As many as 15 wickets fell on the second day of the Pink-Ball test in Adelaide. This is the biggest highlight of the Day 2 report of the Pink-Ball test in Adelaide. First India lost their final four wickets inside the first hour of play. Indian bowlers then came back to bowl out Australia till the third session. India again lost their first wicket with 8 overs in the day’s play left. More about the Day 2 report in detail below.
Team India started Day 2 on 233 for 6 and yet again lost a wicket in the first over of the day. Ravichandran Ashwin was the first wicket to fall on Day 2 in the very first over. Ashwin who had scored 15 overnight was dismissed by Pat Cummins. Wriddhiman Saha was dismissed in the very next over for 9. He too failed to add to his overnight score.
Umesh Yadav scored a boundary from a mighty heave before he mistimed one to be nicely taken by Matthew Wade off Starc again. Mohammed Shami was then dismissed in the very first ball he faced from Cummins as India finished on 244. The collapse from the Indian lower-order was not a good sight for all the Indian fabs who expected India to score at least 300 in the first innings.
Ravichandran Ashwin Spins A Web Around Australia
Australia then walked out to bat with openers Joe Burns and Matthew Wade starting their innings. The Indian bowlers fought back hard and took wickets at regular intervals, once Bumrah provided the initial breakthroughs. The Aussies at one point were 65 for 4 after the dismissal of Travis Head. Steve Smith, making a comeback to the Border-Gavaskar test series had a tough stay at the crease. He scored 1 off 29 deliveries before edging one to slips off Ashwin. This happened in the very next ball after Smith survived a run-out chance in the earlier delivery.
From 65 for 4 at lunch, the Aussies were down to 92/5 with Marnus Labuschange on 47 and Australia skipper Tim Paine having just joined him at the wicket. Labuschange was ultimately dismissed on that score by Umesh Yadav but not before the Indin fielders dropped him thrice in the course of his innings.
In the final session of play, Paine played a counter-attacking innings scoring an unbeaten 73 and taking Australia to 191. In the process, he added two crucial stands of 27 with Mitchell Starc (15), 28 with Nathan Lyon (10) and 24 with Josh Hazlewood (8) as they lessened the lead as much as possible.
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R Ashwin was the pick of the Indian bowlers taking 4 for 55. His wickets included Smith, Head, Green and Lyon. Ashwin’s dismissal of Smith was the biggest wicket of the day. Umesh took the wickets of Pat Cummins and Labuschange after Bumrah provided the early breakthroughs. Mohammad Shami had a wicket-less spell. He was unfortunate to see two catches being dropped off his bowling.
India’s Catching Catches Criticism on Day 2
The Indian fielders had a forgetful day in Adelaide. They dropped as many as five catches with a couple of them going through the slips. Apart from Marnus being dropped thrice, Paine and Starc were dropped once each by the Indian fielders. This was another highlight of the day’s play and severely criticised by former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar.
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The visitors resumed batting in the second innings taking a handy lead of 53 over the Aussies. With six overs left for the day’s play, Aussies struck with Cummins breaching through Prithvi Shaw’s defence once again. It was an identical dismissal from Shaw who was dismissed in the first innings by an incoming delivery from Mitchell Starc. Virat Kohli & Co ultimately ended the day on 9/1 stretching leading to 62.
Brief Scores:
India 244 (Kohli 74, Starc 4-53) and 9 for 1 lead Australia 191 (Paine 73*, Ashwin 4-55, Umesh 3-40) by 62 runs
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