Australia has gained an upper hand over India after the completion of Day 1 of the New Year’s Test in Sydney. The hosts are currently at 8/1 in response to India’s 185-run total.
The Sydney Cricket Ground recorded the peak attendance of 47,998, which is the highest-ever for Day 1 of a test match at this venue. Meanwhile, it was also the most-attended Day 1 between India and Australia in SCG, with the earlier record coming in Steve Waugh’s final test match in January 2004. Furthermore, it also went past the overall day record of 46,070, which was registered during Ashes 2007.
The Jasprit Bumrah-led side won the toss and opted to bat first. However, the visitors couldn’t be potent enough with their starts yet again, as they lost three wickets in the first session in the form of Yashasvi Jaiswal (10), KL Rahul (4) and Shubman Gill (20). At Lunch, India was stuttering at 57/3.
Then, Virat Kohli tried to calm down the things and rotated the strikes well along with Rishabh Pant. However, Scott Boland’s good-length ball took Kohli’s edge as he was caught at slips for 17. At the tea break, India was at 107/4 after the end of 50 overs, with Pant (32) and Jadeja (1) at the crease.
Scott Boland triggers India’s batting collapse
The first 30 minutes of the third session witnessed Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja completely opting for a defensive mindset. There was no urgency from either batter in steering the team’s scorecard.
However, Pant made a mistake yet again in the 57th over by playing a rash shot against Scott Boland’s short delivery, which saw him getting caught at mid-on. Although, the southpaw did well to score 40, he could not live up to the promise of converting his start into a big knock.
In the following ball, Boland induced the edge of the last game’s centurion, Nitish Reddy and sent him packing for a golden duck. Soon, Jadeja (26) was also trapped LBW by Mitchell Starc.
The crucial contributions from Washington Sundar (14) and Jasprit Bumrah (22) helped the Indian team to end their innings on a respectable total of 185. Boland emerged as the pick of the bowlers for Australia with four wickets.
Australia was expected to be under pressure in the final 15 minutes of the day’s play. However, youngster Sam Konstas slammed a four off Burmah’s first delivery to relieve the side off some stress.
In the final over of the day, Konstas engaged in a fiery altercation with Bumrah, who was about to start his run-up. The next delivery saw Bumrah bowling a peach of a delivery to Usman Khawaja (2), which flew off the edge and was caught by KL Rahul at the slips. At Day 1 stumps, Australia is at 9/1 and trails by 176 runs.
