India and Australia returned to action on Wednesday (March 01), locking horns in the third Test of the ongoing 4-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy at Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore. Notably, the third Test was originally supposed to take place in Dharamshala but was shifted to Indore as the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) couldn’t get the stadium ready in time.
Meanwhile, on the opening day of the third Test, the hosts opted to bat first, but the decision went horribly wrong as Australian spinners completely dominated the proceedings and bundled out India for a mere 109 in their first innings.
Matthew Kuhnemann was the pick of the bowler for the touring party, picking up a five-wicket haul for 16 runs in nine overs. Similarly, Nathan Lyon took three scalps while Todd Murphy bagged one wicket.
Former skipper Virat Kohli (22), opener Shubman Gill (21), wicketkeeper Srikar Bharat (17) and tailender Umesh Yadav (17) were the highest contributors with the bat. Umesh specifically entertained the crowd with his power-hitting, striking at 130.77 with the help of 1 four and two sixes.
Umesh first smacked Lyon for a huge six on the last ball of the 30th over with his trademark slog-sweep shot. The 35-year-old then took Murphy to the cleaners and hit him another sweep for a maximum. With that, Umesh also went past the tally of sixes of Yuvraj Singh and Ravi Shastri. Umesh now has 24 sixes to his name in red-ball cricket, while Yuvi and Shastri had 22 maximums.
Overall, former opener Virender Sehwag owns the record for most sixes for India in Test cricket. Sehwag has 90 sixes to his credit in 103 matches. Sehwag is followed by MS Dhoni (78), Sachin Tendulkar (69), Rohit Sharma (68), Kapil Dev (61) and Sourav Ganguly (57).
