India Get Taste Of Own Medicine.
Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Kuhnemann and Company dismiss hosts for 109 on treacherous Turner.
India were hoist by their own petard on the first day of the third test. It had to happen, eventually, this falling-in-one's-own-trap thing, this inability to avoid a predictable snare of one's own making. Captain Rohit Sharma was actuely aware of this and even spoke about it a day before this Test, about "what has happened to them in this series could happen to us, because of the turning pitches".On Wednesday, the first day of the third Test, it did.
The Holkar stadium wicket was prepared to India's expectations -dry diabolical at times even, offering turn, keeping low, behaving as it wanted, much like the traffic at one of Indore's many chaotic roundabouts. Instead of serving only Ashwin and Jadeja, however, the pitch chose to yield its treasures also to Australia's tweakers. All this unfolded over a bizarre, electrifying and breathless turn of events in the morning which saw India lose 7 wickets for 84 runs in 26 overs, all to spin, and then get all out shortly after lunch for 109 in 33.2 overs.
When Australia batted after them, the pitch seemed to have calmed down, something India's batting coach Vikram Rathour attributed to "early morning moisture" among other factors. India, however were inspired enough by Australia's performance to open the bowling with Ashwin and Jadeja, though both struggled with their lengths. India were completely outplayed in two sessions by Australia for the first time in the series and made to grind hard for wickets post-tea.
The Aussie batters applied themselves better, largely avoiding the pitfalls which had plagued them in Delhi, and India's spinners had too few runs to defend. Some in-out fields facilitated easy singles, enabling Marnus Lambuschgne and Khawaja to put on a 96-run second wicket partnership which would have given India the jitters. It was a hard day for both cricketers and umpires, and the bloopers with the DRS continued when India took the field. These DRS blunders cost India in what is likely to be a low-scoring affair.
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