Adelaide, Dec 7: India had the slight edge in a sedately-paced battle of attrition after senior off-spinner R Ashwin cleaned up the Australian top-order and a meticulous pace effort kept the home team’s scoring in check on the second day of the opening Test here.
Travis Head (61 batting) and Pat Cummins (10) kept Australia in the game with a 50-run partnership in the last session but India walked away with the advantage after the latter fell towards the end of day’s play.
At stumps, Australia were 191/7 in 88 overs with Ashwin being their primary tormentor, securing figures of 3/50 in 33 overs. He was aided well by the pace duo of Jasprit Bumrah (2/34) and Ishant Sharma (2/31).
Mitchell Starc (8 batting) was giving Head company at close of play with Australia trailing by 59 runs against India’s first innings effort of 250 all out, the highlight of which was Cheteshwar Pujara’s fighting hundred.
SCOREBOARD
India 1st Innings:
Lokesh Rahul c Finch b Hazlewood 2
Murali Vijay c Paine b Starc 11
Cheteshwar Pujara run out 123
Virat Kohli c Khawaja b Cummins 3
Ajinkya Rahane c Handscomb b Hazlewood 13
Rohit Sharma c Harris b Lyon 37
Rishabh Pant c Paine b Lyon 25
R Ashwin c Handscomb b Cummins 25
Ishant Sharma b Starc 4
Mohammed Shami c Paine b Hazlewood 6
Jasprit Bumrah not out 0
Extras: (LB-1) 1
Total: (All out in 88 overs) 250
Bowling: Mitchell Starc 19-4-63-2, Josh Hazlewood 20-3-52-3, Pat Cummins 19-3-49-2, Nathan Lyon 28-2-83-2, Travis Head 2-1-2-0.
Australia 1st Innings:
Aaron Finch b Ishant 0
Marcus Harris c Vijay b Ashwin 26
Usman Khawaja c Pant b Ashwin 28
Shaun Marsh b Ashwin 2
Peter Handscomb c Pant b Bumrah 34
Travis Head batting 61
Tim Paine c Pant b Ishant 5
Pat Cummins lbw b Bumrah 10
Mitchell Starc batting 8
Extras: (B-6 LB-9 NB-2) 17
Total: (For 7 wkts from 88 overs) 191
Bowling: Ishant Sharma 15-6-31-2, Jasprit Bumrah 20-9-34-2, Mohammed Shami 16-6-51-0, Ravichandran Ashwin 33-9-50-3, Murali Vijay 4-1-10-0.
Post tea, the hosts lost two wickets for 10 runs in a passage of play spanning eight overs. It was credit to Indian bowling that it kept the runs in check and regular inroads into the Australian line-up meant that they were never really out of pressure.
Peter Handscomb (34) had been living dangerously and he was the first to fall. He tried to play the late cut against Bumrah but only managed to edge behind.
Shortly after, Ishant came up with an unplayable length delivery and Australian captain Tim Paine (5) had no choice but to play at it, only to edge to the keeper.
Australia were struggling at 127-6, when things turned their way thanks to the eighth-wicket partnership between Head and Cummins.
Head started to play more shots as soon as the tail-ender came to the crease, and in doing so, reached his second Test half-century off 103 balls.
It was the only passage of play where India’s bowling lost a little colour, but it was partly due to the fact that Murali Vijay (0-10) bowled four overs before the second new ball was taken.
Cummins faced 44 balls until then but it didn’t matter as Bumrah trapped him LBW. However, the Indian pacers were unable to make further inroads into the Australian lower-order as Head and Starc batted out the remaining overs before stumps.
Earlier, Ashwin bowled with control as Australia were restricted to 117-4 at tea.
The senior off-spinner bowled an incisive spell that tied down the Australian batsmen.
First up, Shaun Marsh (2) gifted his wicket immediately after the break. In the very first over, he went for a wild slash against Ashwin, but ended up playing on as Australia were reduced to 59-3.
Usman Khawaja (28) and Handscomb then added 28 runs for the fourth wicket. The latter played some loose strokes at the start of his innings, but got some streaky boundaries off Mohammed Shami (0-51) to help the scoring rate move along.
The big moment came in the 40th over, when Ashwin got Khawaja’s wicket. The left-hander had been tied down and was content eating up deliveries. However, he pushed one forward against Ashwin and gloved it to keeper Rishabh Pant. (PTI)
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