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Fast bowler Mitchell Starc took 6-48 wickets, which is his 15th five-wicket haul in Test matches. With this, Australia bowled out India for just 180 runs in 44.1 overs by tea time on the first day of the second day-night Test at Adelaide Oval on Friday. In response, Australia has scored 86 runs for the loss of one wicket to the stumps on the first day. Australia is currently trailing India by 94 runs in the first innings.
India could not repeat the success of the Perth match in this match. The only wicket that fell in Australia's innings was taken by Jaspreet Bumrah who got Usman Khawaja caught by Rohit Sharma in the slip. Khawaja scored 13 runs in 35 balls. Nathan McSweeney and Marnus Labuschagne then played cautiously and did not let Australia suffer any further loss till stumps.
At the time of stumps, McSweeney was at the crease with 38 runs in 97 balls and Labuschagne with 20 runs in 67 balls. After losing the first wicket early, Labuschagne and McSweeney batted very well. Indian bowlers also tried hard. But today the luck factor was not with them. Many times the batsmen were beaten badly, and a catch was also missed. However, if we talk about today's entire day's play, then the Australian team is ahead here. They performed well in every session. A lot of credit for this also goes to Starc.
Earlier, under cloudy skies, Starc had given a great start to the day-night Test by dismissing Yashasvi Jaiswal LBW on the very first ball of the match. After this, India was moving forward with a 69-run partnership between KL Rahul and Shubman Gill. But Starc again struck a double strike and dismissed Rahul and then Virat Kohli.
Scott Boland then dismissed Shubman Gill LBW, taking India from 69/1 to 81/4. After the dinner break, Starc used his inswinging yorkers to demolish India's lower order and dismissed India's top run-scorer Nitish Kumar Reddy to register the best Test figures of his career and cap a great phase of the game for Australia.
In the first session, India won the toss and decided to bat first. Australia wore black arm bands in memory of Phil Hughes and Ian Redpath. Starc gave Australia a great start when he swung a ddown-legdelivery and dismissed Jaiswal LBW for a golden duck.
Gill, making a comeback after missing the Perth Test with a left thumb injury, hit four boundaries off Starc with his late slashes and gorgeous drives. Rahul showed patience outside off and looked solid in defense until he was caught off Boland's first ball and everyone thought he was out for a duck in 18 balls.
But replays showed that Rahul was given a reprieve as Boland had crossed his crease and Snicko showed that there was no edge on the ball. Five balls later, Rahul was given another reprieve when Usman Khawaja dropped his catch at slip. Rahul and Gill then capitalized on Australia's mistakes to force them to bowl more outside the off-stump and put on 69 runs for the second wicket. Just when it looked like the session would end in India's favor, Starc returned and changed the script dramatically.
He first had Rahul caught in the gully off a bback-of-a-lengthdelivery. Then he put Kohli in a dilemma whether to play or leave it, and had him caught at slip. Boland, playing his first Test after 18 months, had Gill LBW for 31 and ensured that Australia ended the session on a high by taking the last three Indian wickets for 12 runs in 16 balls.
After the dinner break, Boland bowled a fuller ball and got Rohit Sharma caught at the crease, and got him out LBW. If Nathan McSweeney had caught Rishabh Pant, India could have lost six wickets.
Pant added 16 more runs before getting caught at the gully after getting the shoulder edge of a rising delivery from Cummins. Ravichandran Ashwin hit some lovely boundaries off Marsh and Cummins. But Starc got him LBW with a top-edged inswinging yorker and dismissed Harshit Rana with another inswinger. After losing wickets at one end, Reddy launched a brilliant counter-attack. After hitting an off-drive boundary off Cummins, Reddy hit another boundary through mid-off off Boland.
After hitting Starc for a six over deep extra cover, Reddy reverse-scooped, flicked, and pulled Boland for two sixes and a four. But Australia kept playing well. Cummins had Jasprit Bumrah caught at first slip. Starc then dismissed Reddy at mid-off to wrap up the Indian innings.
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