ADELAIDE — Mitchell Starc dazzled in operating with the pink ball yet again as his six-wicket haul blew away India, as the visitors were bowled out for 180 on Day One of the second Test at Adelaide Oval here on Friday. At stumps, Nathan McSweeney and Marnus Labuschagne, unbeaten on 38 and 20 respectively, blunted India’s bowlers in a solid show of discipline and defence in a tricky phase to stitch an unbroken 62-run stand for the second wicket and helped Australia reach 86/1 in 33 overs and trail the visitors’ by 94 runs.
Under overcast skies, Starc picked his best-ever Test figures of 6-48, including dismissing Yashasvi Jaiswal with the very first ball of the game in front of a record 50,186 supporters. After that, India built their innings on the base provided by a 69-run partnership between K.L. Rahul and Shubman Gill.
But Starc got into action again with his double strike, removing Rahul and then Virat Kohli, before Scott Boland trapped Shubman Gill lbw, as India went from 69/1 to 81/4 in the first session. Starc then used his in-swinging yorkers to scythe through India's lower order and take out Nitish Kumar Reddy, India’s top run-scorer with 42, to bag his first Test five-for against India.
In the final session, the pink ball did a lot of movement for India's seamers, who didn’t attack the stumps much to cause trouble and took only one wicket. Jasprit Bumrah’s mastery on display saw him squaring up McSweeney and finding his outside edge.
Rishabh Pant dived to his right to take the catch but only managed to get his fingertips on the ball. Rohit Sharma couldn’t grab the catch on the rebound as the ball hit his right wrist, giving McSweeney a life on three. Bumrah finally had a wicket when Usman Khawaja just fended at a length ball that bounced and took the outside edge to slip. The under-pressure Labuschagne took 19 balls to get off the mark before flicking off Siraj to get his first boundary.
On the other hand, McSweeney began to be comfortable in pulling and punching for his boundaries, before hitting Nitish Kumar Reddy for back-to-back fours. Despite floodlights going off twice, McSweeney and Labuschagne hit a couple of boundaries to ensure Australia ended the opening day of the day-night match in their favour. Previously, India won the toss and elected to bat first, with Australia sporting black armbands in memory of Phil Hughes and Ian Redpath. Starc gave Australia a dream start by getting a down-leg delivery to swing back in and trap Jaiswal lbw for a golden duck.
Gill, coming back after missing the Perth Test due to a left thumb injury, got straightaway into the act with his late slashes and gorgeous drives giving him four boundaries off Starc. Rahul showed patience outside off and looked solid in defence until he fended at Boland's first ball and everyone thought he was caught behind for an 18-ball duck. But Rahul earned a reprieve as Boland had overstepped his crease and the snicko showed there was no edge off the bat. Five balls later, Rahul got another reprieve as Khawaja dropped his catch at slip.
From there on, Rahul and Gill pounced on Australia’s mistakes to bowl more outside the off-stump and stitched a stand of 69 runs for the second wicket. Just when it seemed the session would end in India’s favour, Starc returned to enforce a dramatic turnaround in the script.
He first had Rahul fending at a back-of-the-length ball to diving gully, before having Kohli caught in two minds on whether to play or leave, and have him eventually caught in the slips.
Boland, playing in his first Test after 18 months, trapped a lazily-flicking Gill plumb lbw for 31, and ensured Australia ended the session on a high by picking the last three Indian wickets for 12 runs in 16 balls.
After the dinner break, Boland struck by getting a fuller ball to catch Rohit in the crease and go past his inside edge to trap him lbw. India could have been six down had McSweeney held onto a catch offered by Pant when he was on five.
Pant would add 16 more runs before a rising delivery from Cummins kicked up and took the shoulder edge of the bat and was caught at gully. Ravichandran Ashwin played some eye-catching boundaries off Marsh and Cummins, but Starc trapped him lbw with a top in-swinging yorker and castled Harshit Rana with another inswinger.
With wickets falling from one end, Reddy launched a stunning counter-attack. After middling an off-drive off Cummins for four, Reddy thumped Boland through mid-off for another boundary.
Post lofting Starc over deep extra cover for six, Reddy tore into Boland by reverse-scooping, flicking and pulling him for two sixes and a four. But Australia continued to chip in, as Cummins got Jasprit Bumrah to edge to the first slip before Starc wrapped up the proceedings by having Reddy hole out to mid-off.
Brief scores:
India 180 all out in 44.1 overs (Nitish Kumar Reddy 42, KL Rahul 37; Mitchell Starc 6-48, Pat Cummins 2-41) lead Australia 86/1 in 33 overs (Nathan McSweeney 38 not out, Marnus Labuschagne 20 not out; Jasprit Bumrah 1-13) by 94 runs.