Spinners stun India as they get bowled out for 109 

The third test match between Australia and India is underway and it is safe to say that the visitors have looked in complete control. After winning the toss, skipper Rohit elected to bat first. 

In a frantic first hour that saw them lose as much as 7 wickets to spinners, the early breakthrough could have easily come through their returning pacer Mitchel Starc. The visitors opted to go against going for a review twice in the very first over of the match with Rohit Sharma being adjudged out on replays each time. Australia first decided not to go for a caught behind the appeal, and then for an LBW appeal when Starc brought one back into Rohit. On-field umpire Nitin Menon was wrong on both occasions and India’s new opening pair of Rohit and Shubhman got off to a brisk start against the seamers. 

The game however flipped upside down with the introduction of spinners in the sixth over. Matthew Kuhnemann deceived Rohit Sharma with his flight and trajectory as the Indian skipper failed to pick up the 26-year-old and got stumped. Kuhnemann then dismissed Gill in his following over. He enjoyed great support from Nathan Lyon from the other end who went through Chesteshwar Pujara’s defence to claim his first wicket of the match.

With wickets tumbling, India decided to experiment a little and sent Jadeja ahead of Iyer. The ploy however did not pay dividends as the flamboyant all-rounder was dismissed cheaply. Jadeja managed to overturn an LBW decision against Lyon but departed off the very next ball, handing the short extra cover an easy catch. Shreyas Iyer was the next man to depart, as he dragged one onto the stumps. At 45/5, India’s innings had seen a decline rather rapidly. 

The pair of Virat Kohli and KS Bharat stemmed the rot for a brief period by going after the spinners. Bharat used the slog sweep to good effect while Kohli resorted to backfoot punches to work the ball around. The duo stitched a 26-run stand before the Aussies hit back again. 

Todd Murphy trapped Kohli in front of the pads for 22, Bharat too followed suit falling LBW in a similar fashion to Lyon which ultimately triggered a batting collapse 

Brief Scores: India 109/10 (Virat Kohli 22; Matthew Kuhnemann 5-16, Nathan Lyon 3-23)