Australia v India: fifth men’s cricket Test, day one – live | Australia cricket team

64th over: India 143-7 (Sundar 9, Krishna 0) Washington Sundar punches back for India with a couple of boundaries clubbed off Webster. A meaty bunt down the ground is followed by a clattering cut for four. Did I mention any run is crucial? Mark Waugh on the tv commentary says this is about the spiciest SCG Test pitch he’s seen.

63rd over: India 134-7 (Sundar 0, Krishna 0) Prasidh Krishna joins Washington Sundar. Can India biff a few runs and get up past 160? Anything for Bumrah and co to work with on this lively track could well be crucial. Don’t adjust your set, folks. We could well be seeing the man with the bullwhip action before the close of day one.

WICKET! Jadeja lbw b Starc 26 (India 134-7)

62nd over: India 130-6 (Jadeja 22, Sundar 0) Jadeja lets a Webster delivery go and it very nearly creeps back and plinks off his off bail. Tight lines. A four! Webster is full and Jadeja drives through mid-on to pick up a lesser spotted boundary.

61st over: India 125-6 (Jadeja 17, Sundar 0) Starc starts with a maiden but does slide one down the leg side that Carey can’t gather and two byes are added.

Time for a drink and a sweep of the inbox after all the excitemement. Hello to the OBO Bratpack of Kim Thonger, Brian Withington and Rowan Sweeney, good to have you along at this early hour in the UK. Frost clings to my living room windows as the sun beats down in Sydney. Hardly seems fair.

60th over: India 123-6 (Jadeja 17, Sundar 0) Jadeja deflects Webster for a couple of runs with velvet soft hands but Webster also beats him outside off stump with one that nips late. Every over there is a play and a miss at the moment.

Mitch Starc is coming on to see if he can scud out the Indian lower order and tail. Boland takes his leave with a spell of 2-4 off five overs. Who was calling him a trundler a few overs ago? Was that me? Well I freely admit that I am very, very drunk… on a lack of sleep.

59th over: India 121-6 (Jadeja 15, Sundar 0) Boland very nearly has five wickets in the innings as he gets consecutive balls to jag past Sundar’s edge. This pitch is definitely spicy, if India can get up to the 200 mark then this match is far from done. You’d imagine Jasprit Bumrah will be able to extract plenty from this sprightly surface. Never judge a wicket until both sides have batten on it and all that. Another 80 runs looks a long way away at the moment though.

58th over: India 121-6 (Jadeja 15, Sundar 0) Webster after the carnage, he oversteps in the excitement and it is the only run off the over. Scott Boland has 50 Test wickets at 18.64 now, not bad figures for a bloke who can’t get in the side when everyone is fit.

Washington Sundar is nearly cleaned up too! So close to pandemonium in Sydney as Boland skims a beauty past Sundar’s edge, Alex Carey drops it behind the stumps too! There was no edge, Carey can breathe a sigh of relief and everyone can just calm down for a second. Boland takes his cap and strides off down to the boundary edge where he is given a standing ovation. He looks completely calm, barely a flicker of emotion on his Zinc streaked face.

57th over: India 120-6 (Jadeja 15, Sundar 0)

Here we go! Boland on his way with the hat-trick ball…

WICKET! Nitish Kumar Reddy c Smith b Boland 0 (India 120-6)

WICKET! Pant c Cummins b Boland 40 (India 120-5)

56th over: India 119-4 (Pant 40, Jadeja 14) Big Beau called back by Cummins. He’s around the wicket with two slips and a gully in place. Close! He beats Pant twice in the over with balls that angle in and then nip away at the last. Pant then pokes a drive to pick up a couple but India aren’t going anywhere fast.

55th over: India 117-4 (Pant 38, Jadeja 14) Jadeja clips nicely off his pads for a couple of lesser spotted runs off Boland. Not before the metronomical trundler has him beaten on the outside edge. What’s a kinder word for trundler? Bustler? Hustler? Shuffler? He’s at 135 kph which is fine so maybe I should just shut my stupid face.

54th over: India 115-4 (Pant 37, Jadeja 12) Lyon tinkers with his field, trying to get into Pant’s noodle. A shorter ball is flat batted to mid-on but straight to the fielder. You guessed it, a maiden.

