Cricket-Kuhnemann leads India's rout, Australia on the ascendancy

INDORE, India (Reuters) -Matt Kuhnemann and Nathan Lyon routed India on a spinners' paradise in Indore to put Australia ahead on day one of the third test on Wednesday.

Matt Kuhnemann (5-16) claimed his maiden five-wicket haul in only his second test and Lyon picked up three to skittle out India for a paltry 109.

Australia lost Travis Head, but cruised to 71-1 at tea to stay on course for a handy first-innings lead in the match.

Usman Khawaja was batting on 33 at the break with Marnus Labuschagne on 16 at the other end.

Beaten inside three days both in Nagpur and Delhi, Australia persisted with a three-pronged spin attack which paid dividends.

Stand-in skipper Steve Smith introduced spin after five overs of pace bowling by Mitchell Starc and Cameron Green, both of whom returned from finger injuries to play their first match of the series.

Regular skipper Pat Cummins is back home to be with his ailing mother, while opener David Warner has returned having fractured his elbow in Delhi.

India captain Rohit Sharma was left to rue his decision to bat first and he himself could have been dismissed twice in the first over from Starc, but Australia did not challenge the not-out decisions.

It did not really matter though once the spinners took over.

Kuhnemann removed Rohit (12) stumped and, in his next over, cut short Shubman Gill's (21) promising knock to trigger a spectacular collapse.

Lyon (3-35) then joined the party, dismissing Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravindra Jadeja in his successive overs and India slumped to 45-5 after a frenetic opening hour.

Virat Kohli (22) gamely hung on for a while but once Todd Murphy trapped him lbw, wickets started tumbling and India eventually wilted in 33.2 overs, half an hour into the second session.

After the innings break, India predictably began with spin from both ends and Head (nine) fell lbw to Ravindra Jadeja in the second over of the innings.

Labuschagne got a reprieve when he dragged the ball onto his stumps but bowler Ravindra Jadeja was found to have over-stepped.

This was the third time in the series that Jadeja's penchant to bowl no-balls cost him a wicket.

India have a 2-0 lead in the four-match series for the Border Gavaskar Trophy.

The final test is scheduled in Ahmedabad from March 9.

(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Sharon Singleton)