Cricket: India build healthy lead over Australia despite Todd Murphy’s historic debut

Todd Murphy celebrates taking the wicket of India's Virat Kohli. Photo / AP

Australia’s chances in the first Test against India are dwindling further with every run scored as the home side built a daunting first innings lead on Saturday.

India rode on the coat-tails of a masterful 120 from captain Rohit Sharma, as he was the only player in the top six for the home side to score more than 23.

He was assisted by Ravidra Jadeja (66 not out) and Axar Patel (52 not out) in taking the side to 321-7 at stumps and with an enormous 144-run first innings lead.

While it was a long day in the field for the Aussies, it was a great day for Todd Murphy as he became the 35th Aussie to take a five-wicket haul on debut.

He snared the wickets of KL Rahul, Ravi Ashwin, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and KS Bharat in the perfect debut — if you don’t look at the entire state of the match.

Murphy has joined the likes of current Aussie stars Scott Boland, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon as well as legends such as Clarrie Grimett, Dennis Lillee, Rodney Hogg and Brett Lee on the list of Aussies with five wicket hauls on debut.

Murphy is just the fourth Aussie off-spinner alongside Peter Taylor, Jason Krejza and Nathan Lyon to achieve the feat.

He also became the first Aussie spinner since Joey Palmer in 1882 to take a five-wicket haul before his 23rd birthday.

And since Palmer was just five days short of his 23rd birthday (22 years, 11 months and 26 days) when he took 7/68 against England at the SCG - while Murphy is 22 years, two months and 26 days - he also became the youngest Aussie spinner to take five wickets in a Test match.

Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon took the other two wickets.

But while there was some joy for the Aussies when it comes to Murphy, the scoreboard is in a dire state.

Australia is in a near hopeless situation short of a miracle as Kerry O’Keeffe told Fox Cricket the result is as good as decided, especially with three days still to go.

“If the lead gets to 100 or more, 95 times in the history of Australian cricket, they’ve trailed by 100 in the first innings and won three of those, and lost 58,” he said.

“The numbers don’t lie. If they lead by over 100 Australia are probably not even a puncher’s chance of winning.”

However, it’s still a long way short of the record first innings deficits Australia has had to overcome to win a match.

In 1992 in Colombo in Sri Lanka, Australia were 291 runs behind but claimed a 16-run win.

They have also overcome 236 against South Africa in Durban in 1950 and 206 in Sydney against Pakistan in 2010.

In Australian cricket history, Australia has won 12 matches after conceding a lead of more than 100 on the first innings, but just three times on the subcontinent — once in Bangladesh and twice in Sri Lanka.

But not yet in India.