'Murphy's Law: No Murphy, No wickets!' - Fans respond as Australia's debutant off-spinner creates havoc for Indian Top order

Australia debutant Todd Murphy delivers impressive performance (Source: Twitter)

Indian batters may have explicitly practised dealing with Nathan Lyon’s spinning web. Still, they certainly did not anticipate the impact debutant Todd Murphy had in the ongoing first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) series being played at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur. Until the end of Session 2 on Day 2, Todd Murphy had impressive figures of 4-59 off 25 overs.

The Indians got off to a great start riding on skipper Rohit Sharma’s anchoring knock (118 n.o off 207 balls) that became the first century of the series earlier on Day 2 of the first Test match. At a point in the game, Murphy was the only Australian bowler with wickets. However, that changed with Nathan Lyon’s beauty that hit Suryakumar Yadav’s furnitures, increasing the wicket count to 5 for the visitors.

The hosts lead by 49 runs at Tea, Day 2

Since Suryakumar Yadav’s dismissal, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja have built a crucial partnership of 58 runs for the sixth wicket. At lunch, the hosts led by 49 runs with a total score of 226/5 on the board after 80 overs.

Earlier, India bowled Australia out for 177 runs inside 64 overs. Marnus Labuschagne was the top scorer for the men from down under with 49 off 123 deliveries, while Ravindra Jadeja had five scalps, including the crucial wicket of Steve Smith. On the other hand, the man-in-focus, Ravichandran Ashwin, contributed by picking up 3 for the hosts, which included the wicketkeeper-batter Alex Carey, the skipper Pat Cummins and the final wicket of Scott Boland, that wrapped things up for the Australian innings. Notably, the BGT series will be India’s last chance to qualify for the finals of the Global Test Championships as they eye a third-straight Test series win against Australia.

Naturally, fans were impressed with the performance of the 22-year-old debutant spinner, Todd Murphy. A lot were quick to react on Twitter.

Here are some of the top tweets:

#INDvsAUS #ToddMurphy #offspin Murphy's Law = No Murphy No Wickets. Onya Todd! pic.twitter.com/EEi6meTX3Q

— Noel Loudon (@digimaze50) February 10, 2023

STAT ALERT: Australia's bowlers picking first four opposition wickets on Test debut

1. Jack Saunders vs Eng Sydney 1901/02
2. Ian MecKiff vs SA Joburg 1957/58
3. Todd Murphy vs Ind Nagpur 2022/23#INDvAUS #INDvsAUS #BGT2023 #BorderGavaskarTrophy #RohitSharma𓃵

— Cricket Connected (@CricketConnect9) February 10, 2023

todd murphy? who's that? is he the new off spinner

— usman (@fuckyoutwittwr) February 10, 2023

But Todd Murphy is good… if you can’t accept that you are a blind bhakt 🤣

— Abdul John Ram (@RestInUnderwear) February 10, 2023

Todd murphy 👏🏻#BorderGavaskarTrophy #CricketTwitter

— Rohan Jain (@RohanJaiin) February 10, 2023

🤓🤓🤓 Totally agree! @ToddMur82405592 Todd Murphy is the real deal!
(I say he has to change his twitter address though!)#AUSvIND #INDvsAUS #Cricket #CricketAustralia 🤓🤓🤓

— Queen MaxiTaxi #VoteYES #Assange #Climate (@maxitaxi3333) February 10, 2023

Todd Murphy is the 'out of syllabus' bowler for India #INDvsAUS #ToddMurphy

— Piyush M Agarwal (@piyushmagarwal) February 10, 2023

Todd Murphy today:#BorderGavaskarTrophy pic.twitter.com/jVN3g6A1SE

— Abhishek 🇮🇳 (@abh7shek___) February 10, 2023

Todd Murphy glasses proves that he has done so much homework for BGT 2023#BGT2023 #INDvsAUS

— mr.sumone (@KhambalLk) February 10, 2023