Akshar Patel of India plays a shot on the third day of the 1st Cricket Test match between India and Australia in Nagpur on February 11, 2023 | photo credit: KR Deepak
Akshar Patel’s 84 and Mohammed Shami’s entertaining 37 helped India post 400 against Australia on the third day of the first cricket Test here on Saturday, taking a massive 223-run first innings lead.
Axar kept his head down and let Shami attack for a 52-run ninth wicket stand that helped India dismiss Australia on a track that the visiting media alleged had been “tampered with”. .
India restarted the day 321 for seven with Ravindra Jadeja (70) and Patel at the crease, Jadeja didn’t last long as he extended his arm to a Murphy delivery, which was fired at an angle and crashed onto the stumps.
The pitch hasn’t changed much in its character and it remains a slow turner where any batsman who is prepared to grind it out will get results.
Lunch happened when the Indian innings came to an end.
Shami, who was dropped by Scott Boland for 6 off the bowling of Nathan Lyon, decided to quickly counter-attack the opposition’s best bowler Todd Murphy (7/124).
He hit three sixes apart from a few fours during his 47-ball knock – a slog sweep over mid-wicket, a flat six over long-off and a monstrous hit over long-on.
Adding more than 50 runs in just one hour (65 minutes) was commendable and Patel on his part gave Shami more strike.
If Australia had any chance of wrapping it up, Boland’s mistake proved costly as Shami made him pay dearly.
While Murphy has been impressive on debut, Lyon’s (1/126) performance has been disappointing to say the least as his bowling has been lacking.
It became easy for almost all the Indian batsmen to defend the experienced off-spinner on the backfoot.
Once Shami was about to score his fourth maximum off Murphy, Patel decided to attack and lofted the debutant straight to the sidescreen for the first six.
His and India’s innings ended when he was bowled by rival captain Pat Cummins.
score board
Australia 1st innings: 177 India 1st innings: Rohit Sharma b Cummins 120 KL Rahul c&b Murphy 20 Ravichandran Ashwin lbw b Murphy 23 Cheteshwar Pujara c Boland b Murphy 7 Virat Kohli c Carey b Murphy 12 Suryakumar Yadav b Lyon 8 Ravindra Jadeja b Murphy 70 185 9 0 37.83 Srikar India lbw b Murphy 8 Axar Patel b Cummins 84 Mohammed Shami c Carey b Murphy 37 Mohammed Siraj not out 1
Excessive: (B-6, LB-1, NB-3) 10
Total: (All out in 139.3 overs)
Fall of wickets: 1-76, 2-118, 3-135, 4-151, 5-168, 6-229, 7-240, 8-328, 9-380, 10-400
Bowling: Pat Cummins 20.3-3-78-2, Scott Boland 17-4-34-0, Nathan Lyon 49-13-126-1, Todd Murphy 47-12-124-7, Marnus Labuschagne 5-0-24-0, Matt Renshaw 1-0-7-0.