Australia and India renewed their rivalry in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2018-19 after the festivities of Christmas, with the third Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The four-match series currently stands 1-1.
India elected to bat after Virat Kohli won the toss. As declared before Mayank Agarwal and Hanuma Vihari opened the innings for India and proceedings were slow till lunch. Vihari was the first casualty, falling for 8 runs off 66 balls; after adding 40 runs for the first wicket.
However, debutant Mayank Agarwal took his time to get going and scored 76 off 161 balls with 8 fours and 1 six. In meantime, Mayank added 83 runs with Pujara. Both wickets of Vihari and Mayank fell to Pat Cummins.
Mayank Agarwal became the second Indian to score a fifty on Test debut in Australia, after Dattu Phadkar, who scored 51 on debut in Sydney on the 1947/48 tour.
Pujara, on the other hand, carried on at his preferred speed, scoring 68* runs in 200 balls with 6 fours. Kohli joined him and added 92* runs for the 3rd wicket and ended the day on 47* in 107 balls with 6 fours.
India ended the first day on 215/2, preferring precaution over aggression keeping the need to take advantage of batting first.
For Australia, Pat Cummins picked 2/40, bowling 19 overs. While Hazlewood and Starc bowled 18 and 16 overs respectively; with Lyon bowling 21 fruitless overs.
India ended the day with the upper hand as they go into day two with 8 wickets in hand and a set duo of Pujara and Kohli ready to take on the Australian bowlers.
BRIEF SCORES:
IND 215/2 (M AGARWAL 76, C PUJARA 68*; P CUMMINS 2/40)
Day 1: India won the toss and elected to bat
