India came back strongly in the first Test against Australia on Friday after being bowled out for 150, taking seven wickets in the final session to put themselves in the box seat after a gripping opening day in Perth.
In the end, the hosts were in disarray (67-7) after stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah demolished the Australian opener in a devastating spell to end the day with 4-17.
Alex Carey was unbeaten on 19 and Mitchell Starc unbeaten on six.
After electing to bat, the visitors were blown away in their innings, no match for the hosts’ bruising attack with Josh Hazlewood taking 4-29.
Impressive debutant Nitish Kumar Reddy (41) and flamboyant Rishabh Pant (37) showed some spirit, but once again superstar Virat Kohli failed, being bowled out for five.
“We have the advantage now and hopefully we can bat better in the second innings and put them under pressure,” Reddy said.
“We were just trying to hit the zones, be disciplined in our bowling and obviously the wicket helps a lot.”
Australia fared no better in response.
Bumrah removed rookie opener Nathan McSweeney lbw for 10, another headache for a team struggling to find a decent replacement for the retired David Warner.
Marnus Labuschagne had a massive release two balls later, Kohli deposited a keeper in the slips, leaving Bumrah with his head in his hands.
But India soon had another breakthrough, Kohli this time holding back Bumrah’s catch to dismiss Usman Khawaja (8), and when Steve Smith was trapped with the next ball, the game was on.
Harshit Rana cleaned up Travis Head (11) for a first Test wicket before Mitchell Marsh departed for five, caught low in the slips by KL Rahul off Mohammed Siraj.
Labuschagne tried his luck with 52 balls to score two runs before also heading to Siraj and then Bumrah returned to dismiss skipper Pat Cummins (3).
“It’s obviously a good day to be a fast bowler. Both teams with the ball in hand played a lot of good things,” Starc said.
“There was quite a bit of wicket, swing and side movement, as well as good pace and range.
“We’ll go out tomorrow and try to get as close to their total as possible.”
– Fragile –
After a crushing 3-0 home series defeat against New Zealand, India sprung a surprise by dropping veteran Ravichandran Ashwin, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and middle-order batsman Sarfaraz Khan.
With the absence of opener and regular skipper Rohit Sharma following the birth of his second child and number three Shubman Gill injured, it left them with a shaky batting line-up.
Yashasvi Jaiswal went scoreless in the third, edging out an attempted push from Starc to McSweeney, who did well to collect low at gully.
With Gill out, left-hander Devdutt Padikkal came in at three, facing 23 deliveries without scoring before Hazlewood stepped in and drew an edge taken by wicketkeeper Carey.
This brought Kohli to the rank, desperately needing a big score.
Despite an outstanding record in Australia, he lasted just 12 balls before fending off a climbing thunderbolt from Hazlewood that took the lead off Khawaja at slip.
India’s woes worsened when opener Rahul (26) went to Carey as lunch approached.
Pant and Dhruv Jurel were expected to stay after the break.
But Jurel survived barely 10 minutes before succumbing to Marsh in the 11th, gaining an advantage that carried Labuschagne to the third slip.
Marsh struck again for Washington Sundar to leave the visitors looking down the barrel 73-6 before Pant and Reddy led a mini recovery.
Cummins finally ended Pant’s exploits, caught abruptly by Smith, which spelled India’s demise.
The visitors have won their last two Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in Australia.
Perth is the first of five Tests in the series.
mp/pst