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Australia vs India first Test wrap: Todd Murphy records 141-year first, Steve Smith drops late chance

Steve Smith delivered a crucial late blunder after Todd Murphy did something not seen from an Aussie spinner since the 19th century.

James McKern and Andrew McMurtry
10 min read
February 11, 2023 - 7:12AM
Todd Murphy's double strike on day two

Australia’s chances in the first Test against India are dwindling as the home side built a daunting first innings lead on day two in Nagpur.

India rode on the coat-tails of a masterful 120 from captain Rohit Sharma, as he was the only player in the top six for the home side to score more than 23.

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He helped India to a lead and was assisted by Ravidra Jadeja (66 not out) and Axar Patel (52 not out) to build an enormous first innings lead.

At stumps India are 7/321, a lead of 144.

While it was a long day in the field for the Aussies, it was a great day for Todd Murphy as he became the 35th Aussie to take a five-wicket haul on debut.

He snared the wickets of KL Rahul, Ravi Ashwin, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and KS Bharat in the perfect debut — if you don’t look at the entire state of the match.

Murphy has joined the likes of current Aussie stars Scott Boland, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon as well as legends such as Clarrie Grimett, Dennis Lillee, Rodney Hogg and Brett Lee on the list of Aussies with five wicket hauls on debut.

Murphy is just the fourth Aussie off-spinner alongside Peter Taylor, Jason Krejza and Nathan Lyon to achieve the feat.

Todd Murphy has had a whirlwind rise in Australian cricket. Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images
Todd Murphy has had a whirlwind rise in Australian cricket. Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

He also became the first Aussie spinner since Joey Palmer in 1882 to take a five-fa before his 23rd birthday.

And since Palmer was just five days short of his 23rd birthday (22 years, 11 months and 26 days) when he took 7/68 against England at the SCG, while Murphy is 22 years, two months and 26 days, he becomes the youngest Aussie spinner to take five wickets in a Test match.

Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon took the other two wickets.

But while there was some joy for the Aussies when it comes to Murphy, the scoreboard is in a dire state.

Australia is in a near hopeless situation short of a miracle as Kerry O’Keeffe told Fox Cricket the result is as good as decided, especially with three days still to go.

“If the lead gets to 100 or more, 95 times in the history of Australian cricket, they’ve trailed by 100 in the first innings and won three of those, and lost 58,” he said.

“The numbers don’t lie. If they lead by over 100 Australia are probably not even a puncher’s chance of winning.”

It’s still a long way short of the record first innings deficits Australia has had to overcome to win a match.

In 1992 in Colombo in Sri Lanka, Australia were 291 runs behind but claimed a 16-run win.

They have also overcome 236 against South Africa in Durban in 1950 and 206 in Sydney against Pakistan in 2010.

In Australian cricket history, Australia has won 12 matches after conceding a lead of more than 100 on the first innings, but just three times on the subcontinent — once in Bangladesh and twice in Sri Lanka.

But not yet in India.

The first ball on day three is scheduled for 3pm AEST.

Rohit Sharma has almost batted Australia out of this match. Photo by Indranil MUKHERJEE / AFP
Rohit Sharma has almost batted Australia out of this match. Photo by Indranil MUKHERJEE / AFP

10.25pm: Steve Smith drops Jadeja

On the penultimate ball of the day Steve Smith dropped a chance to dismiss Ravidra Jadeja on 66.

Smith dropped a sharp low chance in the slips after Nathan Lyon found Jadeja’s outside edge.

The Aussie star was clearly standing up too straight to ever be a chance at taking the low catch opportunity.

“What a nightmare this is for a slips fieldsman,” Aussie great Matthew Hayden.

“He should have made a better effort than that.”

8.25pm – Todd Murphy the 35th Aussie five-fa on debut

Todd Murphy has joined the likes of Scott Boland, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon on the list of Aussies with five wicket hauls on debut.

Another huge DRS referral justified the decision, overturning the not out decision and seeing the Aussies go nuts for the 22-year-old.

Murphy is just the fourth off-spinner alongside Pete Taylor, Jason Krejza and Nathan Lyon to achieve the feat.

He also became the first Aussie spinner since Joey Palmer in 1882 to take a five-fa before his 23rd birthday.

