b Ashwin | 36 | 33 | 50 | 7 | 0 | 109.09 | ||
| Pat Cummins (c) | c Kohli b Ashwin | 6 | 14 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 42.85 | ||
| Todd Murphy | lbw b Jadeja | 0 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | ||
| Nathan Lyon | not out | 0 | 3 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | ||
| Scott Boland | b Ashwin | 1 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 12.50 | ||
| Extras | (b 7, lb 5, nb 3) | 15 | |||||||
| TOTAL | 63.5 Ov (RR: 2.77, 255 Mins) | 177 | |||||||
| Fall of wickets: 1-2 (Usman Khawaja, 1.1 ov), 2-2 (David Warner, 2.1 ov), 3-84 (Marnus Labuschagne, 35.5 ov), 4-84 (Matt Renshaw, 35.6 ov), 5-109 (Steven Smith, 41.6 ov), 6-162 (Alex Carey, 53.1 ov), 7-172 (Pat Cummins, 57.3 ov), 8-173 (Todd Murphy, 58.5 ov), 9-176 (Peter Handscomb, 62.3 ov), 10-177 (Scott Boland, 63.5 ov) | |||||||||
| BOWLING | O | M | R | W | ECON | WD | NB |
| Mohammed Shami | 9 | 4 | 18 | 1 | 2.00 | 0 | 0 |
| Mohammed Siraj | 7 | 3 | 30 | 1 | 4.28 | 0 | 0 |
| Ravindra Jadeja | 22 | 8 | 47 | 5 | 2.13 | 0 | 3 |
| Axar Patel | 10 | 3 | 28 | 0 | 2.80 | 0 | 0 |
| Ravichandran Ashwin | 15.5 | 2 | 42 | 3 | 2.65 | 0 | 0 |
India 1st Innings
| BATTING | R | B | M | 4s | 6s | SR | |||
| Rohit Sharma (c) | b Cummins | 120 | 212 | 344 | 15 | 2 | 56.60 | ||
| KL Rahul | c & b Murphy | 20 | 71 | 92 | 1 | 0 | 28.16 | ||
| Ravichandran Ashwin | lbw b Murphy | 23 | 62 | 78 | 2 | 1 | 37.09 | ||
| Cheteshwar Pujara | c Boland b Murphy | 7 | 14 | 21 | 1 | 0 | 50.00 | ||
| Virat Kohli | c †Carey b Murphy | 12 | 26 | 27 | 2 | 0 | 46.15 | ||
| Suryakumar Yadav | b Lyon | 8 | 20 | 26 | 1 | 0 | 40.00 | ||
| Ravindra Jadeja | b Murphy | 70 | 185 | – | 9 | 0 | 37.83 | ||
| Srikar Bharat † | lbw b Murphy | 8 | 10 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 80.00 | ||
| Axar Patel | b Cummins | 84 | 174 | – | 10 | 1 | 48.27 | ||
| Mohammed Shami | c †Carey b Murphy | 37 | 47 | – | 2 | 3 | 78.72 | ||
| Mohammed Siraj | not out | 1 | 19 | – | 0 | 0 | 5.26 | ||
| Extras | (b 6, lb 1, nb 3) | 10 | |||||||
| TOTAL | 139.3 Ov (RR: 2.86) | 400 | |||||||
| Fall of wickets: 1-76 (KL Rahul, 22.5 ov), 2-118 (Ravichandran Ashwin, 40.1 ov), 3-135 (Cheteshwar Pujara, 44.1 ov), 4-151 (Virat Kohli, 52.1 ov), 5-168 (Suryakumar Yadav, 59.1 ov), 6-229 (Rohit Sharma, 80.4 ov), 7-240 (Srikar Bharat, 83.1 ov), 8-328 (Ravindra Jadeja, 118.2 ov), 9-380 (Mohammed Shami, 132.4 ov), 10-400 (Axar Patel, 139.3 ov) | |||||||||
| BOWLING | O | M | R | W | ECON | WD | NB |
| Pat Cummins | 20.3 | 3 | 78 | 2 | 3.80 | 0 | 1 |
| Scott Boland | 17 | 4 | 34 | 0 | 2.00 | 0 | 1 |
| Nathan Lyon | 49 | 13 | 126 | 1 | 2.57 | 0 | 0 |
| Todd Murphy | 47 | 12 | 124 | 7 | 2.63 | 0 | 1 |
| Marnus Labuschagne | 5 | 0 | 24 | 0 | 4.80 | 0 | 0 |
| Matt Renshaw | 1 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 7.00 | 0 | 0 |
Australia 2nd Innings
| BATTING | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | ||||
| Usman Khawaja | c Kohli b Ashwin | 5 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 55.55 | |||
| David Warner | lbw b Ashwin | 10 | 41 | 2 | 0 | 24.39 | |||
| Marnus Labuschagne | lbw b Jadeja | 17 | 28 | 3 | 0 | 60.71 | |||
| Steven Smith | not out | 25 | 51 | 2 | 1 | 49.01 | |||
| Matt Renshaw | lbw b Ashwin | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 28.57 | |||
| Peter Handscomb | lbw b Ashwin | 6 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 100.00 | |||
| Alex Carey † | lbw b Ashwin | 10 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 166.66 | |||
| Pat Cummins (c) | c †Bharat b Jadeja | 1 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 7.69 | |||
| Todd Murphy | c Sharma b Patel | 2 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 13.33 | |||
| Nathan Lyon | b Mohammed Shami | 8 | 20 | 2 | 0 | 40.00 | |||
| Scott Boland | lbw b Mohammed Shami | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | |||
| Extras | (lb 1, nb 4) | 5 | |||||||
| TOTAL | 32.3 Ov (RR: 2.80) | 91 | |||||||
| Fall of wickets: 1-7 (Usman Khawaja, 1.5 ov), 2-26 (Marnus Labuschagne, 10.5 ov), 3-34 (David Warner, 13.5 ov), 4-42 (Matt Renshaw, 15.2 ov), 5-52 (Peter Handscomb, 17.2 ov), 6-64 (Alex Carey, 19.2 ov), 7-67 (Pat Cummins, 22.4 ov), 8-75 (Todd Murphy, 26.3 ov), 9-88 (Nathan Lyon, 30.6 ov), 10-91 (Scott Boland, 32.3 ov) | |||||||||
| BOWLING | O | M | R | W | ECON | WD | NB |
| Mohammed Shami | 4.3 | 1 | 13 | 2 | 2.88 | 0 | 2 |
| Ravichandran Ashwin | 12 | 3 | 37 | 5 | 3.08 | 0 | 0 |
| Mohammed Siraj | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 |
| Ravindra Jadeja | 12 | 3 | 34 | 2 | 2.83 | 0 | 2 |
| Axar Patel | 3 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 2.00 | 0 | 0 |
