Team India endured a poor outing on the opening day of the World Test Championship final on Wednesday, as Australia – after being invited to bat by captain Rohit Sharma at the toss – put up a strong score of 327/3 at the end of Day 1. While Travis Head (146*) scored a brilliant century in the game, Steve Smith is also nearing a ton; he's only five away from his three-figure mark in the Test.
India had made a strong start to the game, however, reducing the Aussies to 76/3 shortly after Lunch. However, Head produced a brilliant counter-attacking knock as Smith bid time at the crease, slowly snatching the momentum from the Indian pacers. And ahead of the second day of the Test, India's star wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik rung the warning bell for Rohit Sharma and co.
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Karthik stated that India need to pick early wickets at any cost on the second day, and prevent Australia from crossing the 420-run mark.
“If India need to come back in the game, make no mistake, there's only chance is if they pick 3 early wickets in first session. If they don't do that, we will be way behind. Immediately, we will start looking at draw as a win. Australia have a long batting lineup, if you don't get them before 400-420, it's going to be a real hard work,” Karthik told Cricbuzz.
{{/usCountry}}“If India need to come back in the game, make no mistake, there's only chance is if they pick 3 early wickets in first session. If they don't do that, we will be way behind. Immediately, we will start looking at draw as a win. Australia have a long batting lineup, if you don't get them before 400-420, it's going to be a real hard work,” Karthik told Cricbuzz.
{{/usCountry}}Together, Head and Smith took Australia past 100, 200 and 300 and saw out 4.3 overs of the second new ball as well.
“Travis shifted the momentum,” Steve mith told the BBC after the game. “(India) were perhaps a bit short in that middle session but Travis was putting pressure on them so it was a fine line.”
Earlier, David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne survived a stressful first hour when India would have expected to take two or three wickets instead of just Usman Khawaja's.