And since Palmer was just five days short of his 23rd birthday (22 years, 11 months and 26 days), while Murphy is 22 years, two months and 26 days, he becomes the youngest Aussie spinner to take five wickets in a Test match.

8.10pm – Pat Cummins finally ends Rohit Sharma

Pat Cummins may have won the battle but it looks like Rohit Sharma has won the war.

The Aussie skipper finally dismissed his Indian counterpart for a wonderful 120, as the new ball moved off the pitch, taking Sharma’s off-stump.

But the problem was that it cost so many runs and Australia is now 52 runs behind.

India also still have all-rounders KS Bharat and Axar Patel to come before getting into the true tailenders for India.

Australia will need to take these wickets and fast to have any hope of staying in the Test, which has moved at a rapid pace through the first two days.

7.45pm – Indian total getting huge at tea

The match is getting away from Australia as India hold a 49-run lead at tea on day two.

Australia had a promising start to the day as Todd Murphy made history with his four wicket haul as Australia had India 5/168, still short of the Aussie total.

But a brilliant century from Indian skipper Rohit Sharma has blown Australia away, reaching 118 at tea, while Ravi Jadeja is once again proving a thorn in the Aussie’s side, scoring 34 not out at the break.

The 58-run stand has taken India to the lead with five wickets for the Aussies still to take as the home side look to bat Australia out of the match.

6.25pm – Guess the pitch isn’t that bad …

Rohit Sharma has brought up his hundred, chipping Todd Murphy over cover to bring up the milestone.

However, he’s had to play a lone hand as the next best score so far has been 23 by Ravi Ashwin, who came in as a nightwatchman.

The Aussies had a couple of 30s and Marnus Labuschagne score 49 but it’s a remarkable innings from Sharma on a wicket which has seen spin take 13 of the 15 wickets in the match so far.

6.10pm – Aussie spinner wreak havoc as Lyon joins party

Nathan Lyon has joined Todd Murphy’s party, taking his first wicket of the series, bamboozling Test debutant Suryakumar Yadav for 8.

It was a beautiful ball from Lyon, going back through the gate to take India’s fifth wicket.

Rohit Sharma has played a lone hand and is closing in on a century but the rest of the batters appear to have struggled in the condition with the India still short of Australia’s first innings score.

5.40pm – Murphy delivering something special here

The first ball after lunch and Todd Murphy has done it again, this time getting rid of the dangerous Virat Kohli.

The ball slide down the leg side as Kohli stood up and looked to whip it away only to get the faintest of edges on the ball with Alex Carey taking a juggling catch.

It gives Murphy his fourth wicket of the innings, making him only the third man in Australian Test history to take the first four wickets on debut.

5pm – Lunch on day two

Two wickets for the Aussies, 74 runs for the Indians.

The signs were promising for Todd Murphy, but the rest of the Australian bowling attack failed to fire a shot.

Indian remain in a commanding position with only three wickets having fallen and Virat Kohli now joining Rohit Sharma at the crease.

4.30pm – Aussie freak’s 66-year Test first

Todd Murphy is carrying the Australian bowling attack on his back.

The debutant collected his second wicket of the innings after thumping a ball into the pads of Ravi Ashwin.

After originally being given not out, the Aussies thankfully sent it upstairs with DRS ultimately determining the ball was going to thunder into leg stump.

A handful of overs later Murphy was back in the thick of it after hitting the pads of Rohit Sharma. The ball looped up and was eventually caught by a diving Steve Smith with the Aussies again sending it upstairs.

On first view it looked as though the ball may have caught the inside edge only for ball tracking to confirm there was no edge before DRS showed it has hit him outside the line.

In his very next over in the attack however Murphy picked up his third wicket after luring Cheteshwar Pujara into a loose shot.

A ball wide outside leg stump saw Pujara attempt a slog sweep only for the ball to balloon up and fall into the hands of Scott Boland.

Murphy joins an illustrious list of Test debutants to take the opening three wickets, becoming the first Australian player to achieve the feat since 1957.

3.35pm – Aussie attack being bludgeoned

Rohit Sharma and Ravi Ashwin are keeping their foot on the gas early on during the second day of the opening Test.

Nathan Lyon and Todd Murphy have had a close chance each, but aside from that it’s been all one-way traffic.

