The exhilarating day of cricket got concluded on Thursday (December 26), with India and Australia clashing against each other in the Boxing Day Test. The infamous Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) is hosting the contest, which saw the home side ending Day 1 on 311/6.
The first session truly belonged to debutant Sam Konstas, who looked in total comfort against the Indian bowling. He opened his barrage of shots, which included outrageous ramp shots against India’s ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah. The 19-year-old went on to slam 60 off 65, before being trapped LBW by Ravindra Jadeja. After the end of the first session, Australia were at 112/1.
Then, the pair of Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne steadied the ship for the side, while accumulating odd boundaries. However, Bumrah secured his first breakthrough, while inducing a top edge of Khawaja off his half-tracker and dismissed him for a well-compiled 57 off 121.
The second session was relatively quiet, as Australia ended on 176/2, with Steve Smith and Labuschagne finding their groove. Meanwhile, India’s fifth bowler Washington Sundar was also exposed against the Aussie pair at the stroke of tea.
Jasprit Bumrah pulls India back into the contest
In the first hour of the third session, Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne were proactive with their approach to garner runs at a brisk pace. They used their feet well and played delightful drives to accumulate boundaries on a consistent basis. Although, Akash Deep was breathing down their neck with a few LBW shoutouts, they were able to steer the hosts in a fine fashion.
However, in the 66th over, Labuschagne charged against Washington Sundar, and was unfortunately holed out to Virat Kohli, who was stationed at the mid-off region.
The dismissal certainly opened the floodgates for the visitors, as Jasprit Bumrah breached the defense of dangerous Travis Head and sent him packing for a seven-ball duck.
Then, the out-of-form Mitchell Marsh looked under pressure in his initial nine balls, but played a beautiful cover drive with a long forward stride to open his account against Bumrah.
Nevertheless, Bumrah was clever with his variations in lengths and induced an edge of Marsh (4) with his short ball soon. Then, the keeper-batter Alex Carey again made a clutch contribution to keep Australia in good stead after a flurry of wickets. Meanwhile, Smith also looked in fine rhythm with a terrific pull for a six against Mohammed Siraj.
However, India breathed a sigh of relief when Carey (31) was dismissed with a peach of a ball from Akash Deep. Then, the last 30 minutes of the day’s play saw Smith and captain Pat Cummins managing to end the day for Australia without any further casualties.
Australia are at 311/6, with Smith (68*) and Cummins (8*) remaining unbeaten, and Bumrah being the pick of the bowlers for India with figures of 3/75. It will be interesting to see whether India is able to bundle out Aussies in the first session of Day 2, otherwise, it’s going to be another hard day for the tourists.
