Jadeja, Ashwin trouble Aus taking 8 wickets as India dominates Day 1

NAGPUR: Ravindra Jadeja marked his return to international cricket with a five-wicket haul that knocked the stuffing out of Australian middle order and put India firmly in the driver’s seat on the opening day of the first Test, here Thursday.

Jadeja did bulk of the bowling on the Jamtha dustbowl, earning his 11th fifer (5/47) in 22 overs that helped India skittle Australia out for a paltry 177 after the visitors decided to take the first strike in the series-opener.

Ravichandran Ashwin, who probably dominated the Aussie mind space more than his spin colleague, got 3/42 in 15.5 overs and in the process completed 450 wickets in Test cricket.

At stumps, Rohit Sharma’s counter-attacking 56 not out put India in complete command with hosts ending the day at 77 for one and trailing by 100 runs.

KL Rahul’s lean patch continued as he was caught and bowled by Australian debutant Todd Murphy after making a 20-run contribution from 71 balls. With pitch set to deteriorate further, Indian skipper’s decision to attack Nathan Lyon did pay dividends in the final hour.

Two of his shots off Lyon stamped his class and authority: a forward defensive jab that rocketed to the fence between bowler and mid-off and a down the ground six. There were also cover driven fours off deliveries that were over-pitched.

On this track, one cannot survive with a defensive mindset and the decision to score quickly seemed to be the right call.

But no accolades will be enough for Jadeja, inarguably the ‘MVP’ (Most Valuable Player) in the Indian Test set-up. The iconic Sachin Tendulkar has termed him as compete ‘package’.

When India plays abroad, he becomes a batting all-rounder, often bailing the team out at No.6 and when it comes to Indian dustbowls, he is just lethal.

On the day he showed that a knee surgery and five month lay-off hasn’t taken away anything from his armoury.

The Australians prepared for Ashwin’s guile and variations but perhaps forgot to factor in Jadeja’s impact on tracks that offer above average turn.

On turners, the spinners who don’t try too much trickery with their fingers and just let the ball land on the cracks and let the pitch do the rest, are more dangerous than others.

Jadeja is a perfect exponent of that art of keeping things simple. There is no denying the fact that there is considerable turn and bounce on offer but Australian batters too were guilty of playing some bad shots. It seemed they got too much messed up in their heads and tried to tackle the track more than the bowler.

Save Marnus Labuschagne (49), who got an unplayable delivery from Jadeja, the others either played rank bad shots or erred in judgement.

Brief scores: Australia (1st innings) 177 in 63.5 overs (M Labuschagne 49, R Jadeja 5/47, R Ashwin 3/42) vs India (1st innings) 77/1 in 24 overs (R Sharma 56 batting)

HIGHLIGHTS

• 89 Matches needed by R Ashwin to complete 450 wickets in Test cricket. He is the second-fastest bowler to the milestone, behind Muthiah Muralidaran (80). Ashwin is now only the ninth player to take 450-plus Test wickets

• 3 Instances of Steven Smith being bowled by Jadeja in Test cricket, the most for Smith against anyone in this format

• 2005- The last instance of Australia being bundled out for less than 200 in the first innings of a Test series - 190 all out against England at Lord’s

• 177 Australia’s first innings total. Only twice have Australia folded for a lower first-innings total in Asia after opting to bat