Rohit delivers a masterclass

Skipper Sharma leads from the front

Jadeja, Patel hit half centuries as 

India take first innings lead

By Paritosh Pramanik

NAGPUR, Feb 10

CAPTAIN Rohit Sharma banged his bat into pads. He was furious after Cheteshwar Pujara threw his wicket giving a simple catch to Scott Boland off debutant Todd Murphy at short fine leg. India were still trailing by 42 runs to Australia’s 177 during the first Test of Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Sharma knew the importance of Pujara’s wicket. He also knew the task at hand as the Indian captain (120; 212b, 15x4, 2x6) came up with a masterclass to put his team in the driver’s seat.

After Pujara’s departure Sharma saw wickets fall at the other end but continued to bat superbly in testing conditions. Despite falling short of partners, the Indian captain led from the front and hit an excellent 

century which helped India 

to 321 for seven, a first lead of 144 runs.

Apart from Sharma, it was ‘Rockstar’ Ravindra Jadeja (66*) and Axar Patel (52*) who stood strong scoring unbeaten half century each.

Jadeja’s undefeated partnership of 81 runs with Axar Patel should not go unnoticed as that helped India frustrate the Australians the most in the third session of the second day.

The way the Indians batted on the track proved that there were no demons in the 22-yard strip. A section of visiting Australian media termed it as ‘doctored’. But they were proved wrong by some sensible batting from the hosts, especially from Rohit Sharma.

Sharma’s century was chanceless. Barring a run-out chance before lunch, there was hardly anything that troubled the captain. He completed his 9th Test century with a cover driven four. There were 14 boundaries and two sixes in those 100 runs which came from 171 deliveries.

Sharma, who scored his second century at this venue (the earlier one came against Sri Lanka (102*) in 2017) showed how to bat on this track which had a low bounce. He was in a different zone and never looked in trouble while facing Todd Murphy who made a dream start to his Test career. Sharma’s innings was a controlled one, full of confidence and concentration. His shot selection was perfect. He used his feet well against Murphy denying him any chance to dominate.

Murphy, who took five wickets in the match, cleaned up India’s top order single-handedly but could not breach the Indian captain’s defence. He was lucky to get Pujara and Kohli apart from night-watchman R Ashwin, but Sharma did not give him an inch to dictate.

Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin had seen the day’s first hour well and had managed to take the score to 118 when Ashwin perished to the Victorian spinner.

India were looking strong in the first hour of the morning but lost the plot to some extent losing Pujara and Kohli in the space of just eight overs. The two mainstays managed to add only 19 runs to India’s total.

Pujara (7) edged an attempted sweep to short fine leg. Kohli fell on the first delivery after lunch for 12. He poked his bat to a leg side delivery from Murphy only to see wicketkeeper Alex Carey collecting the ball on the second attempt.

After Kohli’s departure, debutant Suryakumar Yadav could not replicate his T20 heroics as he was bowled by Lyon who found enough gap between the batter’s bat 

and pad.

Jadeja and Sharma then stretched India’s lead as they went to tea 226-5 with a lead of 49 runs.

But like the post lunch session, India lost the Indian captain four balls after tea. Rival skipper Pat Cummins cleaned up Sharma with the new ball which moved enough to crash into the stumps.

Debutant KS Bharat, like Yadav, couldn’t survive long and was trapped in front to give Murphy his maiden five-for. Jadeja and Axar then frustrated Australian bowlers with their rearguard unconquered partnership.

The Australians were clearly tired toiling under the sun the whole day. They dropped at least four catches including that by Steve Smith who spilled Jadeja two deliveries before stumps.