Australia vs India 2018/19, Second Test: Top 5 moments from Day 1
The second Test between India and Australia got underway at the newly built Optus Stadium in Perth on Friday. Before the match started, there was a lot of talk about the drop-in wicket as it seemed to be really green.
Looking at the greenness of the pitch, India played four quicks and went in without a specialist spinner only for the third time in their Test history. On the other hand, Australia showed faith in Nathan Lyon and named an unchanged XI.
Tim Paine won a tricky toss and choose to bat first. To everybody’s surprise, the ball wasn’t really doing much in the 1st session and it seemed like India’s ploy of going in with 4 quicks had backfired.
Australian openers made the Indian bowlers toil hard as they put on an opening partnership of 112. The Indian bowlers did fight back in the second session and picked up 3 quick wickets to leave Australia at 145-3.
The last session was shared as Australia ended the day on 277-6. At the moment, Australia is ahead in the game but India can definitely make a comeback tomorrow morning.
There were many moments which defined today’s play, so let’s have a look at top 5 of the lot:
1. Maiden Test Fifty for Marcus Harris
Marcus Harris had looked good in his debut Test at Adelaide last week. He had scored two identical scores of 26 but didn’t convert them into big ones. He clearly showed in the Adelaide Test that he belonged to this level. He went a step further today as he scored his maiden 50 in Test cricket.
He looked solid and composed throughout his innings and played some delightful shots off India’s quicks. The maiden international 50 is always what a batsman tends to remember and so Harris’s maiden 50 is one of the five moments of the first day at Perth.