Adelaide: Australian pacer Mitchell Starc made the pink ball talk for his maiden five-wicket haul before Nitish Reddy’s fearless approach pushed India to 180 all out on day one of the day-night Test here Friday.
Having reduced India to 82 for four at tea, Australia took the remaining six wickets at the cost of 98 runs before dinner break was taken.
The Australian pace trio of Starc, Pat Cummins and Scott Boland got more out of the pink ball in the second session. Starc sizzled with his trademark inswingers to remove R Ashwin and Harshit Rana while Cummins used the short ball effectively.
Rohit Sharma (3 off 23), batting in the middle order after six years, was trapped in front by Boland with a ball that jagged back from length. Rishabt Pant (21 off 35) played his aggressive game before falling to a sharp bouncer from Cummins.
Reddy (42 off 54), who impressed on his debut in Perth, added valuable runs to the total alongside number eight Ashwin (22 off 22), who replaced Washington Sundar in the playing eleven.
Seeing the wickets falling at the other end, Reddy went for his shots and that included a couple of sensational sixes off Starc and Boland to take the total past 150.
He first dispatched a wide ball from Starc over extra cover before reverse scooping Boland for a maximum over the slip cordon. Four balls later, he pulled Boland for another six.
In the first session, it was Starc who landed the timely blows as India squandered a promising start to reach 82 for four at tea.
Starc removed opener K L Rahul (37 off 64 balls) and Virat Kohli (7 off 8 balls) in quick succession to turn the tide in Australia’s favour. That was after a 69-run stand between Rahul and Shubman Gill (31 off 51).
It got worse for India when Boland had a well set Gill plumb in front with a full ball on the stumps. In a remarkable of turn events, India lost their last three wickets for 12 runs.
Sitting comfortably in the dressing room minutes ago, Rohit was forced to enter the field. He decided to drop himself down the order to accommodate Rahul at the top.
It was a rather dramatic start to the proceedings after India opted to bat on a pitch with decent grass cover.
Yashasvi Jaiswal, who played a knock to remember in his opening Test in Australia a couple of weeks ago, was out first ball as he missed a fuller one from Starc that swung back just enough to be adjudged leg before wicket.
Gill, coming back to the side after recovering from a thumb injury, batted with supreme confidence while Rahul changed gears after taking 21 balls to get off the mark.
Four out of five fours from Gill’s bat came off Starc who was guilty of bowling a tad too full or short at times. The highlight of Gill’s innings was the off-drive and cover drive off the left-arm pacer.
Rahul, at the other end, would have gone back without scoring had Boland not overstepped on the first ball of his spell. Known for relentlessly attacking the off-stump, Boland induced a faint outside edge from Rahul’s bat. The batter was walking immediately but soon it was adjudged a no ball.
After opening his account, Rahul started playing aggressively and the highlight of his knock was the copy book cover drive off Boland.
India were on course for a productive first session until Starc got rid of Rahul and Kohli in successive overs with short of length balls that rose sharply on the batters to have them caught in the slips.
Gill was the last one to be dismissed in the session as he missed an attempted flick off Boland to be trapped in front.