Key events
24th over: India 82-2 (Pant 4, Rohit 2) Scott Boland starts us off, and Rishabh Pant gets off strike with a deflection off the pad. Rohit glances a single.
Had a sprinkle of rain here over the break, but the covers are off and we’ve restarted on time.
Dinner – India 82 for 4 after choosing to bat
It was a strange session. A wicket first ball of the Test, Australia running around. Then KL and Gill got India right back on top, before a couple of strange dismissals trying to leave, and the lbw.
Here’s a number from the Viz tracking. Cummins didn’t bowl a single ball that session that would have hit the stumps. Starc and Boland bowled three each, two of which got lbw dismissals. Maybe… worth trying that more?
Anyway. Australia now in a good spot, but many a team has let an innings slip from four down.
Meanwhile, if you want to catch up on the other Test, Harry Brook made yet another Test hundred off about 90 balls.
23rd over: India 82-2 (Pant 4, Rohit 1) Starc to India’s captain, the biggest threat today, and Rohit is trying to defuse it by playing across his pad repeatedly, trying to work the ball to leg. That doesn’t work, a fielder is set at short midwicket, so Rohit drives chancily on the up and nearly nicks one angled across. Then serious bounce from Starc takes the next up past the shoulder of the bat.
“Keenly following proceedings from cold and windy Germany where the few cricket enthusiasts like me are braving the chill to keep up with the pink-ball drama. I guess the contrast couldn’t be starker — while Adelaide Oval is abuzz with energy under the summer skies, Germany’s freezing winter adds a layer of coziness to late-night match-watching sessions, with warm drinks in hand and hopes as high as the stakes in this rivalry.”
When you said braving the chill, Dasika, I thought you meant watching it outdoors! That would be commitment.
22nd over: India 82-2 (Pant 4, Rohit 1) So the skipper comes out, Rohit Sharma back batting at six, where I think he batted here in 2014. And some work to do, along with his keeper. Gets started with a single to square.
WICKET! Gill lbw Boland 31, India 81-4
Finally! A non-Starc wicket, and Boland gets one after the two botched attempts in his first over. That’s as dead as they get when it comes to lbw. Full pitch, angled in, looks like it keeps a bit low as well? And hits Gill on the ankle in front of off stump, on the crease, on a moderate angle. He doesn’t bother to review.
The game has turned. It’s getting cooler and gloomier outside, not the easiest for batting.
21st over: India 81-2 (Gill 31, Pant 4) Now Pant gets going with a boundary! Second ball, flicks it square. Wickets and fours for Starc today. He now has 69 wickets at 18 in pink-ball cricket, with three so far here.
WICKET! Kohli c Smith b Starc 7, India 77-3
What is going on here! Another wicket to the attempted leave. Kohli has the bat up, then starts to come forward, then wants to lift it back up over the rising ball as he detects the line outside off stump. But the bounce is too high, the pace too great. The ball clips the toe of his bat in its backlift, and dips through to second slip where Smith takes it well, low down.
20th over: India 77-2 (Gill 31, Kohli 7) Nearly a run out there, as Gill sprawls into his ground at the non-striker’s end after calling for a tight run to the leg side. Kohli loves a fast single. It gets him on strike, and just as the other two kept doing, he fidns the boundary aerially through gully. Dicey method, but it’s not costing them. Kohli steps forward at Boland and drives three more through cover, with a solid clunk of ball meeting bat.
19th over: India 69-2 (Gill 30, Kohli 0) The customary cheer for Virat Kohli as the star player comes to the middle. Made his 30th Test century in Perth. Defends and leaves his first two balls here.
WICKET! Rahul c McSweeney b Starc 37, India 69-2
Relief for Australia! McSweeney is pumped up, bellowing and red-faced after taking the low catch. Strange shot from KL Rahul. We’ve seen the one where he runs the ball off the face while holding the bat in the backlift. This one starts that way, but the angle goes across him, the bounce is high, and perhaps by instinct, he follows the ball from that backlift position. Just shifts his wrists towards the line, waving the bat in a small circular motion, as through drawn to try dabbing it away somewhere or other. And the ball comes off the face of the bat, facing the ground, and into the gully.
