India 150 (Hazlewood 4-29) and 487 on December 6 (Jaiswal 161, Kohli 100*, Rahul 77) won Australia 104 (Bumrah 5-30) and 238 (Head 89, Bumrah 3-42, Siraj 3-51) by 295 runs
Completing a remarkable turnaround, India claimed a famous Test victory at the Optus Stadium with a 295-run victory over Australia in a one-sided result that will send aftershocks into the final Border-Gavaskar Trophy contest.
India were largely written off after an unprecedented 3-0 win at home against New Zealand. They entered the series opener without having played a competitive match in the tournament and were shorthanded without captain Rohit Sharma and injured batsman Shubman Gill.
Under intense pressure, coach Gautam Gambhir made the right moves and the brave selection decisions, which included veteran spinners R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja being left out, were vindicated.
Bumrah, in particular, deserves a lot of credit for galvanizing a new-look team and he led from the front with a mesmerizing spell late on day one to bring India back into the match after they had been bundled out for 150 after winning the toss.
There must be recriminations for Australia, who were less than impressed in their first Test since the March tour of New Zealand. There will be questions raised about the limited preparations of several players.
Australia’s failing top order will particularly be under the spotlight, especially number 3 Marnus Labuschagne, who scored 5 runs in the match to continue a long slump in form.
Having started so well on the opening day, Australia’s bowling wilted in India’s second innings, with captain Pat Cummins facing a rare outing. Cummins had not played a red-ball match since March, preferring to build his series through three 50-over games in the build-up, and finished with modest figures of 3 for 153 from 40.4 overs.
Australia looked confused by the changing conditions on the pitch, which was spicy on the first day before stabilizing for most of the second and third days. The cracks widened as the match progressed and created jumps up and down to make batting difficult on the fourth day.
Resuming at 12 for 3 after a disastrous start in the shadows at the end of the third day, Australia faced an Indian attack intent on ending things quickly.
Australia’s hopes of achieving a record 534 runs were in vain, but the aim was to at least rally some spirit that had apparently been broken in recent days.
After a golden duck in the first innings, having returned to his favored position of number 4, Steven Smith faced his nemesis Bumrah, who in the first ball of the day’s play had a strong lbw appeal rejected, although in an anticlimax it was a ball null.
Having had lbw problems recently, Smith made a technical adjustment and his trigger movement was not as pronounced as in the first innings when Bumrah pinned him in front of the stumps. Smith still faced a battle and received a painful blow to the ribs from debutant Rana, which left him flat on his back and in agony.
He bravely kept batting and combined well with Head, who backed up his aggressive instincts and counter-attacked as he produced Australia’s first half-century partnership of the match.
India dried up the scoring for Smith, with Bumrah filling the leg side with fielders as the pressure mounted. Smith’s 60-ball stand ended when he sliced an excellent back-swing off a pumped-up Siraj who straightened on the seam and caught the edge.
After a difficult return to bowling, where his modestly paced seamers were treated with disdain on the third day by the Indian batsmen, Marsh was hoping to finish his home Test match strongly.
He was confused before the lunch break and put on his gloves several times, but managed to hold on. Marsh and Head, who came into the match with limited preparation due to being on paternity leave, made batting look relatively easy after the break at a time of day that was best for batting in the match.
Head advanced for a century and, as usual, attacked any width and continually flayed the offside, while Marsh delivered several spirited aerial strikes in a quick half-century partnership.
But Bumrah came back and produced an excellent return of length that caught Head’s Edge at 89 and provoked passionate celebrations from Kohli.
Marsh also missed a milestone when at 47 he attacked all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy, who capped an impressive debut with his first Test wicket.
Mitchell Starc was held at short leg, giving Washington Sundar his first wicket of the match, and it wasn’t long before India claimed a victory they will savor for some time as the pressure begins to intensify on Australia.
Tristan Lavalette is a journalist based in Perth
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