{"id":9211,"date":"2024-11-25T14:48:58","date_gmt":"2024-11-25T09:48:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/?p=9211"},"modified":"2024-11-25T14:49:21","modified_gmt":"2024-11-25T09:49:21","slug":"india-crush-australia-in-first-test-to-silence-critics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/sports\/india-crush-australia-in-first-test-to-silence-critics\/","title":{"rendered":"India crush Australia in first Test to silence critics"},"content":{"rendered":"

India ran riot to win the opening Test in Perth by a crushing 295 runs on Monday and leave Australia shellshocked<\/a> and searching for answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Set a mountainous 534 for victory, the world\u2019s top-ranked Test team crumbled to 238 all out in the final session on day four.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A counter-punching Travis Head made a gritty 89 while Mitchell Marsh chipped in with 47.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was ably supported by Mohammed Siraj with 3-51.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVery happy. We were put under pressure in the first innings but the way we responded was great,\u201d said stand-in skipper Bumrah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were really well prepared. I told everyone to keep faith in your ability.\u201d It was an astonishing turnaround for India, who arrived in Australia on the back of a humiliating 3-0 home series defeat<\/a> to New Zealand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The emphatic victory was only India\u2019s second in Perth and first since their triumph at the WACA Ground back in 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFairly disappointing. Prep was good, all firing, fair bit to look at as lots didn\u2019t go right,\u201d said Australia captain Pat Cummins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou want to get back on the horse but we will take a couple of days\u2019 rest and get training in Adelaide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t give ourselves a chance in a few different facets, like the finish on day one with the bat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere will be lots of conversations on what we can do better in same conditions.\u201d Under Bumrah\u2019s makeshift captaincy, India dominated an ageing side which is now the one facing scrutiny after failing to fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Out for a dismal 104 in reply to India\u2019s first-innings 150, the hosts\u2019 bowling attack then had no reply to a brilliant 161 from impressive young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and an unbeaten 100 from Virat Kohli.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The superstar batsman Kohli came into the five-match series under pressure. \u201cJaiswal\u2019s best Test innings so far, he left the ball well,\u201d Bumrah said of the 22-year-old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t see Virat out of form \u2013 difficult to judge that on difficult pitches. But he was good in the nets.\u201d –<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Bumrah magic<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Australia\u2019s batting line-up, which has long relied on one large score or partnership to pull them out of sticky situations, was mostly outsmarted. With India setting them a huge target, they again capitulated on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khawaja added just one when he mistimed a pullshot off Siraj and got a big top edge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was caught by backtracking wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, who became the most expensive player in Indian Premier League history Sunday at the Twenty20 tournament\u2019s lucrative auction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was able to get up and play on, and like Head came through an lbw review on 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Head teamed up with Marsh in an 82-run stand to temporarily raise home hopes before Bumrah again worked his magic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seemingly destined for a century, the largely untroubled Head feathered to Pant with Bumrah\u2019s loud double fist-pump showing how ecstatic he was at the breakthrough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

India ran riot to win the opening Test in Perth by a crushing 295 runs on Monday and leave Australia shellshocked and searching for answers. Set a mountainous 534 for victory, the world\u2019s 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 […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":9212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9211"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}