India’s restraint-filled batting approach did not pay dividends as they were bowled out for 185 after opting to bat on a green-top in Sydney. Scott Boland was the most successful of the Australian bowlers picking up figures of 4-31 with his metronomic lines and lengths accentuated by the seam movement that the surface had on offer. Australian pacer Scott Boland continued his rampaging form in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy, completing his 50 Test wickets on Friday
Scott Boland was exceptional in the first innings, removing four players for just 31 runs in his 20 wickets at an economy rate of 1.60. He got scalps of dangerous Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli and Nitish Kumar Reddy and troubled the batting line-up with his impeccable lines and lengths.
Scott Boland is the fifth-highest wicket-taker in the series so far, with 15 scalps in three matches at a brilliant average of 15.46, with best figures of 4/31. Scott Boland has taken the prized scalp of Virat three times in the series and troubled him with the outside off-stump length. In 13 matches, Scott Boland has taken 50 wickets at a sub-20 average of 18.88, with best figures of 6/7. His record in home conditions remains incredible, with 43 scalps in nine matches at an average of 13.34 and best figures of 6/7.
Against India in five Tests, Scott Boland has taken 20 wickets at an average of 18.55, with best figures of 4/31. At the age of 35 years and 267 days, he is the oldest seamer to get to 50 Test wickets since New Zealand’s Bevan Congdon reached the milestone in February 1975.
Pitch Report and Toss
Pitch Report : There is a lot of grass on the pitch. The sun is not out and it is very overcast. The new ball will not be easy for the batters. Konstas batted well at the MCG. Batting with the new ball won’t be easy. The captain would ideally want to bowl first. reckons Sunny G at the pitch report.
Toss : On a Green top Indian skipper Jasprit Bumrah won the toss and chose too bat first with 2 changes in the playing XI bringing in Prasidh Krishna and Shubman Gill for Rohit Sharma and Akash Deep. Australian skipper Pat Cummins bowling first made way for debutant Beau Webster in place of Mitchell Marsh.
Day 1 : Morning Session : India’s top-order fails to deliver after Scott Boland’s early wicket burst.
In a drama-filled, but slow-scoring opening session, India inched to 57/3 at Lunch on the first day at Sydney. There were questions to be asked of India right from the start when Jasprit Bumrah walked out for the toss instead of Rohit Sharma. The pacer, who had led India in Perth, mentioned that Rohit had “opted to rest” for this match, and proceeded to win the toss under overcast conditions on a green top.
His decision to bat first put forward tougher questions for the Indian batters. India’s openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul, who moved back to the top in Rohit’s absence, began watchfully as the conditions demanded and remained tight in defence and in the corridor outside off to begin with.
But against the run of play, Rahul flicked a legstump half-volley from Mitchell Starc straight into the hands of square leg pushing India behind. His partner, Yashasvi Jaiswal tried to counter Scott Boland’s relentless lines and lengths by walking towards the bowler, but ended up nicking one slanted across into the hands of debutant Beau Webster in the slip cordon.
Mitchell Starc had gone too full in search of swing in the first over while Pat Cummins erred on the shorter side with the new ball. Boland, though, located the perfect length in his first over and never veered away from it. He struck with his fourth ball when he put one on a good length and got it to seam away to have Yashasvi Jaiswal nicking off to debutant Beau Webster at third slip for 10.
By then, KL Rahul had already been dismissed for 4, having chipped a leg-stump half-volley from Starc straight to Sam Konstas at square leg in the fifth over. Shubman Gill, who had replaced Rohit in India’s XI, started well but his innings was cut short at 20 when he advanced at Nathan Lyon only to offer a catch to slip off what turned out to be the last ball before lunch. Gill has reached 20 three times in four innings on this tour but hasn’t passed 31.
Virat Kohli could have been out first ball, but he survived by the skin of his teeth. Scott Boland had Kohli wafting an outside edge to second slip, where Steven Smith dived low to his right and appeared to have grabbed the ball close to the ground before somehow scooping it up to gully, where Marnus Labuschagne completed the catch. After much rocking and rolling, Joel Wilson, the TV umpire, deemed that the ball had touched the ground before Smith lobbed it to Labuschagne.
Scott Boland nearly did an encore with Virat Kohli nicking the first ball he faced to the right of Steve Smith, who got fingers underneath and pushed it to Webster to the right of him. But replays appeared to show that that the ball might have touched the ground as Smith was doing his acrobatic effort and third umpire Joel Wilson ruled this in Kohli’s favour.
With that slice of luck, the out-of-form senior batter pushed ahead with much of the discipline he had showcased in the first innings at Melbourne. Pat Cummins used his four frontline pace options in short spells and each of them posed tough questions, giving little in terms of scoring options for both Kohli and Shubman Gill, who was back to his No. 3 spot.
Gill had some close shaves with an inside edge missing the stumps and another outside edge flying over the cordon. But he too, like Kohli, was intent on minimizing the unforced errors for large part of the 40-run partnership of 106 balls. But at the stroke of Lunch, he danced down to Nathan Lyon and nicked to slip pushing India further back.
Day 1 : Post Lunch Session : Rishabh Pant bats with restraint as India reach 107/4 at Tea
Kohli then left the next ball and 16 more balls before Scott Boland sucked him into nicking another one, with Webster holding onto this chance with his bucket hands at third slip. Kohli has been dismissed seven times in this Border-Gavaskar series and all his dismissals have followed a pattern: edging behind to the keeper or the cordon. It was also the fourth time in six Test innings that Scott Boland had bested Kohli.
