2nd Test
Day-1 Afternoon Session Highlights:
Mitchell Starc has delivered a career-best performance to bowl India out for 180 runs
At The Tea of Day-1:
India scored 180 all out (1st Innings) vs Australia.
Mitchell Starc claimed his fourth five-wicket haul in Day/Night Tests and his 15th overall in Test cricket as Australia bowled India out for 180 on the opening day in Adelaide.
Starc set the tone from the very first ball, trapping Yashasvi Jaiswal, the centurion from the first Test, LBW with a full delivery, giving Australia a perfect start and putting doubts in India’s mind about their decision to bat first.
KL Rahul was given a reprieve when he was initially adjudged caught behind off Scott Boland’s first ball, but the decision was overturned due to a no-ball.
He also survived a dropped catch from Usman Khawaja at first slip.
With these chances, and Shubman Gill playing confidently at the other end, India managed to recover, with Gill, in his first Test of the series, impressing with a series of attacking shots, especially against Starc’s lengths.
Rahul, after a slow start, settled into his innings.
The pair added 69 runs for the second wicket, taking India to relative comfort.
However, Australia regained control in the final half hour of the session, with Starc making the breakthroughs.
He removed Rahul, caught at gully by Nathan McSweeney, and got Virat Kohli to edge a tentative shot to second slip.
The session concluded with Boland dismissing Gill.
The batter had been playing with a different trigger movement to counter Boland’s off-stump deliveries, but the pacer trapped him leg before with a full ball.
India lost three wickets in the space of 15 balls, leaving them in a difficult position at the interval.
As the innings progressed, skipper Rohit Sharma, coming in at No. 6, was undone by a sharp incoming delivery from Boland, while Cummins sent a solid-looking Rishabh Pant packing with a short ball that he couldn’t handle.
Starc returned to claim two more wickets in the tail, yorking R. Ashwin and Harshit Rana in the same over to complete his five-wicket haul.
Nitish Reddy, batting lower down, tried to inject some aggression with a few audacious shots, including a reverse-scooped six off Boland.
However, he was the last man out for a battling 42, attempting to hit out against Starc, who finished with career-best figures of 6 for 48.
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