Opener Usman Khawaja’s unbeaten century and his three half-century partnerships helped Australia to score 255 for four in the first innings on Thursday, the first day of the fourth and final Test cricket match against India.
Coming out to open the innings, Khawaja scored an unbeaten 104 with 15 fours in his 251-ball innings and kept one end intact. He shared an unbroken 61 for the first wicket with Travis Head (32), 79 for the third wicket with captain Steve Smith (38) and 85 for the fifth wicket with Cameron Green (49 not out, 64 balls, eight fours). Partnership.
Australia did not lose a single wicket in the second session, the first session in the entire series in which no wickets fell. The Indian bowlers found it difficult to dismiss the Australian batsmen on a slow and flat pitch. The visiting team’s batsmen did not have much trouble playing the trio of Ravichandran Ashwin (1/57), Ravindra Jadeja (1/49) and Akshar Patel (14 without a wicket). The most successful bowler for the hosts was Mohammed Shami, who took two wickets for 65 runs.
Australia scored at a run rate of 2.83 during the day’s play. The team was able to score runs at a run rate of 2.40 in the first two seasons, which shows that the pitch is not easy to score runs on. The visiting team’s batsmen, however, scored easily on both occasions against the new ball. Ashwin and Shami picked up a wicket each in the morning session as Australia reached 75 for two at lunch. Khawaja and Head got the visitors off to a good start by adding 61 runs for the first wicket.
Ashwin and Shami, however, tried to get India back by dismissing Head and Marnus Labuschagne (03) in quick succession. Head looked in good touch in the first hour but then returned to the pavilion after playing bad shots. Without getting close to Ashwin’s ball, he played the shot in the air and gave a simple catch to Jadeja at mid-on. Earlier, Head was given a lifeline on a personal score of seven when wicketkeeper KS Bharat dropped a simple catch off Umesh Yadav.
Umesh, however, bowled a very loose delivery, which Head took advantage of to hit six of his seven fours. In an attempt to play with extra caution, Labushen played Shami’s low ball on the wickets. Bharat would like to forget the first session where he was troubled by uneven bounce at both ends of the wicket. He found it difficult to catch the low ball at one end and dropped a simple catch in addition to conceding eight runs by the bye.
Khawaja specifically targeted balls outside the leg side. He completed his third half-century of the series in 146 balls with a four off Shami. He is the only batsman to score three innings of more than 50 runs in the series. He, along with Smith, did not allow the Indian bowlers to achieve a single breakthrough in the second season.
Smith, like Labuschagne, batted more cautiously and paid the price for it. At the beginning of the third season, like Labushen, he played Jadeja’s ball on the wickets. Jadeja’s inside ball hit the pad and then the wickets after taking the edge of his bat. Smith hit three fours in his 135-ball innings.
Shami then bowled Peter Handscomb (17) to score Australia 170 for four. Khawaja and Green then took the innings forward. Green hit Shami and Ashwin for fours. Khawaja also hit fours on Shami and Jadeja. When India took the new ball in the 82nd over, Green welcomed Umesh with two fours.
Like the first new ball, the Australian batsmen found it easier to play shots against the second new ball. Green hit Shami for two fours in the 85th over. Khawaja completed his century in 246 balls with a four off Shami in the final over of the day. He became only the second batsman after Indian skipper Rohit Sharma to score a century in the ongoing series.
