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India overcame an unpromising start to thrash Australia by 295 runs in the first test at Perth Stadium on Monday, laying down the gauntlet for the rest of the series and putting to bed any question marks about their form.
Stand-in skipper Jasprit Bumrah led from the front with 3-42, named player-of-the-match after earlier picking up 5-30, as India wrapped up the comprehensive win well inside four days to take a 1-0 lead in the five game series.
“We’re a new side so I wanted to put myself in tough scenarios when we needed to do something, to make the job a bit easier for the new guys coming in,” he said.
Travis Head staged a rearguard action to delay the inevitable with a defiant 89, as Australia made 238, but the hosts will have many questions and few solid answers ahead of the day-night second test in Adelaide, starting Dec. 6, after being outplayed by the tourists.
“We couldn’t get the breakthroughs, I thought they played really well. Not much really went our way this game,” Australia skipper Pat Cummins said.
“We’re clearly well off the mark, there’s a lot to work on.”
Without a series win over India in four attempts going back to 2015, Australia now will also have to face the fact that they have not won a home series after losing the opening test for 55 years.
Bumrah bowled magnificently throughout the match on a surface that was all fizz and bounce on day one when 17 wickets fell but turned into a lifeless road that defied Australia’s bowlers for the best part of two days.
Two wickets late on the third day to help decimate Australia’s top-order, leaving them 12-3 at stumps chasing an improbable 534, was the cherry on top for Bumrah, but it was a four over spell late on day one which set the new tone for India.
The 30-year-old elected to bat first in seam-friendly conditions, a decision which has always paid dividends at Perth Stadium but one which he might have rued when his side were bowled out by tea for a paltry 150.
But with the home side reduced to 67-7 at stumps, courtesy of a spell from the skipper which accounted for debutant Nathan McSweeney, Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith, the match had swung.
India’s captain, who will now hand the reins back to new-dad Rohit Sharma, celebrated his 11th five-wicket haul on the first ball of day two, drawing an edge from Alex Carey, before Harshit Rana (3-48) mopped up the tail leaving Australia shell-shocked and all out for 104.
The match was swept away from Australia during India’s second innings when opener Yashasvi Jaiswal recovered from a duck in his first dig to post a glorious 161 which blended caution and youthful aggression.
The 22-year-old bashed and slashed for 432 minutes, audaciously upper-cutting Josh Hazlewood for six over deep fine-leg to bring up his fourth test hundred.
He was ably supported by KL Rahul (77) during a 201-run opening stand, and eventually fell playing a full-blooded cut off Mitch Marsh straight to Smith at point.
But it was the return-to-form of India’s batting figurehead Virat Kohli which sapped the hosts of any hope of a turnaround.
Kohli heaped misery on the beleaguered bowlers, who ended up fielding for 135 overs, compiling a pressure-free innings of 100 not out.
He pierced the field with ease, and the fireworks started in earnest when Nitish Kumar Reddy, on his debut, came to the crease with a message that a declaration was imminent.
Reddy hammered 38 not out from 27 balls in a knock more suitable for the Indian Premier League than a test match, and Kohli upped the ante as well.
The largest cheer of the match, which attracted 96,463 people over four days, came when the 36-year-old swept Marnus Labuschagne, who alternated between harmless medium-pace and unthreatening leg-spin, for four and India declared 487-6.
“Virat scoring a hundred is a great sign for us,” said Bumrah.
With a blown kiss to his wife, Bollywood star Anushka Sharma, and test century number 30 in the books, Reddy and Kohli left the field as Australia were left to contemplate how the game slipped away after such a strong start.
Reuters