18th over: India 67-1 (Rahul 35, Gill 30) Early spin, but it doesn’t stop Rahul scoring, Drives Nathan Lyon through cover for four as well.
17th over: India 61-1 (Rahul 30, Gill 29) Cummins has been scored from too easily today, between good balls. Driven by Rahul through covers for another four.
16th over: India 56-1 (Rahul 26, Gill 28) Gill has calmed down now, quietly taking a couple of runs to cover, then one more. How much might that earlier Boland over haunt Australia? No threat from this one.
“It is 4.40 am and like all the best people, I’m a nocturnal test cricket fan. I’m several thousand miles away in a grotty and dismal UK and I’m trying to keep an eye on both Tests that are going on. One on the radio and the other via a live stream. Is Adelaide now the de facto day/night test place in Australia?”
Not exactly, John Goldstein. More of them have been played here than elsewhere, but we’ve also had a few in Brisbane and one in Perth and Hobart. Melbourne will host the women’s Ashes Test as a day-nighter this coming January. And next year the men’s Ashes has a day game here and a night one at the Gabba.
15th over: India 53-1 (Rahul 26, Gill 25) That’s gorgeous. His best shot of the day. Better than any of Gill’s, now that I think of it. Rahul leans back and plays a late cut to pace, a stylish flourish of the bat, using the pace from Cummins to send the ball racing away safely on the bounce through gully. Entirely deliberate, that one. Then a more workmanlike forcing shot goes through backward point and makes it to the rope as well. These shots are after running two, making this an expensive over. Things are looking threatening for Australia despite the early wicket.
14th over: India 43-1 (Rahul 16, Gill 25) Oof, shot! Lovely cover drive from KL, sending Boland to the fence. Then tries to cut and misses, before being beaten again pushing with a straight bat. Squeezes away a run to leg.
13th over: India 38-1 (Rahul 11, Gill 25) Cummins is hitting the pitch hard without extracting any lateral movement that I can see, the first few balls. Does manage to bowl a maiden to Gill though, which today takes some doing.
12th over: India 38-1 (Rahul 11, Gill 25) Boland follows the tactical hydration interval, with Rahul again happy to block until he can nudge a couple of runs. Now that the ball is past its very new stage, will it offer less?
11th over: India 36-1 (Rahul 9, Gill 25) Cummins is back, with that intensity, and he draws an edge from Gill, but like the others it ends up at the boundary. This time scooting onto the ground through the cordon again, McSweeney at gully seeing it go by. Then adding two more, out to cover.
Drinks, after 11 overs and one wicket. They’re supposed to bowl 15 an hour, for reference.
10th over: India 30-1 (Rahul 9, Gill 19) Scotty Boland making the pink ball do stuff. This time it’s off the same and jagging into the pad, via Rahul’s inside edge. Then passing him on the outside edge, making him draw inside the line.
Phil Withall writes in. “Cummins seems to have started the day with a composed menace, like the silent enforcer from a Guy Ritchie film, confident, a man at ease with his ability to disrupt and demean. A man of intensity. Looking forward to watching how this develops.”
He does make a point of seeming relaxed for media spots, but he’s an intense competitor.
9th over: India 29-1 (Rahul 9, Gill 18) KL has decided that Gill can’t have all the fun, and hurls his bat at width from Starc. Carves the drive up and over the cordon, streakily. Safer as he drives two through cover. So, India scoring alright despite teh early loss. Smells like rain is coming, with the windows open here at the Oval. The breeze has become much cooler in the last 10 minutes.
