The opening day of the fourth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy between India and Australia set the record for highest attendance in a match involving these two teams Down Under. With 87,242 people coming through the gates, it was the record for a day of Test cricket between Australia and India in Australia.
The massive audience was keeping in line with the expectation set by the ground's CEO Stuart Fox. In the tune-up to the Boxing Day Test he had laid expectations of 2,50,000 fans making their attendance felt over the course of four-five days.
With temperatures of 35-39 degrees throughout, Australia decided to bat after winning the toss and finished the day on 311/6. It gave the local crowd plenty to cheer and celebrate with Sam Konstas, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith among the runs.
Test debutant
Konstas got the ball rolling with a blistering 52-ball fifty which also included
two sixes off Jasprit Bumrah and a
heated altercation with Virat Kohli.
Australia's top-order kept the run-scoring ticking with Khawaja breaking a lean spell with the bat as he struck 57 runs, however would consider himself unlucky to fall to Bumrah.
Labuschagne (72), too, looked good but couldn't convert his score into triple digits when he was dismissed by Washington Sundar.
Smith (68*) and Pat Cummins (8*) took Australia to safety at stumps with Bumrah, once again, chief among wickets, posting figures of 3/75.
The five-match series is locked at 1-1 after India won by 295 runs in Perth before being crushed by 10 wickets in Adelaide. The rain-affected third Test in Brisbane finished in a draw.
Australia Playing XI: Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey (WK), Pat Cummins (C), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland.
India Playing XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (WK), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep.
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