Adelaide: India virtually snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, slumping to an agonising 48-run loss in the pulsating first cricket Test against Australia despite captain Virat Kohli’s gallant second successive hundred in the match here on Saturday.
Chasing a competitive target of 364, India were cruising along comfortably at 242/2 before the hosts staged a dramatic comeback to grab eight wickets for 73 runs and take a 1-0 lead in the four-match series.
The Indians folded for 315 in 87.1 overs with Kohli (141) and Murali Vijay (99) being the only ones to notch up noteworthy knocks even as seven batsmen departed without touching the double digit mark.
Kohli’s knock of 141 runs came off 175 balls and was laced with 16 fours and a six adding to his first-innings’ knock of 115 runs.
Lyon picked up the best figures for a spinner against India in Australia with a match-haul of 12-286 to go with his 5-134 in his first innings.
This was after Australia had declared at their overnight score of 290/5. They had scored 517/7d in their first innings to which India had replied with 444 runs in their first attempt.
Lyon was ably supported by Mitchell Johnson (2-45) and Ryan Harris (1-49). Peter Siddle (0-21), Shane Watson (0-6), Mitchell Marsh (0-11) and Steve Smith (0-18) were the other bowlers used.
Kohli became the second Indian batsman after Vijay Hazare to score two hundreds (116 and 148 in 1947-48) in a Test at Adelaide.
Among Indian batsmen, he became the fourth after Hazare, Sunil Gavaskar (thrice) and Rahul Dravid (twice) to achieve this feat. Another record was broken as Lyon became the first Australian spinner to take 10 wickets in a Test against India at home. That record was previously held by Ian Johnson (8-94 at Melbourne) in 1947-48.
The last session began with Kohli and Vijay raising visions of an Indian win. They carried on from where they left off before the break, attacking the spinner and playing cautiously against the pacers. In the 69th over of the innings, Kohli reached his eighth Test hundred off 135 balls, sparking his customary wild celebrations.
In doing so, he matched Greg Chappell’s feat of scoring twin hundreds in a Test in his first match as captain. The Australian had achieved it against the West Indies in 1975-76 at Brisbane.
There were more celebrations anticipated in the next over as Vijay was a solitary run away from an immaculate and richly deserved hundred, but it was not to be. He went for a back-foot flick but missed the ball completely to be out LBW. He scored 99 runs off 234 balls, hitting 10 fours and two sixes.
That opened the floodgates as India lost their last eight wickets for 73 runs, collapsing from 242/3 to 315 all out. Ajinkya Rahane (0) was given out wrongly, caught at short leg but replays showed there was no bat involved.
Rohit Sharma (6) looked clumsy and uncomfortable in the middle under intense pressure and after playing a few sweep shots against Lyon, was caught brilliantly at backward short leg by David Warner as the ball looped off his glove. Wriddhiman Saha (13) hit a couple of lusty blows but went too far against Lyon, as one turned in sharply from the rough to bowl him through the gate. Thereafter it was down to Kohli to soldier along alone and try to get India to the finish line. But even as Australia delayed the new ball, he went after Lyon for a big hit and was caught in the deep, not believing for some time that he was dismissed. (PTI)