By: Shubham Ghosh
India delivered a clinical performance both with the bat and ball on the third day of the first Test match against Australia to register a mammoth victory by an innings and 132 runs at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur. Resuming from their overnight score of 321 for 7, the hosts went on to extend their first innings total to 400, gaining a solid lead of 223 runs over the visitors.
Pat Cummins’s side was as clueless against the Indian spinners as Australia folded for a paltry 91 runs in their second innings.
Edged & taken! @ashwinravi99 strikes in his first over ? ?
Virat Kohli takes the catch ? ?
Australia lose Usman Khawaja.
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— BCCI (@BCCI) February 11, 2023
Ravichandran Ashwin (5 for 37) and Ravindra Jadeja (2 for 34) left the Australians bamboozled and some good fielding from the home team helped their cause. One such example came from former captain Virat Kohli who took a sharp catch in the slip to dismiss opener Usman Khawaja off the bowling of Ashwin who opened the bowling with pacer Mohammed Shami, triggering the Australian slide.
It was the penultimate delivery of the second over of the innings when Australia were placed at seven for no loss. The southpaw tried to drive the off-spinner’s pitched-up delivery but only found an inside edge and Kohli, who was waiting in the slip, made no mistake to grab the ball before touching the ground.
Khawaja had a forgettable outing in the match as he could manage only one and five runs in the two innings, respectively.