53rd over: India 115-4 (Pant 37, Jadeja 12) Boland with three slips and a gull, chugs in with his dander well and truly elevated. No, you stop it. Slices one back into Pant’s thigh and it looks like it avoided the protection. Another delay whilst the physio and magic sponge is summoned. Boland carves another maiden into his tablet.

52nd over: India 114-4 (Pant 37, Jadeja 12) Lyon from t’other end post tea. Jadeja cuts for a single. Will we see more of the same from Pant in the final session of the day or will he change tack and revert to the usual pyrotechnic approach?

Promise I’m not trying to tempt fate…

“You’ve done so well Rishabh, now you know what to do…”

Buzzers! Webster collects the ball as Pant attempts a quick single, lines up a catapult and the ball flies out of his hand like a greased up bar of soap. Where did that even go? Ah, over there – for five overthrows. A rueful smile and a few chuckles through gritted teeth.

51st over: India 108-4 (Pant 32, Jadeja 11) Scott Boland has the ball at the top of his mark, the camera lingers on his zinc smeared features and he duly licks his lips as if on cue. ‘He Actually does do that” as my three year old daughter would say.

He’s been at his best today so far, well he might slather his own chops. 2-15 from half a dozen overs with a couple of catches going down off him too. He rags one past Jadeja’s defensive prod and starts the session off with a – you guessed it- maiden over. Bolandtastic.

“Remember that day in 2017 when Warner scored a century before lunch, at which point Australia were 0-126?” Emails a nostalgic Gavin Robertson as the players mill about the boundary edge before their post prandial return. “Hard to reconcile that with today’s play, India only just at a combined century by tea.”

It’s been slow going but intriguing nonetheless, right Gavin? Gav?

Tea: India 107-4

49th over: India 100-4 (Pant 26, Jadeja 10) Cummins reels off his fourth maiden and crrrrrunches a ball back into Pant’s box. Hit ‘amidships’ and the batter hits the deck. After a deep breath or nine he’s good to go and Cummins does not relent, beating him with a back of a length ball that tails in and seams away late. Tough going out there. One more over til tea.

48th over: India 100-4 (Pant 26, Jadeja 10) Jadeja pops out of his self dug bunker to thrash a straight drive off Lyon for four, his first boundary in 47 balls sees India notch up 100. Pant is about to get another working over from the Miserly Cummins, it’s been a gutsy if slightly out of sorts knock by Pant today. Some suggesting his 26 from 71 balls and counting is a reaction to getting a wrap on the knuckles from management. It could well be a bit of that coupled with a spicy deck and relentlessly demanding bowling too, mind.

47th over: India 95-4 (Pant 25, Jadeja 6) Cummins goes over and round, forward and abckward and over the Irish sea to a very scratchy looking Jadeja. Pat nearly pins him LBW with the final ball of the over but Umpire Michael Gough thinks it is going down the leg side and he is, of course, correct.

46th over: India 95-4 (Pant 25, Jadeja 6) Now then! Jadeja is DROPPED off Webster in the gully by Nathan Lyon. Tough chance but it carried, slapping Lyon on the wrists before hitting the turf. Would’ve been a decent first Test scalp for Beau.

Salt, meet Wound.

After the batter’s scamper a single off the drop Rishabh Pant comes alive and deposits Webster back over his head for a straight SIX! A ladder has to be fetched in order to retrieve the ball as things momentarily get a bit slapstick at the SCG. Webster shows his chops by immediately beating Pant with the next ball, the an away nipper that passes exceedingly close to the edge of the bat. From nowhere, an over of action!

45th over: India 88-4 (Pant 19, Jadeja 5) Jadeja works a single to leg and it is the only run off the over. India’s run rate flatter than a prone Michael Flatley in a block of flats in Flatbush after reading a 1* review of Riverdance. Flat.

43rd over: India 87-4 (Pant 19, Jadeja 4) Good grief, a FOUR! That flukey single in the last over has snapped Rishabh Pant awake and now he bludgeons a cut shot to the rope behind backward point. There’s a half shoutf rom Starc on the next delivery but the Australians decide it’s taken thigh pad so don’t review. Pant flicks square at a full one but Head stops it close-in. They get a consolation bye from the last.

