Fifty three overs in the second innings and Ravichandran Ashwin picked up his third wicket when Josh Hazlewood nicked one to KL Rahul at second slip. It was the 10th wicket of the Australian innings and meant India had won their first-ever series opener on Australian soil.
Australia were bowled out on 291 in the second innings, with two balls remaining in an extended penultimate session on day five.
Set 323 runs to win, Australia's lower-order provided gritty resistance to edge toward the target, but the hosts were bowled out after 119.5 overs in the second innings. India shared the wickets around with Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrit and Mohammed Shami claiming three each.
Speaking at the post-match presentation, the Indian skipper said even though Australia got close to the target, the visiting team were confident they could get past the finish line.
Having advocated the five-bowler attack for the better part of his captaincy’s tenure, Virat Kohli elected to go with seven batsmen in Australia and the gamble paid off with Bumrah, Ashwin, Bhuvi and Shami picking up 20 wickets in the match.
Test speciallist Cheteshwar Pujara was named Man of the Match for the 194 runs he made in Adelaide. His 71 in the second innings helped India score 307 but his fightback on day 1 was instrumental in the result going in the visitors’ favour.
Virat Kohli was out on 3 and India were 3/19, Rahane fell for 13 and India were 4/41, Rohit Sharma managed 37 and the score was down to 5/86, but with Pujara holding for at the other end, India managed to post 250 in their first innings that set the momentum for the win.
The skipper however did choose to single out lower batting order as an area of concern, saying the loss of quick wickets was ‘not acceptable’.
The 31-run victory in Adelaide is the first time an Indian team has won a test series opener on Australian soil and the teams now move to Perth for the second test starting 14 December.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)