Australia finished day 1 of the third Test against India on 166 for 2 after rains played spoilsport for more than two hours in the morning session. A total of 55 overs were bowled within the day’s play as the teams gave it all on the first day of the third Test. This happened after Australia won the toss and opted to bat first. Steve Smith (31*) and Marnus Labuschagne (67*) were unbeaten at stumps. More about the day 1 report in detail below.
Australia won the toss and opted to bat first on the opening day of the third Test at the SCG. They brought in David Warner and Will Pucovski to sort out their batting woes at the top of the order. Unfortunately, Warner, who was playing with an injury was dismissed for just five by Mohammed Siraj. The left-hander tried to play a wide delivery and knicked one-off to slips giving India their first breakthrough.
Labuschagne, Pucovski lead charge for Australia
Marnus Labuschagne then joined hands with Pucovski as the duo added a 100-run stand. Australia had an early lunch due to the rain-interruption with the team score on 21. During their partnership, Pucovski scored past fifty in his maiden Test. He was ultimately dismissed by Navdeep Saini, who too was making his Test debut. Saini dismissed Pucovski (62) LBW as the ball slanted in and the batsman missed the ball due to the pace of the delivery and took his first Test wicket.
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With the team score on 106 for 2, Steve Smith joined Labuschagne and took the team score to 166 without any further loss of wickets. Smith, who is batting on 31 is batting on his highest score in the series at the moment. meanwhile, Labuschagne after getting all those starts finally converted this into a fifty-plus score. Both would look to get to three-figure scores when the match resumes on day 2.
Meanwhile, Siraj and Saini were the two wicket-takers for India on a rain-marred day of play. Ravichandran Ashwin toiled hard for 17 overs but ended wicketless. Like Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah too bowled 14 overs but had a wicketless spell. Ravindra Jadeja bowled three overs at the fag end of the day.
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Brief scores
Australia: 166 for 2 (Will Pucovski 62, Marnus Labuschagne 67*; Mohammed Siraj 1-47) vs India.