Time for a cool change. Please welcome James Wallace to the OBO. Thanks for your company today. I’ll catch yers on the morrow!

42nd over: India 82-4 (Pant 15, Jadeja 4) Finally a run! But it was accidental. Webster put a length ball angling in at Pant who went to defend and got an inside edge to fine leg.

41st over: India 81-4 (Pant 14, Jadeja 4) Nine runs, nine overs. And no sign of relief in this over either as Starc zeroes in on Ravi Jadeja’s off stump. Now Starc singes Jadeja’s nose hairs with a bouncer that requires evasive action. Another maiden.

Balmain-born Hollywood bombshell Rose Byrne is at the SCG. Let’s hope she gets to read a poem to the Australians in the tea break.

40th over: India 81-4 (Pant 14, Jadeja 4) The new boy is back. Four overs for two runs so far for the big fella from Snug (pop 1440) south of Hobart. He adds another maiden to that impressive set of figures, floating most into the Channel Highway outside off.

There was a lovely moment this morning when Mitchell Marsh, the man Beau Webster displaced from this side, embraced the Webster family at the baggy green ceremony.

39th over: India 81-4 (Pant 14, Jadeja 4) Starc’s second spell has been a beauty. The fourth ball of this over nudges 147kph. Alex Carey, another former AFL wunderkind, has to fly high to mark that one. Another maiden for Starc, his third from 10 overs.

38th over: India 81-4 (Pant 14, Jadeja 1) Pants on fire? Boland on fire! He skins Jadeja twice in two balls with sideways movement. Sublime bowling. Jadeja escapes with a single to mid-on. Now he jags one back at Pant who is doubled over trying to keep it out. A repeat act on the next ball as Pant hops into a riser and buckles at the impact.

Peter Moller approves of big Beau Webster’s catching prowess: “The new guy is 3rd and 4th slip – and gully!” It’s quite the wingspan ain’t it? Apparently that 200cm frame was heading for the AFL until a game for the Tasmanian Under-17s marking future Sydney Swans ruckman Brody Grundy made Webster decide to chase the cricket dream instead.

37th over: India 78-4 (Pant 12, Jadeja 3) Pant hit in the helmet! Starc bashed that into the pitch at 145kph and Pant blinked, dropped his arms and let the ball cannon into the gap between his shoulder and helmet grille. Starc shows immediate concern for the batter in a fine act of sportsmanship. After a concussion test, pant is declared AOK. he takes two runs to prove it but then leaves one which whispers to the varnish on off stump. Close!

We mentioned earlier that Peter Handscomb, Todd Murphy and Matthew Kuhnemann have been called into the wider Australia squad with a view to touring Sri Lanka later this month. That squad will be named shortly after this series ends but the dark horse for a Test recall is Glenn Maxwell. Did you see The Big Show’s catch the other night?

36th over: India 76-4 (Pant 10, Jadeja 3) India’s run rate today is 2.16. Scott Boland, with 2-14 from his 10 overs so far, isn’t going to release the valve. he slides one past Jadeja’s outside edge to a wave of OOOHs from the crowd. No other bowler has found the movement of the 35-year-old Gulidjan man from Melbourne. His 48 Test wickets have come every 41 balls at an average of under 19. He delivers another menacing maiden.

35th over: India 76-4 (Pant 10, Jadeja 3) Ravindra Jadeja has been given a life by Steve Smith. Can he make nit count? The 36-year-old allrounder from Saurashtra stills sit No 1 as the world’s best ranked allrounder although Pat Cummins is thee big mover, now sitting fourth after his 49 and 41 with the bat in the fourth Test. Mitchell Starc is back – and HOW! He thumps his third delivery into Pant’s forearm who reels from the contact and calls for the medics. Ice packs, cold drinks, soothing words of comfort. Pant gets the Florence Nightingale treatment before facing up again. But Starc is snarling and straight. A fourth consecutive maiden.

