Day 3 of the first Test started with Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel resuming the play for India, but the former lost his wicket on 70 and fell short of a well-deserved ton. Axar (84) further, with the support of Mohammed Shami (37), added some crucial runs for the hosts and helped them build a healthy lead over Australia before the conclusion of their innings.
In reply, trailing by 223 runs, Australia entered the third innings of the match with their premier openers, David Warner and Usman Khawaja. However, Khawaja lost his wicket quite early and fell victim to Ravichandran Ashwin’s magnificent delivery.
On the fifth ball of the 2nd over, Ashwin bowled a magical turning delivery to Khawaja, the ball after contacting the surface of the pitch, it changed its direction, moving away from the left-hander but found the edge of his bat and went straight into the hands of Virat Kohli at the slip position. At slip, Kohli made no mistake and collected the red leather comfortably in a sitting posture.
After Khawaja’s wicket, Ashwin was thrilled as he celebrated the scalp with other teammates.
Here’s the video:
Edged & taken! @ashwinravi99 strikes in his first over ? ?
Virat Kohli takes the catch ? ?
Australia lose Usman Khawaja.
Follow the matchhttps://t.co/SwTGoyHfZx#TeamIndia | #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/gAUfWqe4YR
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 11, 2023
Post the dismissal of Khawaja, Ashwin further added four more wickets to his tally and took a fifer to dismantle the Australian line-up. The India off-spinner other wickets included Warner, Matt Renshaw, Peter Handscomb and Alex Carey. On the other hand, Jadeja also picked up two wickets in the third innings of the first Test.
In the meantime, Australia seems to be in great trouble as they are seven wickets down and could lose the contest with an innings.
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