There was no stopping Jasprit Bumrah as India bowled Australia out for 104 to take a crucial 46-run first-innings lead in the first Test in Perth. After breathing fire in the extended last session of the first Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test to bring India back in the contest, Bumrah struck on his first ball of Day 2. The stand-in captain, who is leading India as regular captain Rohit Sharma is on paternity leave, ended Australia's hopes of hurting the visitors with a lower-order counterattack by sending by wicketkeeper-batter Alex Carey as early as the second over of the second day.
In his trademark style, Bumrah came around the wicket, shaped the ball in but got it to go away after pitching to bring about the downfall of Carey. The left-hander played the angle and got an outside edge to Rishabh Pant, who gobbled up the easy chance. With the early wicket on Day 2, Bumrah completed his 11th five-wicket haul. He finished with outstanding figures of 5 for 30. This was Bumrah's 7th five-wicket haul in SENA countries, the joint-most by any Indian bowler along with Kapil Dev.
Interestingly, the last time Bumrah played at the same venue six years ago, he ended up with a six-wicket haul to help India win.
Harshit Rana, the debutant, who started the proceedings with Bumrah on Saturday morning, struck from the other end with a snorter to Nathan Lyon. The shot off from a length, got big on the Australian off-spinner and thudded onto his gloves. Lyon was taking evasive action but couldn't get his hands out of the way. The ball lobbed up in the air and landed in KL Rahul's hands in the slip cordon.
Australia put up some resistance, mainly thanks to Mitchell Starc's rearguard action. The big Australian fast bowler had a few run-ins with Rana, his former IPL teammate at the Kolkata Knight Riders but braved up against the young Indian fast bowler's bouncer barrage and added crucial runs to Australia's first innings total. Starc was top-scorer for Australia with 26 off 112 balls before Rana came back for his second spell in the morning to get the lanky Australian out.
{{/usCountry}}Australia put up some resistance, mainly thanks to Mitchell Starc's rearguard action. The big Australian fast bowler had a few run-ins with Rana, his former IPL teammate at the Kolkata Knight Riders but braved up against the young Indian fast bowler's bouncer barrage and added crucial runs to Australia's first innings total. Starc was top-scorer for Australia with 26 off 112 balls before Rana came back for his second spell in the morning to get the lanky Australian out.
{{/usCountry}}Thanks to Starc's knock, Australia not only avoided their lowest-ever total against India (83) but also got past their lowest total at home (85) in this century. Australia were bowled out for 85 by South Africa in Hobart in 2016, which is their worst performance at home since 2000.
Tough time for batters in Perth
Earlier in the Test, India were bowled out for 150 after opting to bat first. The match, which was billed as a battle between two out-of-form batting units, lived up to the prediction, at least on the first day. As many as 17 wickets fell, which was the first time in seven decades for a Test match on Australian soil.
It was debutant Nitish Reddy's gutsy 41 and Rishabh Pant's 37, including an unbelievable sixer, that got India to 150 in 49.4 overs with Josh Hazlewood (4/29), Mitchell Starc (2/14 in 11 overs), Pat Cummins (2/67 in 15.4 overs) and Mitchell Marsh (2/12 in 5 overs) sharing the spoils.
On the driver's seat when they came out to reply, Australia had no answer to Bumrah's (4/17 in 10 overs) quality that was on display. Defending a low first-innings total cannot be a one-man show, and Mohammed Siraj (2/20) and debutant Harshit Rana stepped up to support their skipper.