Watch cricket video highlights of India tour of Australia 2024. 2nd Test between Australia and India. Venue of the match will be Adelaide.
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Australia reacted to their 295-run thumping in Perth by dismissing India for 180, with Mitchell Starc’s brilliant session with the pink ball stealing the show on the first day of the day-night Test in Adelaide. Usman Khawaja was subsequently dismissed by Jasprit Bumrah in the closing moments, but rookie opener Nathan McSweeney and under-pressure Marnus Labuschagne managed a challenging stretch of play to lead Australia to the end without suffering any more losses.
Australia’s first day in Adelaide was theirs thanks to their unbroken 62-run partnership, which allowed them reduce their deficit to less than 100. Starc’s opening ball foreshadowed what would happen next. He demonstrated his dominance in pink-ball Tests by striking in the opening over of each of his three spells. His pink-ball total in Australia now stands at 72 as he returned with career-best Test statistics of 6 for 48.
It is 29 more than what Nathan Lyon, Starc’s nearest opponent in the nation’s pink-ball Test cricket, has taken and twice as many as Pat Cummins (36) has done. That first ball to Yashasvi Jaiswal, who had told Starc that he was “coming on too slow” in Perth, was the beginning of it all. Starc unleashed a full, quick inswinger on Friday in Adelaide, but it veered late and slammed into his front pad. Jaiswal didn’t even bother to review because it was so plumb.
More than 36,000 people, the largest audience for an India-Australia Test in Adelaide, cheered with Starc as he yelled at the leaving Jaiswal. A 69-run partnership for the second wicket between KL Rahul and Shubman Gill, who rejoined India’s Test XI after missing the Perth Test due to a hand injury, then momentarily ended India’s innings. When Australia’s quicks strayed from their lengths and the stumps, Gill laid into drives and showed minimal rust. Rahul, on the other hand, was more cautious and played out Cummins for three maidens.
When Scott Boland’s first ball reared up to threaten his bat’s shoulder, he lost patience and fended it off. Rahul thought he had nicked it behind and left, but Boland’s front-foot no-ball gave him a reprieve. The Snicko had nothing on it either. Rahul’s outside edge was struck by Boland five balls later, but Khawaja missed the opportunity at first slip. But when Starc came back for his second spell and hit with his fourth ball, Rahul’s luck ran out. Rahul was able to edge it to gully for 37 from 64 balls after he retrieved extra bounce.
Starc used a similar prancing delivery to dismiss Virat Kohli for seven from eight balls in his subsequent over. Soon after, Boland tucked one into Gill’s pads, and India went 3 for 12 in a wild 15-minute span before the dinner break. The slump continued after the restart, with Boland pinning Rohit Sharma’s pads this time. Boland, playing in his first Test match in almost a year in place of the injured Josh Hazlewood, kept it on a fair length, or slightly back of it, and continued to gather seam movement.
Rohit, who had dropped down the order to No. 6 to allow Rahul at the top with Jaiswal, was out for 3 off 23 balls. Cummins then joined in the fun, sending Rishabh Pant out with a back-of-a-length delivery that kicked up at his ribs for 21 off 35 balls. Cummins was so moved by it that he let out a loud yell of celebration. The Australia skipper was underdone in Perth and was not sharp enough with the new ball on Friday, but he made amends with Pant’s important wicket. Despite losing wickets at the other end, Nitish Kumar Reddy remained calm and hammered up big runs.
When Starc pitched one too full, Reddy audaciously hammered him over extra-cover for six, and in the following over, he set up Boland for a 6,4,6 sequence. The first six was a jaw-dropping reverse-swat over the slip cordon, clearing one of the ground’s largest boundaries in deep third. It even brought a grin to Bumrah’s face, but his delight was short-lived as Starc teamed with Cummins to end India’s innings. After top-scoring for India in his first innings in Perth, Reddy repeated the feat in Adelaide, ending with 42 off 54 balls, including three fours and a six.
Reddy was the last Indian hitter to be removed, with Starc forcing him to hole out to mid-off. R Ashwin, who was chosen ahead of Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar, looked terrific during his run-a-ball 22 until Starc embarrassed him with an inch-perfect inswinging yorker with a 39-over old ball. The hit to his foot kept him off the field at the start of Australia’s innings, but India must have been pleased when he bowled the final over of the day without any difficulty.
Bumrah was effective with the new ball, scoring India’s sole breakthrough of the day when he moved around the wicket and had Khawaja jabbing behind with a beauty for 13 off 35 balls. India again had an easy opportunity to remove McSweeney when Bumrah hit his outside edge, but a diving Pant snatched the ball. Rohit, who first slipped, was also unable to grasp the rebound, with the ball striking his wrist and falling to the ground. McSweeney was on three at that moment, having scored after 17 balls.
At the other end, Labuschagne, who has received a lot of criticism for his recent slump, required 19 balls to get off the mark. Mohammed Siraj gave him a freebie on his pads, which got him going. Harshit Rana threw some verbal volleys at the Australian batsmen while banging the pink ball into the ground. But McSweeney was prepared to return fire with fire, powerfully pulling him over midwicket for four. After seeing off Bumrah and Siraj’s new-ball deliveries under twilight, McSweeney hit five fours off Rana and Reddy to put Australia up for a batting day in natural light on Saturday.
