Left-arm spinner Matthew Kuhnemann and off-spinner Nathan Lyon picked three wickets each as India reached 84/7 in 26 overs at lunch of the opening day of the third Test at Holkar Stadium on Wednesday.
After India won the toss and elected to bat first on a dry pitch, the frenetic play followed, where every ball was literally an event as the ball turned big apart from variable bounce coming into play.
The opening overproduced exciting action, as a returning Mitchell Starc produced a faint edge off Rohit Sharma, but Australia didn’t take the review. Replays later showed it could have been a wicket for Australia if the review was taken.
Rohit and Shubman Gill hit six delightful boundaries in the first five overs. But from there, Australia’s spinners spun a vicious web to trap the Indian batters. Rohit was the first to fall, dancing down the pitch to go over mid-on but couldn’t get to the pitch of the ball as it turned sharply and was stumped off Kuhnemann.
The left-arm spinner returned in his next over as Gill perished to a defensive prod and was caught at first slip. Lyon then got one to turn in sharply and breakthrough Cheteshwar Pujara’s defense to hit the stumps. Ravindra Jadeja’s promotion backfired as he couldn’t keep the cut-down and was caught at cover off Lyon.
In the next over, Shreyas Iyer chopped onto his stumps off Kuhnemann for a two-ball duck. While other batters crumbled, Virat Kohli looked assured in his defense and also found some timely boundaries.
But his stay ended at 22 when off-spinner Todd Murphy trapped him in front of the stumps. KS Bharat cracked a powerful sweep and slog-sweep but was also trapped lbw off Lyon at the stroke of lunch. With Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel unbeaten on 1 and 6 respectively, India will be aiming to cross at least the 100-run mark.
Brief Scores: India 84/7 in 26 overs (Virat Kohli 22, Shubman Gill 21; Matthew Kuhnemann 3/14, Nathan Lyon 3/23) against Australia
