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18th over: Australia 68-1 (Khawaja 35, Labuschagne 8) What will Marnus make of Mohammed Shami? Not much, it seems! He seizes the initiative straight away and swoops on a wider ball to on-drive for four to get off the mark. Then the Luck of Labuschagne kicks on and he edges the fifth Shami delivery for another four. Scoreboard is rattling along at almost four an over now… that’s if you can see the scoreboard through this Delhi haze.
17th over: Australia 60-1 (Khawaja 35, Labuschagne 0) After a wicket-maiden and 220th Test wicket for Mohammed Shami, it’s Marnus Labuschagne swaggering out. Even the world’s No 1 batter will be tested on this dervish of a Delhi wicket. Luckily, he’s got Khawaja looking calm and measured at the other end, a fact he reinforces when he takes two runs from Ashwin’s second ball and reverse sweeps four two balls later. The fifth ball is another boundary but this time they’re lucky runs. Ashwin spun it past the advancing batter and straight past the gloves of Bharat. Ten from the over!
WICKET! Warner c. Bharat b. Shami 15 (Australia 50-1)Shami has got him this time! Warner didn’t look convincing coming forward and so he went back late, got trapped on the crease and his hard veteran’s hands sent a big edge to the ‘keeper. Warner hangs his head walking off. Despite being out of form, he’d hung tough for 44 balls and got himself to 15. But all that hard work has been undone by a bit of away-swing for Shami and a sharp catch by Bharat.
16th over: Australia 50-0 (Warner 15, Khawaja 29) Shami’s wonky radar has seen Sharma set a more defensive field this time. India can’t afford 13 runs off an over. This time he goes around the wicket to Warner…
15th over: Australia 50-0 (Warner 15, Khawaja 29) Ashwin beats the edge! Khawaja is holding his line, backing his eye and playing for spin. It worked that time but how long can he hold Ashwin out on a deck that is starting to fizz? At least his feet are moving to the pitch of the ball, unlike many of Australia’s batters in Nagpur. Ashwin rolls down another maiden.
14th over: Australia 50-0 (Warner 15, Khawaja 29) Fascinating first hour. Australia will be encouraged at getting to the first break with both wickets intact and a few runs on the board. India will take heart from the pitch doing plenty for both pacemen and spinners. Looks like we’ll get a similarly interesting second hour. Shami’s first ball of his fourth over draws an inside edge and rueful grimace from Khawaja as it narrowly misses the woodwork and runs away for a boundary. The Islamabad-born, Sydney-raised Queenslander takes a single from the next to give Warner some strike. He cashes in, jumping onto one leg to dig a hort ball out of hi rib cage and run it to the fine leg rope. Shami is upset and it shows. He bounces Warner next ball but he simply props his bat parallel and cuts it for another four. Thirteen runs from that Shami over and the 50 is up!
13th over: Australia 37-0 (Warner 7, Khawaja 24) Almost a catch! Warner is still nervy and he lunges to Ashwin’ first ball and for a moment it takes a dangerous arc into the air. Falls safely but an inside edge to the next that narrowly misses off stump doesn’t convince anyone that Warner is seeing them. He wants to be Dave Warner The Punisher of old but at 36 years old, and in nowhere near the form of his roaring years, he might be better off curbing his ego and playing smart and safe to get his eye in. Maybe a bit of neck oil will sooth the savage beast? Drinks.
12th over: Australia 37-0 (Warner 7, Khawaja 24) Will we see more bouncers from Siraj here? He’s rattled the Australian batters already by banging it in short. Warner scampers a single from the push to long on. Faced with a scrambled seam on the next, Khawaja defends and gets an educated edge that runs away for another four. Sharma brings his gully in closer to almost a fourth slip. Plenty happening at the moment. Siraj’s variation – outswingers, chin music, channel balls – has beaten the batters edges and frayed their nerves. He’s also delivered some bruises and Khawaja ducks into another one on the last, wearing it on the right shoulder but smiling through the pain.
11th over: Australia 32-0 (Warner 6, Khawaja 20) Big appeal from Ashwin! Khawaja lunged to one knee and it went straight past bat, front pad and thudded into the back leg. Not out! Khawaja edges the next and it’s dropped. The next narrowly misses the edge again. On the last, in either desperation or bravado, Khawaja steps down, meets it on the up and calmly puts it over the fence. Six!
