AUS vs IND 2024/25 Australia vs India 2nd Test Day 3 Adelaide Match Report 06 – 08 Dec 2024

India 180 and 128 for 5 (Pant 28*, Cummins 2-33, Boland 2-39) runs Australia 337 (Head 140, Labuschagne 64, Bumrah 4-61, Siraj 4-98) by 29 runs

After the floodlights were blacked out twice on the opening day, Australia’s batting threatened to falter on the second afternoon. Head, however, had other ideas and launched into the fray with his no-holds-barred approach. He played and missed four of his first nine balls, but that certainly didn’t stop him from playing his shots. He stayed true to his method of staying next to the ball and chipping it away in the shorter pockets of the ground square on the off side.

He also cleared the longer straight boundary when he smashed R Ashwin over mid-off and then over his head for sixes, including a 110-metre monster hit over the sight screen.

Head scored his first fifty off 63 balls and took just 48 more balls to convert it into a hundred. He celebrated the landmark by cradling his bat like a baby in tribute to his family’s new arrival with his wife and newborn in front of a home crowd of 51,642. A hug from fellow South Australian Alex Carey was also part of the celebration.

Labuschagne reached his fifty off 114 balls and celebrated by taking the erratic Harshit Rana for three fours in four balls. Having clipped the taller, faster Rana with ease late on, Labuschagne was caught in the gap when he tried a similar shot from Nitish Kumar Reddy’s shorter, slower pace.

Head was more brutal against Rana, hitting him for 41 off 29 balls. It didn’t matter what came down on Head. Short. Full. On the stumps. Outside stump. Everything was shipped.

R Ashwin’s only wicket was Mitchell Marsh, but that was down to some luck. After lining up to defend a non-turning offbreak from Ashwin, Marsh walked off even before umpire Richard Illingworth raised his finger and didn’t even consider a review. There was nothing on Snicko and replays also suggested the ball had missed the outside edge.

Head also attacked the second new ball and whipped Bumrah for a four. He then brought Siraj for an imperious six over square leg in the next over, but Siraj hit the next ball back to york Head. Siraj unleashed his pent-up emotions and gave Head a rebuff that didn’t go down too well with him or his beloved Adelaide crowd.

The boos sounded, but Siraj went on to dismiss Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland shortly after tea to finish Australia out for 337. Bumrah, who had gone down with some discomfort, receiving medical attention, got four balls into his spell with the second new ball, recovered to topple Cummins.

Cummins then took center stage with the ball and convulsed KL Rahul with a lifter for 7 off 10 balls. Just before stumps, he hit the top of Rohit Sharma’s off-stump with an absolute peach.

Rohit had a shaky stay as he was hit on the helmet by his first ball from Starc. He was then bowled the next ball but a no-ball dismissed him. Cummins bowled Rohit in just before the end of the game, making no mistake in the placement of his heel.

It was Boland who had prized Virat Kohli by pushing a length ball on the fourth-stump line and pulling an outside edge off him. Boland had earlier struck with his first ball to remove Yashasvi Jaiswal for 24 off 31 balls. He has slotted seamlessly into the bowling attack and could pose an interesting selection question for the Brisbane Test, although Josh Hazlewood is hoping to return to the side for that match.

Starc not batting with the pink new ball in his first spell may be an aberration but he came back with the older one to storm through the defense of Gill with a bouncing strike that also nailed in late.

However, Pant continued to make Pant stuff. Despite the onslaught of wickets, he came out of the crease and made room to smash his first ball over mid-off for four. He then unfurled the reverse move and the falling scoop to counter Australia’s quick cards. He remained unbeaten on 28 off 25 balls.

India will need more of this from Pant – and more support from Reddy – if they are to somehow pull off another heist in Australia.