India crush Australia in first Border-Gavaskar Test to silence critics

PERTH: India ran riot to win the opening Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy by a crushing 295 runs here on Monday and leave Australia shellshocked and searching for answers.

Set a mountainous 534 for victory, the world’s top-ranked Test team crumbled to 238 all out in the final session on day four. A counter-punching Travis Head made a gritty 89 while Mitchell Marsh chipped in with 47.

But it was never going to be enough against an inspired attack led by the irrepressible Jasprit Bumrah, who took 3-42 to claim eight wickets in the match. He was ably supported by Mohammed Siraj with 3-51.

It was an astonishing turnaround for India, who arrived in Australia on the back of a humiliating 3-0 home series defeat to New Zealand.

Given little hope of defending the Border-Gavaskar Trophy they have held since 2017, they now head to the second day-night Test in Adelaide next week with a big psychological advantage and boosted by the return of skipper Rohit Sharma.

The victory was only India’s second in Perth and first since their triumph at the WACA Ground back in 2008.

Under Bumrah’s temporary captaincy, they utterly dominated an ageing side which is now the one facing scrutiny after failing to fire.

Out for a dismal 104 in reply to India’s first-innings 150, the hosts’ bowling attack then had no reply to a brilliant 161 from impressive young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and an unbeaten 100 from superstar Virat Kohli, who went past legendary Sir Don Bradman’s tally of Test centuries.

Australia’s batting line-up, which has long relied on one large score or partnership to pull them out of sticky situations, was mostly outsmarted. Their longest partnership through both innings was 82.

With India setting them a huge target, they again capitulated on Monday in the face of the Bumrah-led onslaught.

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After imploding in the final 30 minutes of play on Sunday, they resumed on 12-3 with Usman Khawaja on three and Steve Smith yet to score. Khawaja added just one when he mistimed a pull shot off Siraj and got a big top edge.

It was caught by backtracking wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, who became the most expensive player in Indian Premier League (IPL) history on Sunday at the tournament’s lucrative auction.

Head survived a loud lbw shout on seven, a review found it was missing leg stump and he battled on, smacking seven boundaries for his 17th Test half-century.

At the other end, Smith was felled by a Harshit Rana bouncer that slammed into his midriff, needing a spell lying on the ground to recover. He was able to get up and play on, and like Head came through an lbw review on 12.

But their partnership was ended by Siraj, with Pant taking another neat catch after Smith edged a delivery he had to play on 17.

Head teamed up with Marsh in an 82-run stand to temporarily raise hopes before Bumrah again worked his magic.

Seemingly destined for a century, the largely untroubled Head feathered to Pant with Bumrah’s loud double fist pump showing how ecstatic he was at the breakthrough.

Allrounder Marsh kept the scoreboard ticking over with Alex Carey but fell for 47, dragging a wide Nitish Kumar Reddy delivery onto the stumps.

Mitchell Starc, top-scorer in the first innings, was out for 12 on the cusp of tea before the tail was wrapped up early in the final session.

Australia and India will now travel to Adelaide for the second Test, starting from December 6. Meanwhile, the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy is scheduled to be played in Brisbane from December 14-18.

The iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) will host the fourth match from December 26, while the final Test will be played in Sydney from January 3.

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