Australia’s off-spinner Todd Murphy bowled brilliantly in his first Test match and gave India’s legendary batsmen a run for their money. He achieved ‘Panch Pataka’ on his debut against India.
As part of the four-Test series, the first match between India and Australia is being played at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur. Australian off-spinner Todd Murphy made his debut in international cricket. He bowled brilliantly in the first innings of the first Test in his career and took 5 wickets. Murphy got his chance in Tests after playing just 7 first class matches. He took 29 wickets in 13 innings in his first-class career at an average of 25.20 and an economy rate of 2.62.
Todd Murphy created history on his Test debut.
Murphy created history by taking ‘five wickets’ in the first Test. He became the fourth Australian off-spinner to take 5 wickets on debut. He joined the elite club of Peter Taylor, Jason Krezza and Nathan Lyon. Taylor (6/78) achieved this feat against England in Sydney in 1986/87. Kreja (8/215) did so against India at the Nagpur Stadium in 2008/09. Meanwhile, Lyon (5/34) achieved this feat against Sri Lanka at Galle in 2011.
Indian giants as scapegoats..
The first casualty of Murphy’s Test career was opener, vice-captain KL Rahul, who was bowled after scoring 20 off 71 balls. Then the spinner caught Ravichandran Ashwin in his net. Ashwin back lbw. He added 23 runs off 62 balls. Chateshwar (7) was the third wicket for Murphy and Virat Kohli (12) was the fourth wicket. He also became the first spinner to take top-4 wickets on his debut Test. Pavilion added Srikar Bharat (8) as the fifth wicket.
This young Australian player took 5 wickets in his debut match against India and created a new record. He became the fourth off-spinner to do such a feat on behalf of Australia. Now let’s know about these four players..
Peter Taylor
The first name on this list is Peter Taylor. He took 6 for 78 in his debut against England at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 1986/87.
Jason Kreja
Australia’s second off-spinner in this list is Jason Kreja. The player made his debut against India in Nagpur during 2008/09. Kreja took 8 wickets for 215 runs in his first match.
Nathan Lyon
The third Australian off-spinner in this list is Lethan Lyon. Nathan Lyon made his debut against Sri Lanka at Galle in 2011. He scored only 34 runs in his first match and sent five Sri Lankan batsmen to the pavilion.
Todd Murphy
Nathan was followed by Australian off-spinner Todd Murphy, who is playing Nathan Lyon in the ongoing Nagpur Test. Murphy made his debut against India in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 at Nagpur Test. He took 5 wickets in his first match and joined this list. Murphy scored 66 runs.
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