Much like the first day of the opening Test, the second Test also witnessed a wicket-ravaged start in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. If the first Test had 17 wickets fall on Day 1 in Perth, the day-night Test in Adelaide accounted for 11 wickets on Friday. 10 of those 11 wickets belonged to India who lost their last nine wickets for 111 runs. At the other end, they lost a wicket on the first ball of the contest.
Once looking at reaching 200-250 runs, India were dismissed for 180 and led by 94 runs at close with the Aussies reaching 86/1 at stumps.
Mitchell Starc scalps six
Mitchell Starc claimed a career-best 6/48 and was the lynchpin behind India’s collapse inside two sessions. With the new pink ball in hand, Starc struck first ball to send Yashasvi Jaiswal packing and his massive roar made clear how much they fancied that wicket. Jaiswal had struck a match-changing 161 runs in Perth to put the game beyond Australia’s reach.
Just when KL Rahul and Shubman Gill looked to be getting into the groove of things, Starc returned to end the 69-run stand with KL guiding the ball to Nathan McSweeney at gully. Next over, Virat Kohli‘s indicisiveness got the better of him as well to become Starc’s third.
2nd Test, Day 1: As It Happened
Starc dismissed R Ashwin for 22 and bowled Harshit Rana in the same over to complete his five-wicket haul – his first against India in Test cricket.
With backs against the wall, Nitish Kumar Reddy tried to go into the attack but was done in by the extra pace from Starc.
KL Rahul promises, perishes
KL Rahul opened the batting for India after being promoted to the spot in the first Test in Rohit Sharma‘s absence. He took his time to get underway and rode on plenty of luck. The right-hander, on nought at the time, was dismissed off Scott Boland on a no-ball and then was let go of by Usman Khawaja in the same over.
When he got going, he looked in good touch and was careful in his approach – not going after ones that were outside the off stump and not succumbing to the pressure applied by the Aussie quicks.
Not for the first time in the series, KL Rahul was guilty of reacting late – this time getting the bat to a rising Starc delivery and was caught in the gully region.
It is also not the first time he’s been unable to make a positive start count. The 32-year-old has played 94 innings and been dismissed in under-25 runs on 57 occasions. When he’s gone past that mark, which he did in Adelaide, he’s been unable to convert that into fifties or century on 13 of 37 instances or 35% of the times.
Nitish Kumar Reddy spunk continues
Nitish Kumar Reddy continued to make his mark in just his second Test match. After 41 and 38* in Perth, the 21-year-old maintained that scoring spunk in Adelaide even though he was getting his first test of the pink ball.
With wickets falling on the other side and the Aussie quicks dominating the proceedings, Nitish played fire with fire, hitting three sixes. One such maximum was an audicious reverse scoop off Scott Boland that brought out a smile from Jasprit Bumrah at the other end and a sheepish grin from the Visakhapatnam-born player.
Like Perth, Nitish top-scored in the first innings for India and didn’t retreat into a shell. Maybe that is something for the rest of the batting lineup to consider.
India fail to make the most of twilight
India bowled 33 overs in the final session but were only able to show one wicket off it. Bumrah, Mohammad Siraj and Harshit Rana were pumped, aggressive, beat the bat plenty of times and swung the ball around beautifully but were guilty of not targeting the stumps enough.
In Perth, where India took seven Australian wickets on the opening day, they largely bowled wicket-to-wicket. On Day 1 at Perth, India bowlers bowled 31% on the stumps and just 10.9% balls were outside off. Result? 7/65. Today, meanwhile, they bowled only 20.3% of the deliveries at stumps and 21.3% were outside off. Not so surprisingly, the result was 1/86.