R Ashwin took home his 31st Test five-for as Australia lost the first Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test by innings and 132 runs.
The bottom order of India batted well in the morning, increasing their first innings advantage to 223 runs, and then the spinners took over after lunch, headed by an offspinner who hadn’t gotten a five-fer in any of the previous 10 Tests. Australia was rolled over in the afternoon.
While in the previous innings, Ashwin was brought in as the fifth bowler, this time around he was used right away to start things off. The strategy quickly paid off when Ashwin had Usman Khawaja caught at slip after luring him into a second cover drive in the over. If Virat Kohli hadn’t dropped a simple catch at slip, Ashwin would have had the other left-handed opener, Warner, early as well. While waiting, Warner drove him for two consecutive boundaries before trapping him LBW with a straight-on delivery from outside the wicket. Since DRS ruled that it was clipping the leg stump, Warner’s review was fruitless.
Between these two dismissals, India struck from the other end as well, with Ravindra Jadeja catching Marnus Labuschagne in front off a turner for a duck. On the other end, Ashwin was unrelenting. After pinging Matt Renshaw on the backfoot as he was attempting to defend, he had him take a review in the hopes of overturning the decision. He then had Peter Handscomb LBW on the front foot, with DRS siding him both times. When Alex Carey attempted a reverse sweep and failed, he was LBW and the decision went in the bowlers’ favour once again. He then went on to clean up the top-order lefties by himself, completing a five-for and establishing his domination.
Steve Smith was the only batter with any defiance left after all that chaos had erupted around him. On the opposite end, though, the collapse occurred quickly. Axar Patel helped with the wicket of Todd Murphy, while Jadeja got Pat Cummins caught behind.
When Jadeja bowled Smith for the second time in the Test, he almost had his third wicket of the match. On the other hand, Smith was given a respite when Jadeja committed his sixth overstepping of the Test. Australia celebrated briefly, but Shami got Scott Boland LBW in the following over to seal a stunning victory for India.
At the post-match presentation, Australian captain Pat Cummins said that the Nagpur pitch was not at all unplayable and that should shut off all the talks about the wicket.
Twitter Reacts:
Again bodied Fox cricket 🏏
— Yash. (@CricFreakYash) February 11, 2023
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Obviously …Hmne 400 bnaye hai https://t.co/AcgqEG4A80
Advertisement— Gaurav tamta (@GauravVK22) February 11, 2023
Cummins is very balanced on & off the field. Handles his bowlers well on the field, rarely throws any of his players under the bus & is quite dignified off it. W for Australia after the embarrassment that was Tim Paine https://t.co/momg612MSm
— TakeADeepBreath (@DeepTake) February 11, 2023
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Tell you what, Patrick off the pitch has been an immense leader.
AdvertisementNot sure what to make of his on the pitch captaincy because there was little scope for it and he seemed to do many things right. https://t.co/0CA7FOKrlc
— Archith (@UtdArc) February 11, 2023
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It is so unplayable that Mohd. Shami scored more runs than any aussies batsman#INDvsAUS https://t.co/Vib0pJGugV
Advertisement— Kuldeep 20 (@_Kuldeep20_) February 11, 2023
To all the Australian ex-cricketers and their media👇#INDvsAUS #CricketTwitter https://t.co/L70Tn9fEUL
— Shardul Chawhan (@shardul_29) February 11, 2023
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