India Trail 180 and 128 for 5 (Pant 28*, Cummins 2-33, Boland 2-39) Australia 337 (Head 140, Labuschagne 64, Bumrah 4-61, Siraj 4-98) by 29 runs
After the floodlights were switched off twice on the first day, Australia’s batting was in danger of being hit by lights on the afternoon of the second day. However, Head had other ideas and carried on with the innings with his no-holds-barred approach. He played and missed four of his first nine balls, but that certainly didn’t stop him from playing his shots. He stuck to his method of keeping the ball on the leg side and delivering it to small pockets of ground square on the off side.
He also smashed long straight boundaries, including a monster hit of 110 meters on the sightscreen when he hit R Ashwin for a six over mid-off and then over his head.
Head scored his first half-century off 63 balls and took only 48 more balls to convert it into a century. He celebrated the historic achievement by waving his bat like a child in front of the 51,642-strong home crowd along with his wife to pay tribute to his family’s new arrival. A hug from fellow South Australian Alex Carey was also part of the joy.
Labuschagne completed her half-century off 114 balls and celebrated it with three fours off four balls off Harshit Rana. After getting a late-cut off the tall, pacey Rana with ease, Labuschagne was caught in the gully when he tried a similar shot on Nitish Kumar Reddy’s short, slow delivery.
Head was more brutal on Rana, scoring 41 runs in 29 balls. It didn’t really matter what came to Head. Small full. On the stumps. Outside the off stump. Everything has been shipped.
R Ashwin’s only wicket was Mitchell Marsh but that was due to some good fortune. After defending Ashwin’s non-turning offbreak, Marsh walked away before umpire Richard Illingworth could even raise a finger and not even think about the review. There was nothing on the snicko, with replays also indicating that the ball missed the outside edge.
Head also attacked the second new ball and hit two fours on Bumrah. After this, he hit Siraj for a strong six over square leg in the next over, but Siraj hit York Head for a strong six on the next ball. Siraj vented out his pent up emotions and bid farewell to Head which did not go well for him or his beloved Adelaide crowd.
There was an uproar, but Siraj dismissed Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland soon after tea, reducing Australia to 337 runs. Bumrah, who fell with some discomfort that required medical attention, added four balls to his spell with the second new ball. Recovered to dismiss Cummins.
Cummins then kept the ball in the center and troubled KL Rahul by giving him a lift of 7 runs in 10 balls. Just before stumps, he hit the top of Rohit Sharma’s off stump powerfully.
Rohit’s condition worsened as he got hit on his helmet by Starc’s very first ball. After this he was bowled on the next ball, but got relief due to no-ball. Cummins dismissed Rohit just before the end of the game, there was no mistake in his heel placement.
It was Boland who dismissed Virat Kohli by pushing a length ball down the fourth stump line and taking an outside edge. Earlier, Boland had dismissed Yashasvi Jaiswal for 24 runs in 31 balls on his very first ball. He has fitted seamlessly into the bowling attack and could pose an interesting selection question for the Brisbane Test, although Josh Hazlewood is expected to return to action for that match.
Starc not hitting the pink new ball in his first spell may have been an aberration, but he came back with the old ball and stormed Gill’s defense with a whooping inswinger.
However, Pant continued his Pant antics. Despite the rush of wickets, he created swing room by coming out of the crease and sent his very first ball over mid-off for four runs. He then unleashed the reverse pull and falling scoop to counter Australia’s pace attacks for a while. He remained unbeaten after scoring 28 runs on 25 balls.
India will need more of it from Pant – and more support from Reddy – if they are to somehow pull off another heist in Australia.
Devarayanan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPN cricinfo
