Virat Kohli is Fit to Play, Reveals Umesh Yadav

Murali Vijay played the way he likes best – calm, controlled, well within himself, not looking to hit; the standout feature of his unbeaten knock being his nearly compulsive use of the sweep against Nathan Lyon bowling around the wicket into the rough outside leg stump.

Rahul had been the aggressor in a 91-run opening stand although he and Murali Vijay, back in the team for his 50th Test after missing out in Bangalore because of a shoulder injury, did not take many risks.

There were two sixes and an errant reverse-sweep that nearly ended his innings but, for the most part, it was the sort of sensible batting that Australia had craved at No.6 for so long. He hit nine fours and faced 102 balls.

India opener KL Rahul copped the brunt of it, gloving a rearing bouncer that defied the docile pitch.

Pujara and Vijay then added 29 for the second wicket, and never looked in any particular bother.

Making a Test comeback to the Australia after a gap of more than two years, an emotional Glenn Maxwell on Friday said that he didn’t want to waste the opportunity of playing a Test for Australia, and was driven by the fact that he didn’t want the Ranchi Test to be his last.

361 Balls faced by Smith – the most he has faced in a Test innings. “I don’t think Virat should bat at No.4”.

Indian bowler Umesh Yadav bowled a fast 137km/h ball which Maxwell went to block, and it caused his bat to break into two.

“I went through about 300 to 400 different scenarios that could’ve happened the today”. With more matches, I began realising what to do and what not. I think it has been a great series so far and again hopefully cricket can be the victor in this Test match. There is a lot of cricket to be played still.

“If people choose to write or speak about me, it’s their choice”.

Maxwell also achieved a rare milestone by becoming the second Australian batsman to score centuries across all three formats.

Both Smith and his counterpart Kohli have said their teams have moved on since, and pledged to play within the rules of the game in the first test match at the Jharkhand State Cricket Association Stadium. Jadeja returned with a haul of five wickets for 124 runs. Umesh felt it had been hard for bowlers to control the flow of runs given the ease of batting on the pitch and the quickness of the outfield. It is still quite good for batting. It is very easy to score here and the singles are coming readily so you can rotate strike. “The groundsmen were pretty keen to get the covers back pretty quickly, so it doesn’t see much sun”, Smith said. They took four and half sessions to score 451, on an average 100 per session.