ADELAIDE: Australia tightened their grip on the pink ball Test as their formidable pacers scythed through India’s top-order after nemesis Travis Head’s counterattacking century handed his team a substantial first-innings lead on a riveting second day here on Saturday.
The Adelaide Oval was throbbing with life through the three sessions of play as Head dominated India with his wide range of strokes on way to a 140 off 141 balls before the trio of Scott Boland (2/39), Mitchell Starc (1/49) and Pat Cummins (2/33) left the visitors in a spot of bother at 128 for five in their second innings and trailing by 29 runs.
At stumps, Rishabh Pant was living dangerously on a 25-ball 28 and Nitish Reddy was batting on 15 off 14.
Thanks to Head’s eighth Test century, which he reached in 111 balls after toying with the Indian bowling attack, Australia ended with 337 all out, and more importantly, a 157-run first-innings lead.
The hosts are looking to restore parity in the five-match series after the 295-run hammering in the opener at Perth.
Head’s hundred, the fastest in a pink ball Test, reduced Marnus Labuschagne’s (64) composed half-century, coming after a lean run of form, to a mere footnote.
India lost KL Rahul (7) early in their second innings and Yashasvi Jaiswal (24) was done in by a peach of a delivery from Boland, who again struck with his first delivery that had a hint of late movement.
Boland then had Virat Kohli (11) caught behind after he got one to land right in the channel which has been troubling the Indian batting mainstay for a while now.
To make matters worse for the visitors, Starc knocked down Shubman Gill’s (28) middle stump with his late in-swing doing the damage to leave India at 86 for four in front of a record crowd of over 50,000.
However, unperturbed by the Australian inroads, Pant looked to be batting in a universe of his own and played some outrageous shots against the fast bowlers, leaving everyone stunned.
Least bothered by the fact that India were three down with not enough on the board, Pant danced down the track first ball and smashed Boland over mid-off for a boundary, and he maintained that audacious approach until the umpires called stumps.
AP/PTI