Most of the second day of the Nagpur Test was highly competitive as Australia, led by Todd Murphy’s five wicket haul, tried to wrestle India’s advantage away from them. India’s captain, Rohit Sharma and the tail, stood in their way.

It was a much better effort by Australia but India were in firm control by stumps. It was 7-321 with the lead an imposing 144 runs - Ravi Jadeja unbeaten on 66 and Axar Patel 52 having added 81 runs for the eighth wicket.The day centred around the fine performances of two players, one from each side. Australia’s off-spinner Murphy continued his wonderful debut by taking five wickets while India’s captain, Rohit, led from the front with an impressive innings of 120.

Questions were raised on the first day over the selection of Matt Renshaw over Travis Head and these, unfortunately, were compounded when Renshaw failed to take to the field at the start of play as he had been suffering from knee pain prior to the warmup. He did, however, return for the final hour after scans found no noticeable problem.

The selection of Murphy ahead of Ashton Agar to back up Nathan Lyon as the second frontline spinner though, proved to be an astute choice. There had been some concern that, being another right arm off spinner, he wouldn’t offer enough variation to that of Lyon but it was Murphy that outshone his senior partner.

Despite having only played seven first class matches prior to the Nagpur Test, Murphy impressed, bowling the first over of the day before being replaced by Lyon at the South End and then striking immediately on his return to the attack.

His first delivery of the new spell to Ravi Ashwin, 23, was from round the wicket with the ball pitching on middle and striking the batter in front of leg stump. A review showed the ball striking middle.

It only took 12 more deliveries before Murphy struck again. Having scored 7, Cheteshwar Pujara attacked a ball that was drifting down the leg side but only managed to top edge a simple catch to Scott Boland at short fine leg.

It was clear that it was going to be a memorable day for the 22 year old when he removed Virat Kohli with a loosener down the leg side first ball after lunch. Kohli mistimed his glance and Alex Carey took an excellent one handed catch down the leg side, staying low to hold on to the ball at the second attempt.

Working in tandem with Murphy, it was Lyon that struck next when he bowled Suryakumar Yadav for 8 as he reached for a ball that turned in sharply.

This was Rohit’s third Test as captain and if the composed, assured nature of the innings is also shown in his method of leadership then India is going to be served well.

He paced his innings as the situation required. Leading from the front Rohit scored 56 in the opening partnership with KS Rahul, last night having shown his intent by smashing Pat Cummins for three boundaries in the opening over of the innings. Then, when partnered by the more aggressive batters at the other end, Ravi Ashwin, Suryakumar Yadav and Ravi Jadeja, he was able to reel in the shots and allow them to take on the bowling.

When he slightly mishit a lofted drive over cover against Murphy, India’s total was 176 but it was the shot that brought up Rohit’s ninth Test hundred, his eighth in India and first as captain.

In the end it was some quality bowling by Cummins with the new ball in the first over after tea that finally found a chink in Rohit’s armour. He should have been dismissed by the third delivery after the break when Steve Smith failed to hold on to a chance at second slip but it didn’t hurt the Australians as, next ball, Cummins bowled a beauty to send Rohit’s off stump cartwheeling.He’d scored 120 of India’s 228 runs to give his side every chance of a substantial first innings lead.

It’s not unusual for a spin bowler to open the bowling on the sub-continent or to take the second new ball and Lyon has done it before for Australia. However, Murphy’s performance had been so impressive that Cummins ignored his senior spinner and turned to Murphy, with 115 fewer Tests to his name, to share the new ball with him.They were both rewarded when Murphy struck with his seventh delivery, the hard ball trapping KS Bharat lbw for 8 after Murphy had to wait for a review to confirm that he would be holding on to his first Test match ball, having secured a five wicket haul.

At that point India had a good lead of 69 runs but if Australia could take the final three wickets for little cost then a strong second innings effort with the bat could keep them in the game.

However, Ravi Jadeja and Axar Patel are both competent batters and they could not be separated as they took on the tiring Australian attack, adding 81 more runs. Steve Smith put down a chance at first slip off Lyon from the penultimate ball of the day but by then the pair had already put India firmly in control. 

More to come.