Travis Head century, India’s top order woes put Australia in firm command of Adelaide Test

Home team Australia have assumed complete control of the 2nd Test in Adelaide at the end of day two on Saturday. Local lad Travis Head’s quick century helped Australia take a lead of 155 in the first innings. At the close of play, India were reduced to 128/5 with Rishabh Pant batting with Nitish Kumar Reddy. 

Australia started the day at 86/1 and lost their first wicket of the day in the third over. Jasprit Bumrah bowled a terrific ball to get the wicket of opener Nathan McSweeney for 39 after the Aussie batter faced 109 balls. Steve Smith batted for 11 balls before becoming Bumrah’s third wicket for 2 runs. 

The home team came back into the game thanks to the 65-run partnership between Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne. The pair made full use of some sloppy bowling by Harshit Rana in particular. Labuschagne then went past his fifty before he was nicked off in the gully by Jaiswal off Nitish Kumar Reddy. 

Travis Head’s century stings India once again

Mitchell Marsh survived a close controversial call facing R. Ashwin but was out for 9 to the same bowler. With wickets falling at the other end, Head continued to attack India’s bowlers. Mohammed Siraj dropped a difficult catch when Head was close to his century. Once he reached his century, Head celebrated the ton and honoured his new ball child with a cradle-rocking celebration. 

There was more drama that happened when Mohammed Siraj delivered the perfect yorker to Head to bowl him out for 140. The two players were seen in an angry exchange of words and both had a lot to say to each other. Bumrah then got his 4th wicket when he castled Pat Cummins for 12 while Siraj dismissed Alex Carey for 16. The innings ended when Siraj bowled Scott Boland for a duck. 

KL Rahul was the first Indian wicket to fall when he tried to pull Cummins only to feather a catch to Alex Carey for 7.  Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill then added 30m for the 2nd wicket in 26 balls. Scott Boland struck with the first ball of his spell as he had Jaiswal caught behind for 24. 

Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli then added 24 runs for the third with the former Indian skipper looking good. Scott Boland had Virat Kohli caught behind by Carey for 11 runs off 21 balls. Mitchell Starc then bowled a fuller ball to castle Gill for 28 while Cummins dismissed Rohit Sharma for 6. 

At the close of play, Rishabh Pant was batting on 28 runs from 25 balls while Nitish Kumar Reddy was on 15. Pant in particular will carry the hopes of a billion Indian fans and try to get India close to the 157 runs needed to make the Aussies bat again.