10th over: Australia 26-0 (Warner 6, Khawaja 14) Siraj bowled three bouncers in the last over, more than we saw in the entire Nagpur Test. And he got spicy results from all of them, striking both Khawaja and Warner on the arm, and sowing seeds of doubt. But Siraj tries too hard on his second ball and Warner swats him into the deep, and on this fast outfield it runs away to the boundary very quickly. We’ve seen a bit of swing, a snifter of spin and some skid from this pitch so far. Big play ‘n’ miss from Warner to the fifth. Nothing shot and that’s why Siraj threw back his head. He’s been trying to tempt Warner to chase one and that time he did only to swish without any contact. Another bouncer on the last! Warner tries to hook but he flinched, blinked and missed. The ball ballooned for a moment but fell safe in front of all three slips. Warner has been struck again here, this time to it looks like a top-edge into the helmet. We’ll be delayed for a moment for concussion protocols.
9th over: Australia 22-0 (Warner 2, Khawaja 14) Lovely over from Ashwin to Khawaja – a maiden.
8th over: Australia 22-0 (Warner 2, Khawaja 14) Bouncer from Siraj! And it whacks Khawaja right on the point of the elbow. He took his eye off that but he scampers a single and smiles when he gets there. That would’ve stung but he’s survived. Fourth ball is another bouncer! This time Warner tries a hook shot but it comes off the bottom edge and ricochets into his forearm near the elbow. Warner immediately raises his arm and this time it’s Australia’s physio coming onto the ground. For all his strut and bravado, Warner is really wincing here, wiping away what appears to be sweat rather than tears. Finally, the strapping is on and the over is concluded with no further score.
Warner receives medical attention. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters7th over: Australia 21-0 (Warner 2, Khawaja 13) First bowling change for India and it’s Ravi Ashwin, the first Test destroyer with 3-42 and 5-37, coming on to replace Mohammed Shami. Warner sees off his first five balls and, after 20 scoreless balls, finally late cuts for two runs to get off the mark. Phew!
6th over: Australia 19-0 (Warner 0, Khawaja 13) As Siraj bowls out a maiden, we’re seeing rousing footage of the pregame presentation to Cheteshwar Pujara, India’s 100 Test tyro. The 35-year-old has over 7000 runs at 44 and 19 centuries and has long been a thorn in Australia’s side.
5th over: Australia 19-0 (Warner 0, Khawaja 13) Shami hasn’t got his radar right so far. He’s spraying them wide of off and down leg but Khawaja isn’t tempted to flay at the former and can’t get a nudge on the latter. He’s climbing through the famous Delhi smog to get to the popping crease although I believe this is a “clear” day by normal standards, certainly not enough to delay play and have players don masks as the Sri Lankan players did in 2017! Khawaja clips a single from the last to retain the strike and keep Warner sweating on his first run.
4th over: Australia 18-0 (Warner 0, Khawaja 12) Siraj fires his first ball in full and Warner is forward, straight driving it down the ground. Smart fielding from Siraj to stop what seemed a certain boundary off his bowling. Or was it? Seems he’s split the webbing of his bowling hand. The Team India physio is running out for running repairs but after a short break Siraj resumes. After taking 38 balls to get past two runs in Nagpur, Warner hasn’t scored from his first 14 balls here. He’ll be sweating on a run to get off the mark. It shows as he plays and misses on the last. That’s a maiden by Siraj but he had to bleed a little for it.
3rd over: Australia 18-0 (Warner 0, Khawaja 12) Shocker from Shami! The ball slipped out the side of his hand there and he has the ignominy of waiting for the umpires to call it as a no-ball or a wide. It’s a wide and he follows it with one that gets past Srikar Bharat the ‘keeper to notch a fifth bye in just the third over. Khawaja cashes in on Shami’s troubles by rolling his wrists on the fifth and sending it to the fine leg rope. There’s a catcher there but he had no chance. Interesting stat from the first Test: despite all the talk of spin and the deployment of silly points and leg slips, none of the close-in men took a catch as 22 of the 30 wickets were unassisted. Final ball is another four to Khawaja. He has 12 from 11 already. Nice start for Australia. At this point in Nagpur both openers were back in the pavilion!
2nd over: Australia 8-0 (Warner 0, Khawaja 4) Huge appeal from Mohammad Siraj’s first ball to Khawaja! That was an inswinger and it moved a couple of inches in the air to skew off Khawaja’s inside edge. Great signs for India’s pace attack and danger signs for Australia’s batters already. However, when Siraj strays to leg ion his fifth, Khawaja takes that swing and uses it against India, clipping neatly off his pads and sending it flying to the boundary. Trademark calm and class from the 36-year-old in his 57th Test.