34th over: India 76-4 (Pant 10, Jadeja 3) DROPPED! Smith spills a sitter. That was a thick edge from Jadeja from another sweet delivery by Boland and Smith at second slip seemed unsure whether to go fingers up or down. In the end, he got caught in two minds and jumped as the ball cannoned through his hands and into his chest.

Jadeja lives twice!

33rd over: India 76-4 (Pant 10, Jadeja 3) Cummins is still wicketless but each of the four dismissals has been aided by his nagging line at the other end. Now he draws Rishabh Pant into rushing a straight ball. Dangerous! Pant miscues the heave and the ball bottom edges towards the stumps before off-breaking back the other way. That’s the kind of brain explosion that cost Pant his wicket in Melbourne and sent India down the tubes.

32nd over: India 76-4 (Pant 8, Jadeja 3) Another great over from Boland and a second spectacular catch by Beau Webster. Kohli gave Pant a long glare after that dismissal. I think he had the pip about being sent back on a single the previous ball. Ego pricked, Kohi erred next ball and is now back in the sheds. Ravi Jadeja is the new batter and breezily tonks a three to get off the mark.

WICKET! Kohli c Webster b Boland 17 (72-4)

31st over: India 71-3 (Kohli 17, Pant 8) Cummins v Kohli. What a duel we have here. Kohli knows it too, tries to make a statement by driving at the first. No runs again. He stabs at the second too but it’s on him quicker this time and it lobs dangerously for a moment before falling short of mid-off. Cummins is into his 10th over. Once again he has this team on his back dragging them to glory. Kohli sense the challenge and on drives a full ball successfully this time. He gets three. Pant digs one out of his navel for a single and Sean Abbott the substitute fielder reels it in.

30th over: India 65-3 (Kohli 13, Pant 6) Almost bowled! Boland angled it at back at Pant’s midriff and he chopped down hard and watched aghast as the ball inside edged, fizzed backwards and bounced just over the bails. Close! Boland has India on the hop and the ball nipping and Pat Cummins brings Travis Head into short leg to up the ante further. Australia now has three slips and two gullies as they press for a fourth wicket.

29th over: India 64-3 (Kohli 12, Pant 6) Glanced for FOUR! Good shot by Pant. It breaks the drought for India. Until that shot, they had only hit three boundaries from 28 overs. Pat Cummins cops it sweet, puts the next few past Pant’s jugular at 138kph.

28th over: India 60-3 (Kohli 12, Pant 2) Boland is aiming for his fourth consecutive maiden. He has 1-5 so far after almost having 2-0 in his first over. Pant works a single from the third ball but Kohli can’t get going. His 12 has from 60 balls and he hasn’t scored from the last 27 balls. He shimmies one off the hip and sets off but Konstas swoops to cut off the run. Screws turning on India.

27th over: India 59-3 (Kohli 12, Pant 1) Rishabh Pant faces up. His reckless slog in the fourth Test was a gift to Travis Head after Mitchell Marsh took a fine tumbling catch in the outer. That sparked a clatter of wickets and cost India a shot at a draw. Can he make amends today? Pant is in his 43rd Test and has an average of 43 so he’s certainly capable. He takes a single to plot his redemption arc as Kohli tries to counter Cummins. A huge off drive to the last but it’s straight to mid-off.

26th over: India 58-3 (Kohli 12), Pant 0) How was your lunch? I’m still going on Christmas ham even though that once-pink haunch is looking a little green around the Shubmans. The only thing greener might be India’s No 3 himself whose last-ball dismissal before the break might have turned his food to ash before he swallowed it.

Scott Boland has the ball and Virat Kohli in his sights. Big Scotty is bang on line and Kohli digests all six without having a waft at any of them. A maiden.

There have been a swathe of emails during the first session. Thanks for all those and apologies for not getting to them sooner.

Sam from New Zealand says the third umpire made the right call disallowing the Kohli catch: “Mark Waugh is having a bit of a meltdown on the TV. They seem to think Smith having a finger under the ball makes it not out, but the rule clearly states that if the ball is moving while touching the ground (which the evidence showed) then it has to be not out. If Smith had a clean grasp on the ball he would have held it, not flicked it up.”

