Australia ends day 1 on 156-4 taking 47 leads; Khawaja 60 & Kuhnemann 5/19

The Visitors Australia ended Day 1 of the third Test on a high note against the Hosts India at 156/4 with Peter Handscomb (7*) and Cameron Green (6*) standing unbeaten at the crease. At Stump's, the Aussies lead India by 47 runs with six wickets still in the bag. For India, the all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja took all four wickets for the Hosts; he removed Steve Smith(26), Usman Khawaja(60), Marnus Labuschagne(31), and Travis Head(09).

The left-handed batter Usman Khawaja and the number one test batter in the world Marnus Labuschagne shared a partnership of 96 runs for the second wicket and almost took the game away from India. Khawaja scored brilliant 60 0ff 147 balls that included 4 fours in his hard-battled innings. He was well supported by Labuschagne who scored 31 off  91 balls before he became the victim of Jadeja once again in the ongoing BGT series.

Earlier, 20-year-old Matthew Kuhnemann registered his maiden five-wicket haul in Test cricket as the Visitors bundled out India for 109 runs. Virat Kohli (22 runs) was the top scorer for team India. The Hosts skipper Rohit Sharma had won the toss and opted to bat first for the third test. In the absence of Australia's regular skipper Pat Cummins, the Visitors are being led by 33-year-old Steve Smith who did a great job with his captaincy in the first innings of the third test.

Electing to bat first after winning the toss, the Indian team did not have a good start and got their first blow at a score of just 27. Captain Rohit Sharma who was not looking in good touch as earlier India's skipper survived two close calls on Starc's bowling. But he could not capitalize on the two chances he got. The 35-year-old right-handed batter became the victim of Kuhnemann while trying to hit down the wicket. The cherry spun after hitting on the top of red soil and Carey did not miss the opportunity behind the wicket and cleaned up Rohit Sharma, who scored 12 runs in 23 balls.

In front of Kuhnemann's mystery bowling there was no comeback for team India and the side started to lose wickets in clusters. Playing in place of Kl Rahul, Shubman Gill could not grab the opportunity from both hands and he also became the second victim of Kuhnemann, and Gill was caught by Steve Smith. Shubman could score 21 runs in 18 balls. Soon after, India got its third blow in the form of Cheteshwar Pujara as Nathan Lyon clean-bowled him on just a single run.

Half of the Indian team returned to the pavilion with a score of 44. The left-handed all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja was the next batter who became the victim of Nathan Lyon on 4 runs. India got its sixth blow in 22 overs. 34-year-old batter Virat Kohli, running in bad form, returned to the pavilion after scoring only 22 runs, was looking in good touch in this match until he has dismissed LBW by right-arm spinner Todd Murphy. Kohli faced 52 balls before getting out and smashed two fours in his innings.

India got the seventh blow in the 25th over of the innings. The wicket-keeper batter Bharat got out LBW after playing an inning of 17 runs in 30 balls the veteran spinner Lyon sent him to the pavilion. In his innings, Bharat hit a four and a six. By lunch, India had scored 84 runs losing seven wickets. Post Lunch, the first blow came in the form of Ashwin (3) who was caught by Kuhnemann at the hands of wicketkeeper Carey.

After trapping Umesh Yadav LBW who was smocking the ball well after hitting 2 big sixes in his short cameo and the last wicket of team India fell in form of Mohammad Siraj who got a runout on the score of 109. With this, India's innings got reduced to just 109 runs. Apart from Kuhnemann, Lyon took three wickets and Todd Murphy took one wicket for Australia.