1st over: Australia 4-0 (Warner 0, Khawaja 0) Warner and Khawaja will open for Australia so that stymies the rumour Travis Head might replace him at the top of the order. It’s Mohammad Shami to open the attack from around the wicket and he sprays his first ball way down leg. Warner chases it but it’s too wide for him and too wide for the wicketkeeper too. Four byes! Second ball is bang on through and Warner moves tentatively to it but it shaves the outside edge. Four dots and then a huge shout for LBW. On-field decision is OUT but Warner will review… NOT OUT is the call. Seemed the ball grazed the inside edge before it cannoned into Warner’s back leg. Close call!
Shami celebrates… too early. Photograph: Pankaj Nangia/Getty ImagesThe last Test on Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium was in 2017, a high-scoring affair where Sri Lanka hung on for over 100 overs in the second dig to draw. Australia last played here in 2013. Shane Watson captained the side (controversially recalled after the Homeworkgate saga in the previous Test), fastbowler Peter Siddle smacked fifties in both innings and Glenn Maxwell opened the batting in the second dig! Three things should be very familiar though: both Ravi Ashwin and Ravi Jadeja each bagged five wickets and India won by six wickets. The glimmer of hope for Australia? Nathan Lyon got 7-94 and 2-71 in that Test.
So Matt Renshaw and Scott Boland have been dropped, replaced by Travis Head and Matthew Kuhnemann. No Cameron Green or Mitchell Starc named in the lineup. Pat Cummins will be the sole seamer in the Australia XI.
For India, just one change to the Nagpur XI with Shreyas Iyer replacing Suryakumar Yadav in the middle-order. Cheteshwar Pujara plays his 100th Test.
Team newsAustralia XI: Khawaja, Warner, Labuschagne, Smith, Head, Handscomb, Carey (wk), Cummins (c), Lyon, Murphy, Kuhnemann.
India XI: Sharma (c), Rahul, Pujara, Kohli, Iyer, Bharat (wk), Jadeja, Ashwin, Patel, Siraj, Shami.
Coin tossAustralia skipper Pat Cummins wins the toss and opts to bat first.
India captain Rohit Sharma and his opposite number Pat Cummins. Photograph: Pankaj Nangia/Getty ImagesExciting news: looks like we will have another spinning debutant for Australia: 26-year-old Brisbane left-armer Matthew Kuhnemann has been selected for his first Test and will form a spin trio alongside Nathan Lyon and Todd Murphy. Travis Head has also been named to return.
It’s a big call on Kuhnemann who wasn’t part of the original touring squad and was only flown in when Mitch Swepson went home for the birth of his first child. And it’s a harsh call on Ashton Agar who played the fifth Test v South Africa in Sydney but has now been overlooked twice for uncapped players.
Kuhnemann has played ODIs for Australia for six wicket 31.8 and 13 first-class matches for 35 wickets at 34.8. Not exactly ‘storming-down-the-door’ stats but the selectors need something special so they’ve rolled the dice.
Kuhnemann gets his baggy green before the start of play. Photograph: Robert Cianflone/Getty ImagesPreambleHello cricket fans, and welcome to Delhi for day one of the second Test between India and Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. I’m Angus Fontaine and I’ll be calling the action for you over what should be a fascinating day’s play.
Since Rohit Sharma’s home side crushed Pat Cummins’ men inside three days to win the first Test at Nagpur by an innings and 132 runs there’s been plenty of anger, confusion and theorising inside the Australian camp. There seems little doubt the visitors were out-bowled, out-batted and out-manoeuvred by India. Did they pick the wrong XI? Adopt the wrong tactics? Not prepare for subcontinental conditions sufficiently? Or did they simply have a shocker?
All of the above according to the critics. Allan Border reckons Australia were too “nice”, citing Steve Smith’s thumbs-up praise for India’s spinners while batting. And former India captain and coach, Ravi Shastri decried the “timid, almost un-Australian” fashion in which the men in baggy greens surrendered in Nagpur. At least everyone agreed that axing star batter Travis Head for Matt Renshaw (0 and 2) was a catastrophe and promoting Todd Murphy (7-124) was a masterstroke.
The lead up to this Delhi Test has been riven by debate: will David Warner (1 and 10 in Nagpur) be sacked? Will Mitchell Starc and Cameron Green be fit to return? Does Queenslander left-arm spinner Matthew Kuhnemann debut? And if so, do you drop legend Nathan Lyon (who took 7-94 at this venue last time) or first Test hero Murphy? Or do you pick three spinners and drop a paceman?
We’re about to find out. One thing we know for sure is if Australia lose this Test the Border-Gavaskar Trophy cannot be wrestled back from India for two years. It’s sunny and hot in Delhi and the pitch will be low and slow. The stage is set.