The final of the World Test Championship is being played between India and Australia. By the end of the first day of the match being played at the Oval, Australia has scored 327 runs losing three wickets. At present, Travis Head is unbeaten on 146 runs in 156 balls and Steve Smith is unbeaten on 95 runs in 227 balls. Indian captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and decided to bowl first.
The decision seemed correct after the Kangaroos lost three wickets in the opening 25 overs. However, after this Head and Smith batted brilliantly and did not allow any wicket to fall in the next 61 overs. Also shared an unbeaten 251-run partnership. Team India has landed on the field without Ravichandran Ashwin in this Test and his absence was missed on the first day itself.
What happened in the match?
Batting first after losing the toss, Mohammad Siraj gave the first blow to the Australian team in the fourth over. He got Usman Khawaja caught by wicketkeeper KS Bharat. Khwaja could not even open an account. After the first wicket fell on the score of two, David Warner shared a 69-run partnership for the second wicket with Marnus Labuschagne.
Warner was caught by Shardul Thakur at the hands of wicketkeeper Bharat just before lunch. He got out after scoring 43 runs in 60 balls with the help of eight fours. By lunch, Australia had scored 73 runs losing two wickets.
Just after lunch, Mohammed Shami clean-bowled Marnus Labushen. He was dismissed for 26 runs in 62 balls with the help of three fours. Labushen's wicket fell in 24.1 overs. After this, Travis Head and Steve Smith batted tremendously and did not let any wicket fall throughout the day. By tea time, Australia's score was 170 runs for three wickets.
Travis head record
Head completed the sixth century of their Test career, while Smith scored his 38th half-century. Head has so far hit 22 fours and a six in his innings. At the same time, Smith has so far hit 14 fours in his innings. With his unbeaten century, Head made a special record in the Test final. He has become the first batsman to score a century in a Test final. Earlier, no batsman could score a century even in the 2021 Test final. Shami, Siraj, and Shardul got one wicket each from India.
Rohit gave a chance to four fast bowlers and one spinner
Captain Rohit Sharma had decided to bowl first after winning the toss due to the cloudy sky. KS Bharat got a chance in the playing-11 in place of Ishaan Kishan as a wicketkeeper, while decided to play with four fast bowlers Shami, Siraj, Shardul, and Umesh, and one spinner Ravindra Jadeja. In the initial first hour, Siraj and Shami troubled the batsmen a lot. After this, the sun started blooming from the second hour itself and the pitch kept getting easier for the batsmen.
Exciting moments of the match
Siraj took advantage of the overcast condition
David Warner and Usman Khawaja survived getting out several times on Shami's balls, but Siraj gave the team the first success.
Khawaja could not play Siraj's ball carefully and the ball took the edge of his bat and went into the gloves of wicketkeeper Bharat.
Australia got its first blow on the second run itself. After this, Warner and Labushen played some good shots to drive the team's run pace.
Meanwhile, a bouncer from Siraj hit Labushen's left thumb. After this, Warner targeted fast bowler Umesh Yadav.
Umesh, doing the 15th over of the innings, hit a four on the second ball and then hit a hat-trick of fours in the last three balls. Australia got 16 runs from this over.
A few overs later, India took a review of LBW against Labushen but lost the review. After this, Warner (43) could not play the desired shot on Thakur's ball.
The ball hit his bat and then Bharat dived to his right and took a brilliant catch.
India won the first session and allowed Australia to score 73 runs for two wickets in 23 overs till lunch.
Sunshine blossomed, Australian batsman, frozen
The Indian bowlers took advantage of the pacer-friendly conditions, but as soon as the sun started to shine from the second hour of the match, the Australian batsmen froze and kept playing shots at the Indian bowlers.
However, the start of the second session was good for India and Shami bowled Marnus Labushen (26). After this, Travis Head accelerated the run pace while playing aggressively.
He played the shots he wanted on every bowler. Meanwhile, he brought up his half-century in 60 balls with a four off Thakur. Australia had scored 170 runs for three wickets in 51 overs till tea.
(pc amarujala)
