India maintain dominant position over Australia

Border-Gavaskar Trophy, first Test, day two, Perth

India 150 (Hazlewood 4-29) & 172-0 (Jaiswal 90*, Rahul 62*)

Australia 104 (Bumrah 5-30)

India lead by 218 runs

Scorecard

India's openers ensured they maintained their dominant position against Australia with an unbroken century stand on day two of the first Test in Perth.

Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul guided the tourists to 172-0 at close, a lead of 218.

Jaiswal, who is playing in Australia for the first time, has 90 and Rahul, who is opening because regular captain Rohit Sharma is in India after the birth of his second child, is on 62.

Both were patient and willing to defend, before punishing any width or errors in length, on a pitch that carried nowhere near as much threat as the opening day when 17 wickets fell.

Australia were bowled out for 104 in the opening session, a first-innings deficit of 46.

They resumed on 67-7 and Jasprit Bumrah completed his five-wicket haul by removing Alex Carey with his first ball of the day.

Nathan Lyon soon followed but Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood saw off 110 balls for 25.

Only four previous Tests have been played at the Optus Stadium in Perth and all have been won by Australia, who have batted first on each occasion.

Australia will need a strong third day if they are to extend that record.

Jaiswal & Rahul hammer home India's advantage

Day one saw India reduced to 59-5 by the new ball and Australia were 59-7, and that spell was always going to be crucial against a fragile India line-up.

Jaiswal and Rahul's brilliant partnership was superbly judged and timed, and has put some of those questions on the back-burner for now.

They soaked up pressure against the new ball and during an excellent Hazlewood spell after tea, but they also scored more freely when the bowling allowed.

Rahul was dogged, only scoring four boundaries, while we saw some of Jaiswal's flair, particularly after he brought up his 123-ball half-century - his slowest so far in Test cricket.

He flicked a superb six over square leg off Starc, before hammering off-spinner Nathan Lyon for a 100m six down the ground.

The 22-year-old also showed his character by sledging Starc about his pace when India were 72-0.

Starc had exchanged jokey words with India seamer Nitish Rana, saying: "I bowl faster than you, I have a long memory," after fending off a bouncer when batting.

Jaiswal said "it's coming too slow" to left-arm seamer Starc, who managed a smirk in response.

Former Australia batter Mike Hussey, speaking on TNT Sports, was effusive in his praise for Jaiswal as he said: "I wanted to see him in Australia, on bouncy pitches, to see how he'd handle it, but this innings shows he can handle any conditions around the world."

Australia's attack blunted - but did they try enough things?

It is rare that Australia's attack is blunted, certainly at home.

Their seamers are among the very best in the game, while Lyon is arguably the best spinner in the world.

They drew the outside edge of Rahul on four occasions, but each time the ball fell well short of the slip cordon.

The one genuine chance was presented by Jaiswal, who edged Starc to Usman Khawaja at first slip.

Initially there was confusion around whether the chance carried, but replays showed Khawaja misjudged it, allowing the ball to go under his fingertips.

There was half a run-out chance off the next ball, when Rahul set off sharply at the non-striker's end, but Steve Smith's throw was not accurate enough for Lyon to execute.

Australia toiled and managed to keep the run-rate down at 3.01, but they could have perhaps been more proactive with the short ball.

History feels like it will be against Australia, but they can take solace from West Indies making 333 in the fourth innings in a losing cause on this ground in 2022.

They need early wickets on day three to be chasing a total in that region.

The pitchmap shows Australia's seamers rarely went to the bouncer

'India are well ahead of the game' - what they said

Australia opener Nathan McSweeney, talking to ABC: "It definitely hasn't gone to plan in the past couple of days. We've got some serious work to do to get back into this Test. It looks like it is getting easier to bat so hopefully we get early wickets tomorrow and get batting.

"It is definitely a new-ball wicket. All the damage was done before we could get through to the 35-40-over mark with the bat, so the the trick will be nullifying the new ball and having batters in for the 40-80-over mark."

Former Australia head coach Darren Lehmann on ABC: "It was a tough day, but hats off to the two Indian batters. They were excellent today and weathered the storm and they got to the stage where they could take the game on.

"India are well ahead of the game. The wicket has settled down a little bit but that is more because the Australia bowlers were tired from the first innings and having to bat two hours today."