Kohli had gone to great lengths to avoid this pattern – he had ditched his open stance for a more side-on one – but it proved unavoidable as he fell for 17 off 69 balls.
Kohli’s vigil did not last too long either for he poked outside off and was out caught in the slip cordon for the seventh time in the series. The metronomic Boland could have had Ravindra Jadeja early as well if not for a dropped catch by Smith.
At the other end, an uncharacteristically orthodox Rishabh Pant copped blows on the body but did not attempt anything out of the ordinary in a fighting knock. With the Australian pacers offering no freebies, Pant’s boundary opportunity had to be manufactured when he danced down the ground and struck Webster down the ground for a six. A hit off a short ball from Lyon at the stroke of Tea gave him another boundary in an otherwise grind which earned him 32 off 80 balls.
Day 1 : Scott Boland takes four as India fold for 185 after batting on green top
A hit off a short ball from Lyon at the stroke of Tea gave him another boundary in an otherwise grind which eventually ended in the final session when he miscued a pull off Scott Boland to midwicket. No sooner had he walked off berating himself on the way back that he was joined by Nitish Reddy who was caught in the slip cordon first ball. Ravindra Jadeja, who had fought his way to a 95-ball 26 then played across to Starc to be caught plumb in front.
Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja briefly repaired the innings with a 48-run partnership for the fifth wicket in 25 overs before Scott Boland damaged India again, this time with a double-blow. Scott Boland first had Pant splicing a pull to mid-on, and next ball he had Nitish Kumar Reddy, India’s hero from the MCG Test, caught at second slip for a duck. Scott Boland was denied a hat-trick but remained a threat, nipping even the old ball off the seam from both over and around the stumps.
Pant had played an unusual knock. After having been caught on the boundary in both innings at the MCG – his failed first-innings scoop drew particularly severe criticism – he sat back and relied more on his defensive technique. In a rare show of aggression, however, he stepped out to Webster and launched him over the sightscreen for six. It was only the sixth boundary for India in 46 overs.
The depth and skill in Australia’s attack meant there was no breathing room for India’s batters. Webster, the allrounder who had switched from offspin to medium-pace during Covid-19, put in a tidy shift, coming away with figures of 13-4-29-0, and his slip catching was even more memorable.
Starc and Cummins then took care of India’s lower order. Despite battling back issues, Starc cranked it up to 147kph and discomfited India’s batters, using the uneven bounce to his advantage. He first pinged Pant on his bicep and left him with a bruise before knocking him on his helmet. Pant copped a number of blows on his body during his painstaking stay. Ravindra Jadeja’s vigil (26 off 95 balls) came to an end when Starc pinned him lbw. Cummins then wrapped India up for 185.
Washington Sundar hit a couple of welcome boundaries before he was adjudged to have gloved his attempted pull by the third umpire on Australia’s review, leaving the lower-order to carry on the fight. Bumrah swung his bat to get to 22 before he became the last man dismissed. It continued India’s poor run of scores in the first innings of Tests, being bowled out in less than 80 overs for the seventh time in the last eight Tests
Bumrah had some fun with the bat, clubbing his way to 22 off 17 balls. He had more fun with the ball when he struck with the final ball of the day. He celebrated it animatedly by spinning around and roaring at Konstas, the non-striker, who had been involved in a heated exchange with him moments before Khawaja’s dismissal. The on-field umpire had to intervene to diffuse the tension. Bumrah and Konstas promise more entertainment on day two at the SCG.
India had their moment in the sun when Jasprit Bumrah got Usman Khawaja (for the sixth time in the series) nicking behind after verbal exchange with non-striker Sam Konstas. The dramatic end gave India some joy on an otherwise tough day out with the bat.
Road Ahead on Day 2 for Australia and India
Off-field chaos swirled around India in the lead-up to the Sydney Test. Their on-field batting performance on the opening day in Sydney was just as chaotic after Rohit Sharma dropped himself in a nearly unprecedented move in Indian cricket and Jasprit Bumrah took over as captain. After Bumrah chose to bat, India struggled in the face of relentless bowling from Australia and were eventually dismissed for 185, just before close of play.
Bumrah produced the final twist when he got rid of Usman Khawaja off the last ball of the day, and Australia went to stumps on 9 for 1. Scott Boland led the line for Australia, returning staggering figures of 20-8-31-4. His metronomic accuracy and mastery of length, with the new ball as well as the old one, was too much to handle for India’s batters. He hardly bowled a bad ball and kept generating sharp seam movement off a lush-green Sydney pitch that also offered uneven bounce.
11 wickets fell and 194 runs were scored. The grassy deck at SCG clearly aided the bowlers. India were shunted out for 185. Indian batters tried almost everything but as has been the case, they couldn’t get a lot of runs. Scott Boland, Starc and Cummins came to the party and shared the ruins. But the wicket still has the spice. Konstas looked like a cat on a hot tin roof.
But he riled up Bumrah with two balls to go and Khawaja had to pay the price as he was snared up in the cordon with Rahul taking the catch at second slip. Bumrah was looking to bowl his over off quickly. But Konstas intervened for some strange reasons. Has Konstas opened the Pandora’s box.
Bumrah has been the bowler of the series and I don’t think that was sensible from the young man trying to get under the skin of someone as seasoned as Bumrah. India still have a lot of hard work to do. The day though belonged to Australia. They lost the toss but kept picking up wickets to win the day. India despite having batting woes decided to bat first. That was a brave move but the batting wasn’t as good as it should have been in tough conditions. Day 2’s prospects have been ramped up because of the events in the last 5 minutes.