8th over: India 23-1 (Rahul 3, Gill 18) Time for an early bowling change. Cummins likes doing this – normally it’s him coming on for Hazlewood now – so that he can bring back the replaced opener in a few overs from the other end. This time it’s Scott Boland…
taking a wicket with his first ball! Hasn’t played at home in two years, and nicks off Rahul. Smashed onto a length, rising sharply, past the shoulder of the bat as KL twists the handle. Carey appeals, KL Rahul immediately tucks the bat and walks off, Boland glances back at the umpire for confirmation and gets a nod, the Aussies celebrate…
and then the no-ball is called. Overstepped by a fraction. And just as he’s about to commence several hours of kicking himself, the soundwave graph comes up and shows no spike. Nothing. Saying that KL didn’t hit it. But he thought he did.
KL gets off the mark with two runs through square, then he’s dropped at slip! Another missed chance for Australia, pushing at the ball, Boland’s fuller length and steep lift drawing the nick, but Khawaja set quite deep at first slip can’t get across far enough. Collapses his right leg under his body trying to fall across to the dipping ball, gets the fingers of his right hand to it but that’s all. Difficult one, but does Khawaja have the agility and reaction speed you need at slip?
7th over: India 19-1 (Rahul 0, Gill 18) Gill scored heavily off Starc in Brisbane in 2021, and he’s doing it again here. Squeezes out a square drive through that gully gap again, though that comes after Starc swung a ball savagely back into the right-hander and smashed his pad. Too high and maybe swinging towards leg.
6th over: India 15-1 (Rahul 0, Gill 14) Cummins then, with three slips and a gully set quite close to them. Rahul essays the leave-play shot, getting the ball down off the face into the cordon while holding the bat in his backlift. Then drops a rising ball off the sticker down near his feet, unsure where it went at first. Tough over.
5th over: India 15-1 (Rahul 0, Gill 14) Can’t stop Gill scoring! On the up, but he leans into a cover drive with minimal follow-through and connects perfectly. Risk in the stroke but it brings him four. There’s a Starc overstep in the over as well.
4th over: India 10-1 (Rahul 0, Gill 10) Cummins making the ball sing again! Beats the edge a couple of times. But KL is picking up where he left off in Perth, letting those balls pass him without chasing them, leaving the safer wider ones, defending where he can. Soaking up the quality early over.
Rowan Sweeney is editing on the fly. “Last summer seems like a rather wasted opportunity to blood new talent, and this series could get a little brutal for Australia. I’m picking Jaiswal to make anot Never mind, then. How’s your day going, Geoff?”
It took a long time for this game to start, but glad to be underway.
3rd over: India 10-1 (Rahul 0, Gill 10) Starc to continue, nearly gets Gill with a rising ball on a narrow angle across, but Gill doesn’t edge it. Does drive a brace, opening the face through cover. Such a productive scorer even under pressure.
Andrew Benton emails in. “Have Australia reset/rebooted themselves these past ten days, and if so, how? Do they have a new gameplan, have they made some tweaks for victory? Wicket. Oh. They do, and have.”
Well, they got Jaiswal for a duck in the first innings in Perth, too, and it didn’t much help them when he made a massive ton in the second.
2nd over: India 8-1 (Rahul 0, Gill 8) Cummins will share the new ball, with Hazlewood out. And he cuts KL Rahul in half with a ball that buzzsaws in from outside the off stump, Rahul yanking the bat across and eventually getting it inside the line of the seam movement.
That makes 35 Tests that have started with a wicket. Starc and Pedro Collins the leaders with three instances. Twice for Geoff Arnold, Richard Hadlee, Kapil Dev, and Suranga Lakmal.
1st over: India 8-1 (Rahul 0, Gill 8) So Shubman Gill effectively has to open, and he does so by flashing a cut through gully for four! Might have carried to a catcher but it’s in the gap. Then when Starc pitches fuller he’s driven through mid off for another. Quite the eventful first over.
That’s the third time Starc has taken a wicket with the first ball of the match. Rory Burns, of course, at the Gabba, and when he was monstering Big Frank – Dimuth Karunaratne – during the 2016 tour of Sri Lanka.
The first player to do it was Arthur Coningham, who had a fascinating troubled life. We did a Story Time podcast about him if you want to dig that out.
