Young pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar made early inroads to help India reduce Australia to a precarious 83 for four at lunch on the first day of the second cricket Test here today.
With suitable help from a strip that is offering variable bounce, the talented UP seamer rocked the Australian top-order with a triple-strike in his first spell removing openers David Warner and Ed Cowan along with the dangerous Shane Watson.
Skipper Michael Clarke was batting on 20 with glovesman Matthew Wade for company.
After a luckless first Test, where the Indian spinners got all the 20 Australian wickets, India's new ball bowlers, especially Bhuvneshwar, gave a much better account of themselves hitting the right areas.
While Bhuvneshwar got three for 36, off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin got the other wicket. Australian top-order played shots during the first session but the batsmen were often troubled by the deliveries that were keeping low.
Young Bhuvneshwar, operating from the Visaka End, bowled a couple of leg-cutters (off-cutter for left-handers) to get rid of Warner and Cowan in the third and fifth over of the innings respectively.
In case of Warner (6), the delivery landed on the seam and cut back enough to take the inside edge of his bat knocking the off-stump back. This was Bhuvneshwar's maiden Test scalp.
In his very next over, the 23-year-old UP lad removed Cowan with a similar delivery. The ball landed on the seam and moved a shade as Cowan was trapped plumb in-front.
To make matters worse, the ball kept really low and umpire Marais Erasmus adjudged the batsman leg before. From 15 for two, Phillip Hughes (19) and Watson (23) tried to make amends with a 42-run partnership.
