India couldn’t make much of their decision to bat first after winning the toss in the second Test against Australia in Adelaide, which is a day-night match played with the pink ball. But Australia may still rue one decision they didn’t take during India’s first innings on Friday, which folded up for just 180.
Other than all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy‘s counter-attacking 42 off 54 balls, only opener KL Rahul (37) and Shubman Gill (31) got starts that they couldn’t convert into a significant knock. However, if it was not for Reddy’s knock in the lower middle-order and Ashwin’s run-a-ball 22, India might have folded up for under 150.
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Reddy came in to bat after India slipped from 69 for 1 to 87 for five and then lost partner Rishabh Pant (21), when Ashwin came out to join him. But before that, when on zero, Reddy was lucky to survive an lbw shout against Scott Boland that Australia didn’t review.
The 21-year-old Reddy had the Boland delivery hitting him on the pads, seemingly in front of the stumps; but the Australia captain Pat Cummins, after consulting wicketkeeper Alex Carey, chose to not ask for the review as they thought the ball in all likelihood hit the bat first. The ‘Virtual Eye’ later showed the ball had missed the bat and hit Reddy on both the pads, which produced two sounds.
The review would have given Boland another wicket, and more importantly dismissed Reddy without scoring. Instead, India benefited and Reddy added 42 crucial runs, which included 3 fours and 3 sixes, to India’s score.
In a Test match where runs are at a premium, Reddy’s knock might end up as the differentiator, like it happened with his knock of 41 in India’s total of 150 in the first innings of the Perth Test, after which the visitors bowled out Australia for 104 to take a first-innings lead.
But the Aussies are in a much better position as they head into the second day in Adelaide.
After losing opener Usman Khawaja (13) early, Nathan McSweeny (38*) and Marnus Labuschagne (20*) guided the hosts to 86 for 1 at stumps, trailing by 94 runs.