WICKET! Jaiswal lbw Starc 0
Wicket first ball of the match! Starc does it, as the stattos scramble for the precedents. A fierce delivery with the new hot-pink ball. Bowling to a left-hander, it angles towards leg stump and then swings back markedly. Pitches in line with middle and leg, and continues towards leg stump, hitting it flush on the ball-tracking. Jaiswal doesn’t review.
We’re underway…
The anthems, then the commencement bell is rung by Tim May. A name that rings out in concert with this ground and with South Australian. Bowled good offies for Australia, 42 not out in the one-run loss to West Indies on this ground, and won the Shield final here in his last first-class match.
Harbhajan Singh and Ricky Ponting carry the trophy out together. Memories of how Harbhajan tormented Ponting in 2001. His series went 0, 6, 0, 0, 11, and during the 11 he got dropped on 0.
The pitch, you all cry. What about the pitch? It looks decent. Not as grassy as some in previous years. The curators here trust the pink ball now to keep its shine, so they don’t leave the luxuriant leafage of the first few years. This strip has a few tinges down the edges but is straw toned down the business section. The grass here does go that colour while it’s still alive though, so there might be some grip for the bowlers, make it move sideways a touch. And then there’s the hope of swing. We’ll see.
Teams
Ashwin is back! And the rest goes as expected.
India
KL Rahul
Yashasvi Jaiswal
Shubman Gill
Virat Kohli
Rishabh Pant +
Rohit Sharma *
Nitish Kumar Reddy
Ravichandran Ashwin
Harshit Rana
Mohammed Siraj
Jasprit Bumrah
Australia
Nathan McSweeney
Usman Khawaja
Marnus Labuschagne
Steve Smith
Travis Head
Mitchell Marsh
Alex Carey +
Mitchell Starc
Pat Cummins *
Nathan Lyon
Scott Boland
India win the toss and bat
The coin falls for the visitors! Rohit is back as skipper after Bumrah’s successful match deputising. He wants to put up a score.
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As for India, there are so many ways that could go. We now know that KL Rahul will remain as opener, and Rohit Sharma will bat “somewhere in the middle,” as he offered yesterday at his captain’s press conference. So Dhruv Jurel is the omission that would accommodate that. Devdutt Padikkal will be the one for Shubman Gill if they make that change at No3.
The bowling is more interesting to me. Ravichandran Ashwin has 536 Test wickets. Ravindra Jadeja has 319. They were both left out in Perth for Washington Sundar, who has 24 wickets. And yeah, he batted ok, but India’s great spinners can both bat as well. So, surely they have to give Ashwin a chance in Adelaide? It’s criminal leaving him on the bench.
Young all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy probably did enough to keep his spot, maybe at No7, then for the quicks, Jasprit Bumrah certainly plays, Mohammad Siraj should although you never know what India’s selection gambles may be, and the main question is whether they might prefer the swing of Akash Deep rather than the pace and bounce of Harshit Rana, which worked well in Perth but might have been a pick based on conditions.
How about a preview? I wrote one yesterday focusing on the Australian bowlers, let’s have that.
Preamble
Geoff Lemon
Hello! Here we are in Adelaide. It’s crunch time for Australian cricket. The reaction was explosive after the home team got hammered by India in Perth in the first Test. Having ten days between engagements has helped things simmer down, but that simmer will soon return to a boil if India turn up the heat again. (Ok, we’ll not stretch this metaphor any further.)
It’s a five-Test series, so going 2-0 down is not technically the end of it, but from memory teams have only come back from that deficit twice in Test history. So if Australia’s struggling batting gets rocked again here, they’re in major strife. In their favour is the day-night format with the pink ball, which Australian players have seen more of than those of any other country.
It’s stinking hot outside, as it has been the last few days, with a fan-forced oven sort of wind blustering across the city, but the clouds have come over today, which will give some respite to the side bowling. We may have some stormy precipitation at some stage in the afternoon. Who knows. Late last night the sky was flickering with dry lightning like a series of paper lanterns, but nary a drop fell.