Sharma sent Pat Cummins over the rope before Ashwin followed suit only a handful of deliveries later off the bowling of Nathan Lyon.

2.15pm – India respond to damning footage

Nothing to see here folks, just a player user pain relief cream on his finger. Not the ball.

Damning footage led to eyebrows being raised during the opening day’s play when Ravindra Jadeja appeared to be rubbing something on the ball before one of his overs.

The TV broadcast captured Jadeja appearing to either take something off the hand of one of his teammates, or from inside his hand, with his right hand.

He then rubbed his hands and finger near and around the ball though it was uncertain what exactly was happening.

Questions have been asked over what Ravindra Jadeja was doing in this moment.
Questions have been asked over what Ravindra Jadeja was doing in this moment.

But Indian officials have attempted to downplay the moment, saying he was simply “applying pain-relief cream to the index finger of his bowling hand”, according to ESPNcricinfo.

“While the incident triggered debates on social and mainstream media, it is learned that the Australia team had not brought the matter to the attention of the match referee,” the report said.

“According to the playing conditions, the match referee can independently probe such incidents without needing a complaint to be lodged. And under the Laws of Cricket, the bowler needs the umpire’s permission to apply any sort of substance on their hands to ensure the condition of the ball remains unaffected.”

12.30pm – Clarke ‘bewildered’ by Head omission

Former Test skipper Michael Clarke couldn’t believe his ears when news filtered out that Travis Head, the number four ranked batter in the world, had been left out of the Aussie team for the First Test.

The bombshell decision to leave out the man who was arguably Australia’s best batter of the summer sent shockwaves around the cricket community.

Steve Waugh was flabbergasted, Matthew Hayden was equally perplexed as cricket fans blew up at the decision.

Clarke weighed in and was just as dumbfounded by what the Australian selectors had done.

“The only thing I can’t get my head around is the selectors, Pat Cummins, Andrew McDonald … why they dropped Travis Head?” Clarke said on Big Sports Breakfast.

The selectors were in the gun. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
The selectors were in the gun. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

While the former skipper said he could understand putting Handscomb into the team at No. 5 ahead of Head at No. 6, it was the inclusion of Renshaw that baffled him.

Renshaw has been opening the batting for Queensland during the Sheffield Shield season, but Clarke says that compared to batting in the middle order in India was “like speaking French compared to speaking English”.

“I can’t understand it. I can’t comprehend it,” he said.

“The other thing, Travis Head bowls. He bowls right arm off spin. His bowling in India will be very, very handy. I’m so confused and bewildered by that decision.

“The other thing, if you’re not going to pick the No. 4 best batter in the world for the First Test match, what is he doing on the tour?

“With only four bowlers, Travis Head as an all-rounder is a no-brainer for me.”

Can’t believe it. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
Can’t believe it. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

Another former Australian Test skipper however wasn’t as shocked by the omission.

Ricky Ponting told the ICC Review podcast that while he could understand the dismay at the selection from some corners of Australian cricket, the writing had been on the wall for Head’s omission.

“The more I thought about it, the fact that they played Matt Renshaw in Sydney to me meant they probably had other plans in mind for him,” Ponting said.

“Obviously, the most immediate plan was for him to bat in the middle order for Australia in this Test series against India.

“And when you look at that, if they’re going to keep him in, they couldn’t really afford to keep Travis Head in either because then they would have five left-handers in their top seven.”

Ponting said keeping Head in the team at Peter Handscomb’s expense would have played into the hands of India’s star off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.

“The other side of it is that Travis’ record outside of Australia and on the subcontinent is nowhere near as good,” Ponting said.

“So when you put all those pieces together, I actually wasn’t that surprised … there’s been a bit of an uproar here in Australia about ‘how could the selectors do this’?

“I know (Renshaw) was out first ball today, I’ll forgive him of that – the other thing to keep in mind is they’ve been over here for what is just about a week now, so they’ve done a lot of training, the coaches and selectors would’ve kept an eye on training and watched who was coping with the spin better than others.”

– with Ed Bourke, NCA Newswire

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Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/sport/cricket/australia-vs-india-first-test-live-clarke-calls-out-travis-head-decision/news-story/6d38e06d5a9f168267b981f0f8a38e2f