Michael Clarke celebrates his 23rd Test century
Leading from the front skipper Michael Clarke notched up an unbeaten century to put Australia in comfort zone after early stagger on the opening day of the first Test against India in Chennai.
Michael Clarke, registering his 23rd Test century, hit an unbeaten 103 and shared a 147-run sixth wicket stand with Moises Henriques (68) as Australia recovered from 5-153 to reach 316-7 at stumps.
The otherwise lop-sided evening session of Australia was spoiled by the hosts in the slog overs as the tourists lost Heniques and Mitchell Starc in five balls.
Off-spinner Ravichandran Aswhin, the lone destroyer of Australian top-order, snared Henriques, who hit five boundaries in his 132-ball knock, lbw before leg-spinner Ravindra Jadeja nettled the stumps of Mitchell Starc.
Michael Clarke brought up his 23rd Test century off the penultimate delivery of the day lofting Jadeja towards long-off to remain. His so far vigil has witnessed 11 boundaries and a six.
Ashwin, recording his seventh five-for in Tests, finished with the figures of 6-88 while Jadeja, the only other wicket-taker ended up with 1-56.
On the track where Ashwin produced a sharp turn to and kept the wickets tumbling with his bamboozling variations, his veteran counterpart Harbhajan Singh, who is playing his 100th Test, failed to make impact and conceded 71 runs in the 19 overs.
In the morning session Ed Cowan (29).and David Warner (59) justified Michael Clarke’s decision to bat first and delivered the tourists a 64-run opening stand before Ashwin scalped former to give the hosts first breakthrough.
The hosts had not yet recovered from the first blow when the Tamil Nado spinner struck again to disturb the stumps of Phillip Hughes (6), leaving the hosts 126-2 at lunch.
Ashwin’s struck drastically into the post-lunch session and trapped both Watson and Warner in successive overs straight away after lunch before dismissing Matthew Wade in the similar fashion (12) to leave the hosts 5-153.
