India's batting woes in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series against Australia continued in the fifth and final Test as the visitors were bowled out for 185 in 72.2 overs on the first day of the match in Sydney.
The three fast bowlers, Scott Boland (4-31), Mitchell Starc (3-49), and Pat Cummins (2-37) caused all the damage, exploiting the conditions on a green-top at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).
In the three overs that Australia had to bat towards the end of the day, Jasprit Bumrah sent back Usman Khawaja for two, forcing him to edge one to KL Rahul at second slip, leaving Australia at 9/1 and giving the Indians hope of a fightback on the second day.
However, the day belonged to Australia after Jasprit Bumrah, standing in for skipper Rohit Sharma who decided to opt out of the match because of his poor form, decided to bat first after winning the toss under slightly cloudy conditions on a pitch sporting more grass than it usually does.
The decision did not work for India as they were in trouble soon and went on to cross the 150-run mark thanks mainly to a 90-ball 40 by Rishabh Pant and his 48-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Ravindra Jadeja (26). Some late hitting by skipper Bumrah (22 off 17 balls) also helped a bit.
India were in trouble straight away, reduced to 57/3 at lunch with top-order batters KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill back in the dressing room within 25 overs.
Though he initially showed good judgment to the balls outside the off-stump, KL Rahul could not rein himself for long and fell for four, chipping a half-volley on leg-stump to square leg off Starc.
Boland struck with his fourth ball in the eighth over of the innings when he got the ball to nip one away and extracted an outside edge of Jaiswal’s bat, which was safely pouched by debutant Beau Webster at third slip. Jaiswal, who struck the fifties in both innings in Melbourne, fell for 10 off 26 balls.
Boland almost got his second wicket, on Virat Kohli's first delivery at the pitch, on the bounce when he found Kohli's outside edge, and Steve Smith dived across to his right at second slip and scooped the ball to Marnus Labuschagne at gully, however the ball seemed to roll of Smith's finger and brush the ground, something which TV umpire Joel Wilson spotted while ruling Kohli not out.
It was the first controversial decision of the day but Kohli and India could not capitalsie on it as Kohli was eventually out after the lunch break.
While Kohli went into a defensive shell, presented a dead bat, and left out deliveries outside the off-stump, Gill could not control himself and got out at the most inappropriate time - at the stroke of lunch, jumping down the pitch to Nathan Lyon and edging behind to slip for 20 off 64 balls.
Though Kohli (17) stayed at the crease for 69 balls, he got out to Boland early in the second session once again in the manner he had done on many previous occasions, edging a delivery pitched on the fifth stump behind to Webster at third slip.
Pant showed a lot more patience than he had done earlier, survived the tough period, and then struck some good lofted shots. He suffered a few blows on his body as the Australian bowlers pitched it short, Starc in particular, generated a lot of pace and had the left-handed batter hopping around, getting hit on his hand and head.
But Pant had his moments. After cutting Starc past the backward point for four, the wicketkeeper batter danced down the pitch to smack Webster over the sightscreen for six, despite taking in a blow to his body again.
Pant rocked back to cut Lyon in the gap between backward point and cover point to end a slow scoring session. India went in for tea break at 107/4 and it appeared that Pant and Jadeja would take them to a good score.
But the final session of the day proved disastrous for India and they lost Pant and Nitish Kumar Reddy off successive balls. Pant attempted a pull off Boland, but top-edged straight to Cummins at mid-on and fell for 40.
Reddy, who struck a century on debut in the previous Test, made a golden duck, steering Boland’s wide short one straight to Steve Smith at second slip.
Jadeja was trapped before the wicket by Starc for 26 and Washington Sunder became the second controversial decision of the TV umpire on the day as he was given out as the ball was ruled to have brushed the underside of his glove, with Snicko showing a non-existent faint touch which the Australian commentators could not justify.
Bumrah used the long-handle to score 22 off 17 balls as India went to fold for 185 in 72.2 overs.
But Bumrah's dismissal of Khawaja for two runs has given them some hope and they will come back on Saturday morning hoping to bundle out Australia as early as possible -- just like they did in the first innings in the first Test at Perth.
The Australian batters will try to build a big first innings score and take control of the match.
Whether the two teams manage to achieve their targets is to be seen but it surely will make for another intriguing day of cricket at the SCG on Saturday.
I wouldn't say it's a par score, anything over 220 to 250 would be a par score but still a very competitive score because the way the ball is moving now - there's a lot of help for the bowlers and hopefully we can capitalise on that.
