India vs Australia: Debutant spinner Todd Murphy produced a sensational performance in the first innings of the opening Test match at Nagpur. Murphy became the 4th Australian bowler to pick a fifer on debut.
Nagpur,UPDATED: Feb 10, 2023 17:51 IST
Todd Murphy calls Virat Kohli’s wicket his favourite one in Nagpur Test. (AP Photo)
By India Today Web Desk: Debutant Australian spinner Todd Murphy became the youngest Australian to take a 5-wicket haul on the Day 2 of the opening Test match between India and Australia. Murphy, the 22-year-old off-spinner, ran through the Indian top order and contained the damage caused by Rohit Sharma in the first innings of the game.
Speaking after the hard day’s toil at Nagpur, Murphy said that Virat Kohli’s wicket was a dream come true moment for him. Kohli nicked the spinner back to Alex Carey while batting at 12 in the 53rd over of the Indian innings. Murphy acknowledged that the ball was not a very good one, but said that the wicket will remain with him forever.
“The one that got Virat out. It wasn’t my best ball of the day,” Murphy told the host broadcaster about his favourite wicket.
“It was a dream come true moment for me to get Virat Kohli’s wicket. I watched him for so long. He is a hero for so many guys, it’ll be with me forever,” Murphy said.
“Coming into the game, I was sort of hoping to get one wicket at least. To finish the day with five on debut is a special day. It’s been a pretty surreal week, it’s all happened quite fast,” the youngster said about his fifer.
India vs Australia, 1st Test: Day 2 Match Report
Australia toiled hard on Day 2, but were pegged back due to poor catching and three big innings from Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel. Murphy said that he tried to be positive with his body language and tried to be consistent in his lines and lengths.
“I try to make sure that my body language is quite good and I believe in myself. The message I got from a lot of guys was don’t change anything that I’ve been doing in state cricket. I looked at Jadeja, Ashwin and Axar, they were so consistent with what they were doing. They didn’t go searching for too much. That was something I was looking at – putting enough balls in that area to ask questions for long enough,” Murphy concluded.
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