Perth, Nov 24: Yashasvi Jaiswal led a ruthless Indian batting assault on Australia's tiring bowlers by smashing a brilliant 141 not out as the visitors swelled their lead to 321 runs after reaching 275/1 at lunch on Day Three of the first Test at Perth Stadium here on Sunday.

In the run-up to the series opener, News Corp’s newspapers in Australia had called Jaiswal ‘The New King’. That raised expectations from Jaiswal, 22, who had suffered a blip when he was dismissed for an eight-ball duck in the first innings by Mitchell Starc.

But in the second innings, after making crucial adjustments like playing with soft hands, allowing the ball to come to him, and curbing his strokeplay instincts, Jaiswal redeemed himself by hitting his first Test hundred in Australia and following in the footsteps of Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, Mohinder Amarnath, and Sunil Gavaskar to score a century in Perth.

Jaiswal also added 201 runs for the first wicket with KL Rahul, which is now the biggest partnership by an Indian opening pair in Tests in Australia. Though Rahul fell for 77, Jaiswal has been unbeaten in his 264-ball vigil, laced with 12 fours and three sixes. With Devdutt Padikkal (25 not out) giving Jaiswal company, India will want to bat throughout the day to push the game out of Australia’s hands on a pitch where cracks have started to develop.

India started Day Three from where they left on the second day – dominating the Australian bowlers. Rahul began by driving with precision through cover on Mitchell Starc's first ball of the day, while Jaiswal moved to 95 by edging a short ball over slips. Rahul’s soft hands and Jaiswal’s composed demeanour ensured India continued to dominate Australia by piling more runs.

After playing and missing a few times, Jaiswal got his fourth Test hundred by arching his back to upper-cut Josh Hazlewood over the keeper for six and the ball landed right on the boundary cushion at fine leg. On seeing the six being confirmed, Jaiswal saluted the crowd, looked to the skies, and gave flying kisses to the spectators before soaking in the surreal feeling of hitting a Test century in Australia.

Soon after, Australia squandered a chance to get a breakthrough when a mix-up between the two openers saw Jaiswal being out of his crease, but Pat Cummins couldn’t nail the direct hit from mid-off. But they eventually made the breakthrough in the 63rd over when Starc got a length ball to take the outside edge on Rahul’s forward defence and Alex Carey took the catch behind to dismiss him for a fine 77.

Despite Australia placing a deep fly slip and a deep backward point to prevent Jaiswal from playing uppercuts, there was no stopping the youngster as he slashed hard off Starc and Cummins for two boundaries, before slapping Nathan Lyon through cover for another four. He got support from Padikkal, who oscillated between defending solidly and being beaten or even ducking balls but made full use of a friendly full toss from Marnus Labuschagne’s seam-ups to hit a one-handed drive for four, as India’s lead crossed 300.

After Australia took the second new ball, there was no stopping Jaiswal as he sweetly drove through the line off Starc for a boundary, followed by Padikkal slashing Starc through backward point for four more as India pocketed another utterly dominant session.

Brief scores:

India 150 and 275/1 in 84 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 141 not out, KL Rahul 77) lead Australia 104 by 321 runs

(IANS)

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