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On Friday, January 3, the Australian cricket team had the better of the day one against India in the fifth Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) Test match at the Sydney Cricket Ground. After winning the toss, India’s stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah elected to bat first. The Indian cricket team suffered yet another batting collapse as they were restricted under 200 for the seventh time in the last eight Tests.
While this was their seventh instance of getting bowled out inside the first 80 overs in their first innings, Scott Boland was the wrecker in chief, completing a four-fer for Australia. Virat Kohli walked out to bat when the scorecard read 17/2, Shubman Gill the departed leaving India in state of fix with the scorecard reading 57/3 at lunch on Day 1.
Australia trail by 176 runs at Stumps on Day 1
However, Kohli also could not extend his stay in the middle as he departed after having scored 17 off 69 deliveries. With Rishabh Pant looking good in the middle along with sustaining several blows for the Australian pacers, he fell to Scott Boland, finishing as India’s top scorer with his 40 off 98 deliveries. After adding 50 runs in the second session, none of the Indian batters could extend their stay, with the hosts taking wickets in quick successions and reducing the visitors to 185/10 in 72.2 overs.
For Australia, while Scott Boland stood apart with his four-fer, Mitchell Starc picked three wickets from his 18 overs, skipper Pat Cummins scalped two, whereas Nathan Lyon got a wicket to his name. The Pat Cummins-led side then came in to bat with Usman Khawaja and Sam Konstas once again opening for them. With drama escalating at the SCG, Indian spearhead Jasprit Bumrah rattled through Usman Khawaja, getting his wicket for the sixth time in eight innings and leaving Australia at 9/1 at stumps on Day 1.
