Mitchell Starc continued his love affair with day-night Test matches as his career-best 6-48 saw Australia skittle India for 180 in Adelaide before Nathan McSweeney and Marnus Labuschagne thwarted the tourists’ bowlers under the lights.
Starc is up to 72 wickets in pink-ball games, 29 more than any other player, and gave Australia a strong start in their bid to level the five-match series after a 295-run thrashing in the first Test at Perth.
Nitish Kumar Reddy’s punchy 42 from 54 balls – after Australia missed the chance to dismiss him lbw on nought by not reviewing – dragged India up from 89-5 around seamer Starc’s superb display.
Australia closed on 86-1 to trail by 94 with McSweeney – dropped on three by Rohit Sharma at slip – 38 not out and Labuschagne unbeaten on 20 after scoring just two and three in Perth and being dismissed for single figures in seven of his previous eight Test knocks.
McSweeney and Labuschagne added an unbroken 62 from 133 balls in difficult conditions against the moving ball, after Usman Khawaja (13) snicked Jasprit Bumrah (1-13) behind at the end of the 11th over.
Even two brief floodlight failures did not disrupt McSweeney and Labuschagne with Australia on top at stumps after losing the toss.
Starc rips through India after tourists elect to bat
Starc pinned Yashasvi Jaiswal (0) lbw from the first ball of the match, only for KL Rahul (37) and Shubman Gill (31) to put on 69 for the second wicket before a wobble of four wickets for 18 runs.
Rahul lived a charmed life, given out caught behind on nought before being reprieved by a Scott Boland no-ball and then dropped by Khawaja at slip later in the same over.
Starc had Rahul and Virat Kohli (7) caught at gully and second slip respectively after finding some extra bounce off the surface.
With Boland (2-54), in for the injured Josh Hazlewood (side), trapping Gill and Rohit Sharma (3) leg before and Rishabh Pant (21) fencing a vicious delivery from Pat Cummins (2-41) to Labuschagne at gully – after being dropped on five by McSweeney in the same position – India were in deep trouble.
They would have been even more in the mire had Australia called for DRS when Boland struck Reddy on the pad, and the India batter went on to strike three sixes – including two in one Boland over – and as many fours before he was last out, caught off Starc at mid-off.
Starc had earlier trapped Ravichandran Ashwin (22) lbw and bowled Harshit Rana for a three-ball duck in the 39th over to complete his 15th five-for in Test cricket, while Cummins removed Bumrah for a blob, but India added 71 for their final four wickets.
Source : Sky Sports
