A pumped-up Virat Kohli shushed the Adelaide crowd after Nitish Kumar Reddy earned India the crucial wicket of Marnus Labuschagne, minutes before the end of the first session on Saturday, December 7. Labuschagne had to go for a well-made 64 (126), the highest score of the innings at the time.
It happened on the third ball of the innings' 55th over, Reddy's second of the day. It was a loose ball, short and wide, but Labuschagne slashed at it well away from his body. It took a big top edge and flew to the right of Yashasvi Jaiswal at gully, who timed his leap brilliantly and caught it.
Watch the wicket and Kohli's celebration here:
Reddy, playing only his second Test, was seen as a major punt to bowl against Labuschagne and a rampant Travis Head on the other end. However, the wicket kept India in the game by breaking the 65-run partnership and reducing Australia to 168/4.
Australia take the lead at Tea
Australia ended the first session with a lead of 11 runs and the score reading 191/4. Apart from one moment of lost concentration, Marnus Labuschagne batted brilliantly and weathered the early good spells from Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj.
Bumrah consumed Nathan McSweeney and Steve Smith in his four-over burst. However, he didn't bowl anymore in the session, even as Harshit Rana and Siraj's second spell went for runs against Head, who became set and reached his quickfire 53 (67).
India again looked out of ideas against Head and would need to do much better in the second session. Ravichandran Ashwin, Harshit, and Siraj need to do more to avoid everything being pinged on Bumrah completely.
Australia have a long batting line-up backing Head and they'd target a lead of around 100-150 runs by the end of the second session.
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