The opening day of the Pink Ball Test at the Adelaide Oval was all about Australia, and their continued dominance in day-night Tests at home.
Left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc’s sizzling six-wicket haul triggered an Indian collapse for a paltry 180 in their first innings, before the under-pressure Marnus Labuschagne and rookie opener Nathan McSweeney navigated a tricky passage of play in the twilight to help Australia cut their deficit to under 100 at stumps, and ensured that the first day belonged to them.
Starc asserted his supremacy in pink-ball cricket by striking in the first over of each of his three spells with career-best Test returns of 6 for 48, which extended his pink-ball tally in Australia to 72.
On Friday, Starc ran through the Indian batting line-up. Having snapped three wickets in the opening session, including that of Yashasvi Jaiswal on the first ball of the day, the fiery left-arm quick also went on to claim the wickets of KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Ravichandran Ashwin, Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy as Australia restricted India before Tea.
Accompanying him in the wickets tally were Scott Boland, who replaced injured Josh Hazlewood in the lineup, and skipper Pat Cummins, both of them claiming two wickets each. But as wickets kept tumbling in quick succession, Nitish Kumar Reddy put on a late shift with the bat to score some crucial runs lower down the order.
In response, Jasprit Bumrah got rid of veteran Usman Khawaja in the twilight but the under-fire Labuschagne (20 not out) and opener McSweeney (38 not out) came up with a rare perfect display of Test match batting by leaving balls outside the off-stick, and capitalised with an unbroken 62-run second wicket stand to take the home side to 86 for 1 at stumps, and trail the visitors by 94 runs.
Reddy’s blistering cameo
The biggest highlight of the day for India came with the bat from Nitish Kumar Reddy. Featuring in only his second Test, Reddy blazed a 54-ball-42 that included three fours and as many sixes.
Coming in to bat after India had lost skipper Rohit Sharma just on the other side of dinner, Reddy produced a breathtaking counter-attacking display, which included him 21 runs off a Scott Boland over in which he fashioned a reverse-scoop for six.
The 21-year-old had also put on a similar burst in Perth, when India were bundled out for 150, to tilt the match slightly in India’s favour. However, despite his innings, Australia’s pacers ensured that they held advantage early in this second Border-Gavaskar series Test.
Starc puts Aussies on the offensive
Trailing 1-0 in the five-Test series, Australia couldn’t have asked for a better start in Adelaide. With India’s prime run scorer in Perth, Jaiswal on strike, Starc produced an absolute peach which came back into the left-hander and caught him plumb on the first ball of the match.
KL Rahul (37) and Shubman Gill (31) then tried to rally following the early loss of Jaiswal, but just as the duo were looking settled in the middle, Starc’s last spell before dinner turned the tide in Australia’s favour.
Both the batters fell before dinner with the left-armer claiming Rahul courtesy of a sharp catch from Nathan McSweeney. Boland then, got in on the act to trap Gill right on the stroke of dinner before Starc produced another big breakthrough, claiming the other centurion from Perth in Virat Kohli.
By dinner, India were reduced to 82/4 after having won the toss and elected to bat first, with the returning skipper Rohit (3) joining keeper Rishabh Pant (21) in the middle. Boland got rid of Rohit immediately after the dinner break, and Pant followed his skipper after being caught by Labuschagne off Cummins.
Starc then removed Ravichandran Ashwin and Harshit Rana in the same over to complete his five-for. At last, Starc rounded off the wicket of Nitish Kumar Reddy to cap off a superb bowling display from the Aussies.
India shuffle lineup
The return of Rohit Sharma is one of three changes India made to their XI, with Gill and veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin also included in the playing XI as Washington Sundar, Devdutt Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel dropped out.
Australia made one change to the side that lost the series opener by 295 runs in Perth, with Boland replacing fellow quick Josh Hazlewood in the hosts’ XI.