Agency :
Indian skipper Virat Kohli was the star of the show for a majority of the final day but was ultimately upstaged by Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon who spun his team to an emotional 48-run victory in the first Test at Adelaide on Saturday.
Kohli, captaining the Indian Test team for the first time, showed tremendous skill and counter-attacking punch to give India more than a chance to win the Test but his brilliant batting was in vain as his partners showed no inclination of going for the win.
As has been the case with many of the Indian teams, Kohli & Co fell short by 48 runs owing to some insipid batting and poor match awareness. Chasing 364 after Michael Clarke declared before the start of play on the final day, India were finally out for 315 in the 88th over.
Murali Vijay gave good company to Kohli as India were cruising at one stage with the score on 242 for 2. But just when it looked that India were on the right path, Nathan Lyon gave Australia the all important breakthrough by trapping Vijay right in front of his stumps as India succumbed in front of an average Aussie attack.
Rohit Sharma and Wridhimman Saha both got out cheaply which gave Australia a sniff into the Indian middle-order and once the Aussies were able to smell victory there was no looking back.
Kohli became only the second player in Test history to score a century in both innings on his debut as captain but the stupendous feat was completely overshadowed by the shockingly inept performance by his other batting colleagues, who seemed bent on committing harakiri.
Off-spinner Lyon was the pick of the Australian bowler as he exploited the rough on the track to good effect to finish with figures for 7/152 for an overall haul of 12 wickets in the match.
Lyon was adjudged Man of the Match for his superlative effort.
The result will come as a huge disappointment for the Indians, who virtually lost the match in the very last session when eight wickets fell in quick succession.
Kohli was left to rue yet another of India’s infamous batting collapses after putting the team in a rather comfortable position right up till the tea session with a career-best knock. He was dismissed by Lyon.
For Kohli, it was his eighth career hundred even though he was left a disappointed man on his debut as captain. He got good support from Murali Vijay who was unlucky, missing out on what could have been his fifth Test hundred by just one run.
The umpiring was below average as Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane had to bear the brunt of it as India came down to ashes from heights of Everest to lose the Test match and trail the series 1-0.
