Steve O'Keefe - The Man Behind One Of India's Worst Defeats

Australia left-arm spinner Steve O'Keefe picked up his maiden 10-wicket haul in Tests as the famed Indian batting line-up failed to live up to their billing in the opening Test on Day 3 at Pune. O'Keefe, who picked up 6 for 35 in the first innings, added to his tally of wickets in the second innings with another six-for as India were bowled out for 107 in the second innings. The left-arm spinner ended with career-best match figures of 12 for 70 that gave the visitors a 1-0 lead in the four-match Test series.

After being set a target of 441 runs, the hosts kept losing wickets at regular intervals as O'Keefe spun his web again in the second innings. Murali Vijay was the first one to fall prey to O'Keefe and was soon followed Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane as the 32-year-old caught the Indians napping.

Kohli misjudged the line of a ball and saw his off-stump knocked over while Ajinkya Rahane played an uppish drive straight to Lyon at covers.

Ravichandran Ashwin was O'Keefe's fourth victim, adjudged leg-before wicket, while Wriddhiman Saha was caught right in front of the stumps that concluded the left-arm spinner's second five-wicket haul in the match. O'Keefe went to tea with figures of 5 for 33 and came back and dismissed Cheteshwar Pujara who was LBW right after the break. Out of the six top-order batsmen to fall, O'Keefe picked up five wickets and is the man responsible for putting the visitors in the driving seat in the Test match.

This is by far O'Keefe's best Test haul. His best returns in an inning before this was 3/53 and he had a maximum of four wickets in a match.