Steve O'Keefe Spins takes Australia win by 333-runs which was a historic triumph over india.
Australia set the target of 441-runs, riding on skipper Steve Smith's batting
masterclass on a rank turner, and then skittled out the hapless hosts
for a paltry 107 in 33.5 overs to take a 1-0 lead in the four-match
series.
eft-arm spinner Steve O'Keefe today grabbed a sensational match-haul of
12 wickets as a sloppy India slumped to a humiliating 333-run defeat
inside three days in the first cricket Test against Australia here.
Australia set a daunting target of 441, riding on skipper Steve Smith's
batting masterclass on a rank turner, and then skittled out the hapless
hosts for a paltry 107 in 33.5 overs to take a 1-0 lead in the
four-match series.
The embarrassing defeat also ended India's unbeaten streak of 19 Tests
with the last defeat coming against England at Kolkata in late 2012.
The 32-year-old O'Keefe did the star turn once again with identical
figures of 6/35 in both innings as India failed to even cross 110 in
both innings.
It was a total disaster for the World No.1 Test team, who were simply
outclassed in all departments of the game and they further compounded
their miseries with atrocious shot selection, shoddy fielding and poor
referrals.
Skipper Virat Kohli had a rare bad Test match where he had scores 0 and
13 in both innings of the game. India collectively posted their lowest
aggregate for a home Test match and ended up suffering their second
biggest defeat at home in terms of runs.
Kohli was out in the second innings shouldering arms to an angled
delivery from O'Keefe which dashed India's minuscule hopes of a
miraculous comeback.
As many as six Indian batsmen failed to reach double figures with only
Cheteshwar Pujara showing some stomach for fight with a score of 31.
After Smith's superb 109 -- his 18th Test ton on a spiteful pitch --,
there was no comeback for India as both openers KL Rahul and Murali
Vijay made a mess of DRS when it was the umpire's call.
The Indian batsmen, similar to the first innings, had no clue on how to
tackle 32-year-old O'Keefe, who had his finest hour in international
cricket.
Neither could they properly negotiate wily Nathan Lyon (4/53) as both made life miserable for the Indian batsmen.
In fact, the Aussie spinners showed how to bowl on a turner something
that was lacking in Ravichandran Ashwin (match figures of 7/182),
Ravindra Jadeja (match haul of 5/139) and Jayant Yadav (2/101).
After the 7/11 debacle in the first innings, the second innings saw India lose 6 for 8.