Spinner O’Keefe stuns India with six wickets in 24 balls

Steve O’Keefe has snared an astonishing six wickets in 24 balls to help Australia claim a first- innings lead of 155 runs on day two of their first cricket test against India in Pune.

O’Keefe, who feared his international career was over after returning from Sri Lanka last year with a hamstring injury, grabbed a career- best haul of 6- 35 to give Australia a golden chance of completing their first test win in India since 2004.

The top- ranked test side suffered a staggering collapse of 7- 11 to be rolled for just 105 on the cracking dust bowl, which had been prepared with star spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja in mind.

The hosts’ paltry total was just one run higher than their lowest total against Australia in India, which came in 2004 in Mumbai.

O’Keefe and Nathan Lyon delighted in the dry deck, combining for four wickets in the space of eight balls.

Left- arm t weaker O’Keefe dismissed top- scorer KL Rahul, Ajinkya Rahane and Wriddhiman Saha in the 33rd over before Lyon stepped up to remove counterpart Ashwin.

Peter Handscomb clutched a couple of remarkable catches amid the chaos, which followed a doublewicket maiden from Mitchell Starc in the morning session. O’Keefe later accounted for Jadeja, Jayant Yadav and Umesh Yadav with ease.

Starc swung momentum Australia’s way by dismissing Virat Kohli for a second- ball duck. Starc sizzled in his second spell, removing Cheteshwar Pujara and Kohli in the space of three balls. The left- armer’s double- wicket maiden came after he slapped 61 runs from 63 deliveries, lifting the tourists to a total of 260.

Matt Renshaw’s ill- timed bathroom break infuriated former Australia captain Allan Border and temporarily Steve Smith, but the opener made it up to his skipper top- scoring with 68.