Indore, March 1, A fine half-century (60) from Usman Khawaja, after Matthew Kuhnemann took his maiden Test five-wicket haul, put Australia in ascendancy with vital 47-run lead on day one of third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India at the Holkar Stadium, here on Wednesday.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Kuhnemann ran through India's batting order, taking 5\/16 in his nine overs on a pitch which had sharp turn and variable bounce. Nathan Lyon picked up three wickets while Todd Murphy took out Virat Kohli as India were bundled out for just 109. <\/p>\r\n\r\n
Thereafter, Khawaja, with his soft hands and a calm head, stitched a vital 96-run stand with Marnus Labuschagne to take Australia 156\/4 in 54 overs at stumps, though the duo fell for 60 and 31 respectively. For India, Ravindra Jadeja took all four Australian wickets and was the only bowler to trouble the visitors'. <\/p>\r\n\r\n
The final session began with Khawaja flicking and reverse-sweeping off Ravindra Jadeja. The duo continued to rotate strike and eventually, Khawaja got his 21st fifty in Test cricket as Australia got their highest partnership of the series.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Labuschagne got stuck against Jadeja from 31st over onwards, as he was beaten by the left-arm spinner at least five times. Jadeja eventually got a slider to fox Labuschagne, who was on backfoot and the ball kept low to crash into the stumps.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
After Australia took the lead, Khawaja got the going tough against Jadeja when the left-arm spinner bowled from over the wicket angle. He tried to counter it by sweep, but that caused his downfall as he swept straight to deep mid-wicket off Jadeja.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Steve Smith feasted on some boundaries off Axar and Jadeja, but the Australian captain played down the wrong line and a thin edge was caught behind by KS Bharat behind, becoming the fourth wicket of the left-arm spinner. Cameron Green and Peter Handscomb saw out 5.1 overs till stumps closed a day which went in Australia's favour.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Brief scores: Australia 156\/4 in 54 overs (Usman Khawaja 60, Marnus Labuschagne 21; Ravindra Jadeja 4\/63) lead India 109 all out in 33.3 overs (Virat Kohli 22, Shubman Gill 21; Matthew Kuhnemann 5\/16, Nathan Lyon 3\/35) by 47 runs<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Steve Smith feasted on some boundaries off Axar and Jadeja, but the Australian captain played down the wrong line and a thin edge was caught behind by KS Bharat behind, becoming the fourth wicket of the left-arm spinner. Cameron Green and Peter Handscomb saw out 5.1 overs till stumps closed a day which went in Australia's favour.<\/p>\r\n\r\n