Gervase Greene throws in his tuppence worth: “Smith I’m sure believes he scooped the ball up cleanly, with no ground involved… but the fact is the slipper is rarely in the best position to know. The upward momentum of the ball will feel the same whether it bounced solely off his finger(s) or not. Doesn’t make him a liar or a cheat, but it does mean the video review rightly has to judge. A fair call, imo.”

Rowan Sweeney has a darker theory: “Did Australia steal Joel Wilson’s girlfriend or something? At this point it seems personal.”

Meanwhile, Geoff Wignall is questioning whether Rohit Sharma’s decision to rest himself from this fifth Test has added balance to the India XI – or sent it skew-whiff. “On recent form, Sharma ‘resting himself’ ought to strengthen the Indian batting; but Jadeja at 6 and Bumrah at 9? Hmm…”

Thanks Geoff. Given Bumrah scored a pair in the last Test, I think India should have dropped him 😉 Rohit’s “rest” might well be Jasprit’s salvation!

LUNCH: India are 56-3 (Kohli 12 not out)

WICKET! Gill c Smith b Lyon 20 (India 56-3)

25th over: India 56-2 (Gill 20, Kohli 11) Lyon to Kohli. Will we see some spark in these final moments?

24th over: India 56-2 (Gill 20, Kohli 11) Increasingly blue skies are piercing the morning’s heavy cloud cover at the SCG to see Beau Webster’s fourth over. India are inching along at just over two per over but if they make the safety of lunch two-down they’ll consider it a moral victory. Another maiden.

23rd over: India 56-2 (Gill 20, Kohli 11) Come in spinner. Nathan Lyon gets a whirl before lunch. He has a long-running duel with Virat Kohli and it resumes now. Kohli watches the first couple before skipping down a step with a wristy whip that runs square. Sam Konstas, who copped a shoulder charge from Kohli his boyhood hero at the MCG, is there to stop runs. The Lyon experiment starts with a maiden.

22nd over: India 56-2 (Gill 20, Kohli 11) Webster is in a nice groove here. Nerves are settling and he’s found a sweet spot outside off stump that has Shubman Gill thinking hard. A well bowled maiden for the debutant.

21st over: India 56-2 (Gill 20, Kohli 11) Edged but safe! Gill flashed at Starc’s first ball but he flashed hard enough to send it over slips and to the boundary for four. Starc’s speed isn’t getting beyond 140kph and there’s still no swing on offer. A single from the last last takes the partnership to 39. A bit of blue sky poking through at the SCG now.

20th over: India 51-2 (Gill 15, Kohli 11) Second over for Beau Webster whose silver earring is catching the light and the eye under the SCG lights. Gill taps a single from the second. Now The Slug has The King on strike but straight and full delivers four dots.

19th over: India 50-2 (Gill 14, Kohli 11) As Mitchell Starc returns to the attack, the Kohli-Gill partnership moves to 26 runs from 65 balls. That’s 64 balls more than it looked to have survived after Kohli edged the first ball he faced to Steve Smith. The decision to disallow that catch is still being debated at the ground and all over the world. But the fact remains: Kohli is still batting. India steal four byes when Starc sends a bouncer flying beyond Alex Carey’s reach. Gill then takes two off the bat with a punch down the ground.

18th over: India 43-2 (Gill 14, Kohli 9) Beau Webster has the ball for his first over in Test cricket. His first ball… is a no ball. His second is driven to mid-off but Cummins stops runs. The 200cm allrounder is sending them down at 125kph and from a height of roughly three metres. There’s a shout for lbw against Gill on ball five but umpire shakes his head. Down leg side. Six dots to close. A tidy welcome to Test cricket for the man they call “The Slug from Snug”.

17th over: India 42-2 (Gill 14, Kohli 9) Cummins is into his seventh over. Can’t be long until Beau Webster gets a bowl here. He has already taken a wonderful catch to help dismiss Yashasvi Jaiswal. Can his right arm medium-fast make an impact today?

We’re getting word that Todd Murphy, Matt Kuhnemann and Peter Handscomb have been called to Sydney to join the squad ahead of the tour of Sri Lanka