(Cricket news) Australia completely dismantled India on day one of the World Test Championship final. Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bat first as there was grass covering on the pitch and the weather was overcast. Both captains said that the pitch won’t change change much. The ball was niping around quite a bit from the start as Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami bowled really well. Siraj nicked off Usman Khawaja for a duck to give India a great start. David Warner was very watchful early but then later started playing his shots. Marnus Labuschagne also got off to a good start.
Warner and Labuschagne put together 69 runs to steady the Australian innings. Just before Shardul Thakur the man with the golden arm gave India a much needed breakthrough as he got rid of Warner. After Lunch Mohammed Shami in his very first ball cleaned up Labuschagne to swing things back in India’s favor. However from then it on it was the Steve Smith and Travis Head show. The latter started to take the bowlers on with some brilliant strokes while Smith was more watchful. Head ended up scoring 146 off just 156 balls while Smith is on 95 off 227. Australia are well in control of the match and they will be looking to pile on even more pressure.
Session two and three proved to be great batting conditions with the pitch easing up a bit and the sun coming out. India missed a trick by not bowling short balls to Travis Head early on and by the time they did the southpaw was well set. Towards the end of the day the body language of Indian players was very negative as Australia were looking very comfortable.
Umesh Yadav had a very tough day as he was struggling to be consistent with his line and length. India need to pick up early wickets on day 2 to crawl their way back into the game. Rohit Sharma and his men will be hoping to see a cloud cover in the morning because the 2nd ball is only 5 overs old.
