Australia in a comfortable position at the end of the first day of the fourth test
Brisbane: Australia, batting first in the fourth Test against India, were 274 for five at stumps on the first day.
Australia was able to secure the day with a comfortable score because of Marnus Labuschagne, who scored a century. Skipper Tim Payne (38) and Cameron Green (28) remains unbeaten and will resume the game tomorrow.
While Natarajan took two wickets for India, Shardul Thakur, Mohammad Siraj and Washington Sunder took one wicket each.
Australia won the toss and elected to bat and lost both their openers for 17 runs.
In his first over, Mohamad Siraj took the wicket of David Warner and later Marcus Harris was bowled out for five by Shardul Thakur.
However, Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne, who came together in the ninth over, saved Australia from a major setback like the third Test. The duo put on 70 for the third wicket.
But Smith, who scored 36 off 87 balls, was dismissed by Washington Sunder, who made his debut for India today. With this, the Aussies were on the defensive again.
After Smith, Labuschagne teamed up with wicketkeeper-batsman Matthew Wade to raise a century partnership. Together, the two helped Australia to cross the 200 mark. Meanwhile Labuschagne scored his fifth test century.
But shortly after Labuschagne scored a century, Natarajan broke the partnership by dismissing Mathew Wade and gave India hope again.
This is Natarajan’s first international wicket in Test cricket. This brings Australia to 200/4.
Following Wade, Natarajan was able to dismiss the inform Labuschagne too and this brought India right back in the driving seat.
out of the four match series, both teams have one win each and a match was tied, this is why the fourth and final test will be crucial. Team winning this will be lifting the series.
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