Watch cricket video highlights of India tour of Australia 2024/25. 5th Test between Australia and India. Venue of the match will be Sydney.
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India was engulfed in off-field turmoil prior to the Sydney Test. After Jasprit Bumrah took over as captain and Rohit Sharma dropped himself in a move that was almost unprecedented in Indian cricket, their on-field batting performance on the first day in Sydney was equally tumultuous. Following Bumrah’s decision to bat, India faltered against Australia’s unrelenting bowling and was finally out for 185, shortly before the end of play. Australia reached stumps on 9 for 1 when Bumrah gave the ultimate twist by dismissing Usman Khawaja off the final ball of the day.
Australia’s top scorer, Scott Boland, returned incredible numbers of 20-8-31-4. India’s batsmen were unable to cope with his metronomic precision and mastery of length, both with the new and old balls. On a lush, green Sydney field with inconsistent bounce, he produced quick seam action and rarely bowled a poor delivery. In the opening over, Pat Cummins made a mistake with the new ball, going too full in an attempt to get swing. But in his opening over, Boland found the ideal length and never strayed from it.
Yashasvi Jaiswal nickered off to rookie Beau Webster at third slip for ten runs after he hit his fourth ball with a decent length and got it to seam away. After chipping a leg-stump half-volley from Starc straight to Sam Konstas at square leg in the fifth over, KL Rahul was already out for four. After replacing Rohit in India’s XI, Shubman Gill got off to a strong start, but his innings ended at 20 as he advanced to Nathan Lyon and then offered a catch to slip off what ended up being the final ball before lunch.
During this tour, Gill has not yet achieved 31 but has topped 20 three times in four innings. Virat Kohli barely escaped the opening ball, even though he might have been out. Steven Smith dove low to his right after Boland had Kohli flutter an outside edge to second slip. Smith seemed to have caught the ball near the ground before miraculously scooping it up to gully, where Marnus Labuschagne finished the catch. The TV umpire, Joel Wilson, decided that the ball had reached the ground after a lot of swaying and rolling, and Smith then threw it to Labuschagne.
After that, Webster held onto this opportunity with his bucket hands at third slip as Kohli left the following ball and 16 more balls until Boland pulled him into nicking another one. In this Border-Gavaskar series, Kohli has been removed seven times, and each time, he has edged behind to the keeper or the cordon. Boland also defeated Kohli for the fourth time in six Test innings. Despite his best efforts to prevent it—including switching from an open stance to a more side-on one—Kohli was bowled for 17 from 69 balls.
Before Boland dealt India another punch, this time with a twin blow, Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja temporarily salvaged the innings with a 48-run stand for the fifth wicket in 25 overs. Nitish Kumar Reddy, India’s MCG Test hero, was caught at second slip for a duck after he had Pant splice a pull to mid-on. Despite not being able to complete a hat-trick, Boland was still dangerous since he could nip the old ball off the seam from both over and around the stumps. Pant had made a strange knocking sound.
He sat back and depended more on his defensive style after being caught on the boundary in both innings at the MCG, with his unsuccessful first-innings scoop drawing especially harsh criticism. However, he walked out to Webster and threw him over the sightscreen for six in a rare display of violence. In 46 overs, it was just India’s sixth boundary. Australia’s assault was so skilled and deep that India’s batsmen had no space to maneuver.
With numbers of 13-4-29-0, Webster, the all-rounder who had transitioned from offspin to medium speed during COVID-19, had a clean shift. What was even more impressive was his slip catching. After that, Starc and Cummins dealt with the bottom tier in India. Despite having back problems, Starc used the uneven bounce to his advantage, cranking it up at 147 kph and discomfiting India’s hitters. He knocked Pant on his helmet after initially pinning him on the arm, leaving him bruised. Throughout his laborious stay, Pant suffered several injuries to his physique.
Starc trapped Ravindra Jadeja leg before wicket, ending his vigil (26 off 95 balls). After that, Cummins defeated India by 185. Clubbing his way to 22 off 17 balls, Bumrah showed off his batsmanship. When he hit the last ball of the day, he enjoyed the ball even more. Spinning around and yelling at Konstas, the non-striker, who had been engaged in a furious argument with him just prior to Khawaja’s ejection, he celebrated it with great vigor. To defuse the tension, the on-field umpire had to step in. On the second day at the SCG, Bumrah and Konstas promise more fun.
