#INDvAUS 3rd Test: India strike back

Having a mountain to climb after allowing Australia to run away with 451 in their first innings, India needed a sound start to make a match of it. Though their openers have been individually scoring runs, they have not collectively come together. The last time India had a century opening partnership before the start of this Test was in Chennai against England when KL Rahul and Parthiv Patel shared 152 last December.

The conditions were perfect for batting, though the odd ball may have kept low for the pacers, or risen sharply. The Indian spinners – largely Ravindra Jadeja – got purchase while bowling from the southern end of the stadium while Umesh Yadav was the lone successful pacer from the opposite end.

The pitch didn't show any signs of breaking, allowing Australia captain Steve Smith finish the innings unbeaten on 178, his sixth score of 150-plus in Tests. It also let their No. 9 Steve O'Keefe to play shots against Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin, and also to pull Yadav bisecting square leg and fine leg for four during their 51-run partnership for the eighth wicket.

In this backdrop, it would have been akin to committing suicide if the Indian batsmen did not make hay while the sun shone. And they did, being 120/1 at stumps in reply to the visitors' 451 on the second day of the third Test here on Friday.

Rahul was coming into the Test as the best Indian batsman this series, having made half-centuries on bowler-friendly Pune and Bengaluru pitches. Vijay was coming into this Test after recovering from a shoulder injury.

Rahul was thus the more positive of the two, and it showed in the eight overs India faced before tea after bowling out Australia for 451 an hour and 12 minutes into the second session. Rahul picked recalled Australia pacer Patrick Cummins for three fours in two separate overs including a delightful placement through covers as he raced to 18 of the 20 runs India posted at tea.

Unlike Rahul, Vijay was in no hurry to score runs. He was happy to play second fiddle while sharing the highest partnership between Rahul and him in 15 innings and nine Tests of batting together.

When a rare century opening stand was nine runs away, Rahul was done in by an unexpected rising delivery from Cummins, gloving it to wicketkeeper Matthew Wade. It was another half-century that was not converted into three digits by Rahul.

Once Rahul fell, Vijay took charge, sweeping Nathan Lyon for three fours in the first over of his second spell.

If Rahul was India's batting hero of the day, the corresponding honours with the ball belonged to Jadeja, who picked up his eighth five-wicket haul in Tests. For the second successive Test, the left-arm spinner took a five-wicket haul in the first innings of a Test when the more accomplished Ravichandran Ashwin had unrewarding overs.

Even when Ashwin came to bowl from the end that Jadeja bowled and took wickets, he could do precious little.

This raises questions on the technical adjustments Ashwin has to make when the pitch is not offering much to the spinners.

Jadeja, a bowler with limited variety, let the batsmen into making mistakes. He provided the first breakthrough of the morning after Australia resumed at 299/4 and looked like batting out the entire first session with Glenn Maxwell and Smith inseparable.

Maxwell, 82 not out overnight, duly completed his maiden Test century by slashing Yadav over slips for four. But he couldn't make it big like his captain Smith as an intended drive off the back-foot took his outside edge on way to wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha with the ball turning just about enough.

Saha could have emerged a hero had he dived forward to take an inside edge off Ishant Sharma when Smith was on 126. That he took it off the half-volley was the only anxious moment that the Australia captain had in his eight-and-a-half-hour stay.

Jadeja took all the three wickets that Australia lost in the pre-lunch session in one lengthy spell of 18-5-40-3. This included two in three deliveries, removing Matthew Wade with a straighter one that took the left-hander's edge and Pat Cummins with a classical left-arm spinner's wicket to castle the forward-defensive batsman, the ball beating him in the air and turned after pitching.

DID YOU KNOW?

Australia have won just one out of the eight previous matches in which they have scored more than 400 runs in the first innings of a Test in India. They have lost four, drawn twice and tied once, while the victory came in Bangalore in 2004

When he reached his maiden Test century, Glenn Maxwell joined Shane Watson as the only two Australians to score an international hundred in all the three formats.

N ZONE

5
No. of visiting captains to score 150-plus in Tests in India including Steve Smith. West Indies' Clive Lloyd (three times) and Alvin Kallicharran (once), England's Alastair Cook (twice) and Pakistan's Inzamam-ul-Haq (once) are the others

361
No. of balls faced by Smith during his knock of 178*, the joint-most he has faced in a Test innings along with 199 in Kingston in 2015. The score is the third-highest by an Aussie batsman in India after Dean Jones (210) and Matthew Hayden (201)