The day of the debutants

It was a big moment for Joel Paris, opening the bowling from the Members End in front of his home crowd (albeit mostly populated by vocal India fans). The left-armer steamed in for his first ball and served up a fine yorker to Rohit Sharma, who leaned in and played across the ball, just catching it with the toe of his bat. A huge lbw appeal from the Australians was rightly ignored and Rohit was barely troubled again.

It was a tough initiation to the big stage for Scott Boland. The most expensive of Australia's bowlers, he struggled to find the right length and was duly punished by Rohit, ultimately conceding the most boundaries. But he did have his moment in the Perth sun towards the end of te innings when MS Dhoni leaned back and spanked a short ball from James Faulkner. It flew fast and hard and had all but passed Boland, who dived to his right and, at full stretch, took a fine catch.

Dhoni also threw the new ball to his greenest left-arm bowler, but with far more success. In his second over, Barinder Sran landed a full delivery outside off that tempted Aaron Finch into the drive. Finch's bat twisted in his hands and the ball skewed off the bottom edge. At 6 foot 3, Barinder showed sharp reflexes to get low and take the return catch to pick up his maiden international wicket.

It was faintly disappointing to see George Bailey arrive at the crease in a regulation helmet rather than the gold, floppy-brimmed hat he had worn in the field. But it was his glove, not his head gear, that caused a DRS stir. Barinder was deprived of a third wicket when Bailey attempted to turn a short leg-side delivery off his hip. Dhoni took a low catch down the leg side but umpire Richard Kettleborough's finger stayed down, after a stifled appeal from the Indian players. The replay and Hot Spot showed the ball clearly glancing off Bailey's glove and he got a life on his first ball.

When Mitchell Johnson bowled his final spell in international cricket during the second Test against New Zealand, only a few thousand people were at the WACA to say farewell. So it was pleasing to see the fiery left-armer receive such a warm reception from the crowd at the innings break when he was ferried around the ground on the back of a pick-up truck with his daughter, Rubika. It was also a reminder of what the Australian team has lost; no one managed to push beyond the 'magic' 140kph mark. Memories of Johnson regularly topping 150kph seem rather distant.