It's a perthfect start for India!

Jasprit Bumrah & Co dismiss Australia for 238 to secure a dominant 295-run win in opening Test at Optus Stadium; visitors go 1-0 up in 5-match series

It took India less than four and a half hours on Monday’s Day Four to complete the formalities, newcomer Harshit Rana delivering the final blow to cement a record 295-run win over Australia in the first of five Tests.

Head tale

The writing was on the wall when they slumped to 12-3 at stumps on the third evening after being set a monumental 534 for victory, Australia rolled over for 238, Travis Head providing the lone pocket of resistance with a counter-attacking 89. It was India’s biggest victory by runs on Australian soil, temporarily returning them to the top of the World Test Championship points standings.

Not even a miracle could have bailed Australia out of the predicament they were in when Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith kicked off proceedings, and their situation became even direr in the day’s second over when Mohammed Siraj packed off the former, caught on the pull. Australia’s designs coming into the day would have been to spend time in the middle, as much for some confidence as to tire India’s bowlers out, but the dismissal of the left-handed opener, one of the few batters in the team capable of batting time, didn’t help their cause one bit.

Also Read: "I automatically want to put myself in tough scenarios": Jasprit Bumrah

Smith, not exactly flush with runs in the recent past, endured a troubled stay even as Head played his strokes freely and without inhibition on a surface that had lost a fair bit of its sting. Alongside Marnus Labuschagne, Smith is the middle-order mainstay, but the former captain struggled for fluency during his hour-and-a-half vigil, Siraj putting him out of his misery by nicking him off to Rishabh Pant.

The left-handed Head and Mitch Marsh then put on 82 in Australia’s brightest batting phase of the entire Test once Jasprit Bumrah took himself and Siraj off the firing line and brought on Rana and Washington Sundar. India’s plans were clear — to keep the pressure on Australia without their two lead pacers running themselves into the ground — but as the sixth-wicket alliance assumed pesky proportions, the captain for the Test brought himself on and immediately struck paydirt when he forced Head to edge one through to Pant.

Rana, Reddy claim one each

Bumrah then sat back and allowed Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington and the profligate Rana to do their thing. Marsh helped himself to a few runs, including well-executed sixes off Rana and off-spinner Washington, but he was always fighting a losing battle and perished three short of his half-century, giving Nitish his first Test wicket with a drag-on to a loose delivery.

After Washington got rid of Mitchell Starc to a stunning catch at short-leg by Dhruv Jurel and Nathan Lyon in the same over split by the tea break, Rana uncorked a beauty to castle Alex Carey and consign Australia to their first defeat, after four consecutive victories, at the Optus. Bumrah was the Player of the Match in a game where India found multiple heroes as he handed the reins back to Rohit Sharma, who watched the end from the dressing room after a 40-minute session at the nets facing up to the pink ball.

Brief scores
India 150 & 487-6d beat Australia 104 & 238 (T Head 89, M Marsh 47, A Carey 36; J Bumrah 3-42, M Siraj 3-51, W Sundar 2-48) by 295 runs

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