India handle heat in Gabba cauldron

Warming to conditions more familiar to Goa beachgoers than a Gabba Test match crowd, opener Murali Vijay led a perfectly-placed Indian counterpunch that sapped Steve Smith’s Australians of more than their spirit on day one of the second Commonwealth Bank Test.

Having been cruelly denied the single that would have carried him to a deserved century last week in Adelaide, Vijay defied Brisbane’s steamy heat and predictions that the tourists’ batting would fold on a fast, bouncy pitch to post a clinical 144.

And even though the opener seemed oblivious to his achievement until his batting partner, Ajinkya Rahane, made him aware of the scoreboard display, there was no overlooking which team held the advantage at the close of a tough time at the office.

India resume tomorrow morning at 4-311 with Rahane not out 75 and Rohit Sharma 26, having enjoyed the most successful opening day by a touring team at the Gabba – where Australia have remained unbeaten since 1988 – since the West Indies plundered 7-359 at the start of the famed tied Test in 1960.

The Australians, by contrast, carried with them a weary air of discontent as they made their way from the field amid lengthening shadows having laboured and fallen seven overs shy of their day’s 90-over requirement.

Not only did the emotion-fuelled resilience that has carried the Australians so stoically through recent trials seem to finally run low in the 36C heat and 50 per cent-plus humidity, Smith finished his first day as captain with as many injury worries as he has tactical concerns.

Mitchell Marsh limped off with a hamstring injury shortly after lunch, while Mitchell Starc was forced to depart briefly soon after having become distressed by the heat and then returned only to pick up a sore side later in the day.

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Mitchell Starc clutches at the lower left side of his chest // Getty Images

In addition, Josh Hazlewood finished his first day of Test cricket prematurely with debilitating leg cramps as well as two wickets and Mitchell Johnson battled heat fatigue, an ongoing finger injury and the frustration of two dropped catches but no wickets.

India will rightly feel the momentum that Australia found to carry them to a heady last-session victory in Adelaide last Saturday is now building behind them.

But it is the manner in which they crafted yesterday’s dominant innings – built on the patience and concentration of Vijay – that will give them the belief that this four-match series remains very much alive.

At no stage did they go overly hard at the Australian bowling which was patient rather than potent.

Instead they saw off the initial session when the risk was highest, consolidated in the second when 27 overs yielded just 62 runs, and then cashed in at the end as the home team’s morale and fitness flagged.

Led by Vijay who took to spinner Nathan Lyon late in the day until he launched one tired charge too many, the tourists then scored 160 between tea and stumps.

There were suggestions, made even before Smith flipped the coin skywards, that preconceptions about the Gabba pitch might make it a useful toss to lose.

The inference being that batting was likely to be tricky for the first hour or two as the moisture in the surface and the heat in the air meant the ball would be prone to slight if slow movement off the seam.

But as the opening session played out, the Indian openers held their nerve and kept their enthusiasm to score similarly in check, and the only trick played by the ball was to disappear and be replaced after the sweaty hands of bowlers and fielders caused it to swell out of shape.

Vijay and his opening partner survived the opening hour without scare and their partnership passed 50 for the first time in the series until Dhawan flashed a shot he will be keen to forget to deliver Mitchell Marsh a moment that he won’t.

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Mitch Marsh celebrates his first Test wicket // Getty Images

The 23-year-old allrounder’s maiden Test wicket will doubtless gain greater nuance in the years to come than the short, wide extravagance that it was, and Dhawan’s rush of blood that clipped the toe of the bat en route to Brad Haddin will be recounted as a false stroke forced by the bowler’s wiles.

But on a day that held such celebratory significance for the Marsh dynasty, that was to be the highlights among a steady trickle of lows.

When Vijay was on 36, his angled bat delivered a sharp chance low to Shaun Marsh’s left but his diving effort in front of his new captain was as ungainly as it was unsuccessful and a first wicket for Johnson went begging.

The reprieved opener reached his third half century in as many innings of this Commonwealth Bank Series in the over after lunch, but moments later Mitchell Marsh grimaced on delivering the final ball of his sixth over and quietly crossed the rope at fine leg, not to return.

“Hamstring?” incumbent captain Michael Clarke tweeted presciently from the recovery ward in Melbourne where he underwent surgery to the same damaged tendon in the same (right) leg yesterday.

He was proved right, and medical opinion will once again play an integral part in Australia’s planning for the remainder of this Test.

India’s destiny could have been easily altered by a far more immediate process of adjudication, if they were to abandon their misgivings about the sorcery of the Decision Review System.

For the third occasion in as many times at bat, the tourists lost a batsman to evidence that would almost certainly been overturned on appeal with Cheteshwar Pujara adjudged caught behind from a delivery that narrowly missed his upraised glove but did clip the grille of his helmet.

Like Marsh 20 overs earlier, Hazlewood won’t be too bothered recounting the finer details of his first Test wicket but the next one – and the handful of deliveries that succeeded it – could feasibly form part of a lengthy routine on the post-playing speakers’ circuit.

Having drawn Adelaide’s dual century-maker Virat Kohli into cutting at a ball too close to his body, the 23-year-old could have added Kohli’s replacement Rahane to his bag twice in the space of his next four deliveries.

An almost perfect off-cutter defeated Rahane’s speculative defence and grazed his stumps before the usually unruffled right-hander got himself in a mess trying to pull Hazlewood’s subsequent bouncer over square leg.

Beaten for pace, it hit high on the bat and floated invitingly back towards the bowler who initially figured he only had to stretch his 1.96m frame and snaffle the chance, but then realised it was carrying way above his head and his sudden, mistimed jump came down empty-handed.

It was a method employed with even less elegance and a similar lack of effect by Shaun Marsh later in the day when Vijay offered up another chance, once more off the hapless Johnson.

The energy-sapped opener misjudged Johnson’s crafty slower ball and spooned his drive to extra cover, but either thinking it was coming at him faster than was the case or unwilling to fully extend his left arm because of his recent elbow injury Marsh thrust up one hand as he leapt and it struck him on the wrist.

He sprawled on the turf in disbelief as his heat beaten teammates struggled to hide their frustration, and an over later trotted sheepishly across to Johnson to offer an apology as the Australian spearhead dragged himself to the crease to begin another over.

But by that stage Johnson was more concerned about keeping his body going than his spirits up, as his fast-bowling comrades wilted in the heat of what was ultimately a challenging opening day for the home side.