India bundle out Australia for 91 as first Test ends inside three days, thanks to five-wicket haul by unplayable offie R Ashwin
R Ashwin celebrates the wicket of Australia’s Matthew Renshaw on Saturday. Pic/Getty Images
The end was swift, brutally so. For all their preparations against the turning ball at their training camp in Bangalore, Australia’s batsmen came horribly unstuck at the crunch, embarrassing a rich legacy with one of their most timid performances at the VCA Stadium on an action-packed Saturday.
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Abject surrender by visitors
Abject surrender is the phrase that comes most readily to mind in the aftermath of a spectacular implosion that handed India a comprehensive innings and 132 runs victory on the third day of the first Test. Having seen India’s tail wag furiously in the morning to translate an overnight advantage of 144 to an unmanageable 223, Australia froze like rabbits in the headlights against the classy off-spin of R Ashwin.
31st fifer for Ash
Drawing on his immense repertoire of skill and craft and feasting on the indecisiveness of the batting group, the Tamil Nadu brainiac raced to his 31st five-for in Tests, primarily responsible for the carnage that characterised Australia’s second innings. The visitors were shot out for a measly 91 in a little over two hours and just 32.3 overs, keeling over with seven sessions remaining as India stormed to a 1-0 lead in the four-match series.
Player of the Match Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and a remarkably restrained Mohammed Shami, who batted out 47 deliveries in the first session to put the pitch in perspective, boosted India’s overnight 321 for seven to an even 400, Axar desperately unlucky to miss his maiden hundred by 16 runs. Todd Murphy capped a dream debut with a merited seven-wicket haul, but his delight at individual glory was punctured by the unseemly procession when Australia, hopefully, began their second innings at the start of the second session. Just for the record, the unbeaten Steven Smith alone played more balls in Australia’s second innings than Shami did.
Ashwin, sharing the new ball with Shami, struck in his first over when Usman Khawaja drove loosely outside off to a ball that turned a distance, and put Virat Kohli at slip in business. Ashwin was then all over Australia like a bad rash, making the ball fizz, bounce and turn, mixing up his angles and trajectories, and testing both edges with his heady mix of wicked off-breaks and cunning sliders that went on with the arm.
Also Read: 'My plan was to lure Australia batters to play drive shots': Ravichandran Ashwin
Australia clueless
Unable to fathom what was coming off his right hand and leaving application and stomach for battle behind in the dressing room, Australia’s crease-tied batsmen were ripe for the picking. Ashwin didn’t need a second invitation, packing off left and right-hander alike with four successive leg before dismissals that exposed the batsmen’s woeful technical inadequacies.
Jadeja and Axar had their say too and Shami finished off by trapping last man Scott Boland in front. It was over all too soon.
Brief scores
Australia 177 & 91 (S Smith 25*; R Ashwin 5-37, M Shami 2-13, R Jadeja 2-34) lost to India 400 (R Sharma 120, A Patel 84, R Jadeja 70; T Murphy 7-124) by an innings and 132 runs
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