India vs Australia, 4th Test, Day 1: Ton-up Khawaja steers Australia to 255-4

Opener Usman Khawaja struck the first century of the series by an Australian batsman as the tourists reached 255-4 on Thursday's opening day of the fourth Test against India.

Match Summary

Australia 1st Innings: 255-4 (90)
Fall of wickets: 1-61 (Travis Head-15.3 ov), 2-72 (Marnus Labuschagne-22.2 ov), 3-151 (Steven Smith-63.4 ov), 4-170 (Peter Handscomb-70.4 ov)

SCORECARD

The left-handed Khawaja, batting on 104, put on key stands including a 79-run third-wicket partnership with skipper Steve Smith, who made 38, to hand Australia a strong start.

After a long grind, Khawaja was batting alongside Cameron Green, on 49, at close of play after Australia elected to bat at the world's biggest cricket stadium in Ahmedabad.

The Pakistan-born Khawaja jumped up in joy after he raised the second hundred of a low-scoring series with a boundary in the final over of the day.

India skipper Rohit Sharma hit 120 in the opener, but is now second to the Australian opener, who leads the series batting chart with 257 runs.

Green remained the attacking partner in an unbeaten 85-run partnership with Khawaja that once again stamped Australia's dominance despite two wickets in the final session.

Travis Head started aggressively and made 32 in a 61-run opening partnership with Khawaja before India hit back with two wickets in the first session.

Khawaja and stand-in-skipper Smith got down to hard work after lunch to wear down the Indian bowlers on a pitch that looks good for batting.

Ravindra Jadeja bowled Smith after the left-arm spinner's delivery skidded off the turf to get the batsman's inside and onto the stumps.

Mohammed Shami got his second wicket after bowling Peter Handscomb, but Khawaja kept up the hard work.

Pace spearhead Shami started the match with a wide and Khawaja soon got a boundary.

Playing XI

India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Shreyas Iyer, Srikar Bharat (wicket-keeper), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami

Australia: Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith (captain), Peter Handscomb, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wicket-keeper), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Matthew Kuhnemann

Match Details

Toss: Australia, elected to bat

Venue: Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad

Start time: 0400 hrs GMT

Match officials: Nitin Menon, Richard Kettleborough (On-field Umpires); Joel Wilson (TV Umpire); Jayaraman Madanagopal (Reserve Umpire); Chris Broad (Match-referee)

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