AUS vs IND 2024/25, Australia vs India 2nd Test, Day 3, Adelaide Match Report, December 6-8, 2024
News

AUS vs IND 2024/25, Australia vs India 2nd Test, Day 3, Adelaide Match Report, December 6-8, 2024

Posted on by Amelia Pressman

Australia 337 (Head 140, Labuschagne 64, Bumrah 4-61, Siraj 4-98) and 19 for 0 shots India 180 (Reddy 42, Starc 6-48, Cummins 2-41) and 175 (Reddy 42, Cummins 5-57, Boland 3-51) by ten wickets

Pat Cummins’ five-wicket haul capped Australia’s dominance in the pink-ball Test at the Adelaide Oval as they leveled the series with a comfortable victory on the third afternoon. The end was near for India when Mitchell Starc struck with a perfect delivery in the first over of the day, putting Rishabh Pant behind for his overnight score of 28. India were bowled out for 175, just over an hour into the first session. Usman Khawaja and Nathan McSweeney needed 19 to complete the runs within four overs.
India were in danger of conceding an innings victory as Cummins hit bouncer after bouncer. R Ashwin, Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy all fell to short balls from the Australian captain. Much to the delight of the Adelaide crowd, their hero Travis Head made a tumbling catch to dismiss No.11 Mohammed Siraj, who had become public enemy No.1 after sending off Head on the second day.

However, Australia did not need Head with the bat in the second innings as Khawaja and McSweeney gave them the finishing touches.

Australia’s 295-run drubbing in Perth drew some heated tries, surprising some of their players, but in Adelaide they delivered a near-perfect response to equalize and set things up beautifully for the rest of the series.

Cummins, who didn’t seem sharp enough with the ball in the first Test, was back to his best in the second Test. After hitting the top of Rohit’s off-stump with the pink new ball under lights on Saturday, Cummins pulled his lengths further back with the older ball, which didn’t sway or seam as much in natural light. He had Ashwin behind him with gloves and Rana took a catch-to-gully with a meaner bouncer.

Reddy stood up to Cummins and hit a neck-high lifter over square leg for six despite two men on the leg boundary. But when Cummins shot one over him from near the wicket on the next ball, Reddy boosted it straight to third.

The 33,184 crowd in Adelaide had even more reason to celebrate when their adopted son McSweeney hit two fours in the close chase and then their favorite son Head won the Player of the Match award.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *