India’s batting frailties against the pink ball were brutally exposed yet again in the final session at the Adelaide Oval on Saturday as they crashed to 128/5, still needing another 29 runs to avoid an innings defeat in the second Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
This was after local hero Travis Head blew India’s attack away and entertained
the home crowd with a thrilling 140 off 141 balls which swelled Australia’s first-innings lead to 157.
Head’s no-holds-barred approach destroyed the Indian attack after they had threatened to restrict Australia’s first innings with three wickets in the first session. He played and missed four of his first nine balls, but that didn’t stop him from playing his shots.
Even against the second new ball, Head started off whipping and clipping Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj as they missed their lines for crucial boundaries. Head added 74 off 80 balls with Alex Carey.
Strangely, none of the India pacers tried to test Head’s weakness against the short-pitched stuff.
Australia’s pace attack then crippled the Indian batting with a controlled spell of seam and swing bowling. Pat Cummins led from the front and cramped KL Rahul with a lifter for 7. Then, before stumps, Cummins hit the top of Rohit Sharma’s off stump with an absolute peach of a delivery.
Rohit had a shaky start, having been struck on the helmet on his first ball from Mitch Starc. He was then trapped leg-before next ball, but got a reprieve once it was ruled no-ball.
However, it was Scott Boland who delivered the knockout blow by removing Virat Kohli just when it seemed he had started to get a feel of the wicket. Kohli (11) pushed at a ball on the fourth stump, which nipped back slightly after pitching, and took the outside edge to the wicketkeeper.
Kohli’s weakness against the moving ball outside the off stump has remained a constant in the last few years. Australia had set out with a definite plan against Kohli and it has paid off so far. In Perth, Kohli tried to move away from a rising Josh Hazlewood delivery while batting outside the crease but could not prevent the edge which flew to Usman Khawaja in the slips.
He struck a century in the second innings after Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rahul’s 201-run opening stand. The weakness persisted in Adelaide, as Mitchell Starc swung the pink-ball away in the first innings. Undecided whether to leave the ball or play, Kohli presented the outside edge and nicked to the slips again.
Boland had earlier accounted for a solid-looking Jaiswal with his first ball.
Pant, however, continued to do Pant things. He charged down the track and manufactured swinging room to smash his first ball over mid-off. The reverse pull and the falling scoop to counter Australia’s quicks followed as he remained unbeaten on 28 off 25 balls.