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

After the floodlights failed twice on the opening day, Australia’s batting line-up faced blackout on the second afternoon. However, Head had other ideas and set the innings on fire with his no-holds-barred approach. He bowled 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 on the side of the ball and directing it into the shorter pockets of the field on the offside side.

He also mastered the longer straight boundary when he pounced on R Ashwin over middle and then over his head for a six, including a 110-yard monster hit over the screen.

Head scored his first fifty from 63 balls and needed just 48 more balls to make it a hundred. He celebrated the milestone by rocking his racket like a baby in tribute to the new arrival to his family, with his wife and newborn amidst a home crowd of 51,642. A hug from fellow South Australian Alex Carey was also part of the celebration.

Labuschagne reached his 50 off 114 balls and celebrated by smashing the erratic Harshit Rana for three fours in four balls. After dismissing the taller, faster Rana late with ease, Labuschagne was caught in the lurch while attempting a similar shot against the smaller, slower Nitish Kumar Reddy.

The head was more brutal for Rana, hitting him for 41 off 29 balls. It didn’t matter what happened at Head. Short. Full. On the stumps. Outside the stump. Everything was shipped.

R Ashwin’s only wicket was of Mitchell Marsh but that was down to his luck. After choosing to defend an off-break from Ashwin that failed to turn, Marsh walked off before referee Richard Illingworth raised his finger and didn’t even think about checking. There was no sign of Snicko, and replays also showed that the ball had missed the outside edge.

Head also attacked the second new ball and hit Bumrah for a double four. He then took Siraj out for a confident six-over square leg in the next over, but Siraj hit back the next ball to head York. Siraj gave vent to his pent-up emotions and gave Head a farewell that neither he nor his beloved Adelaide audience particularly liked.

The boos rang out but Siraj dismissed Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland shortly after tea to reward Australia for 337. recovered to knock Cummins down.

Cummins then took center stage with the ball and overwhelmed KL Rahul with a chip 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 footing as he was hit on the helmet by his first ball from Starc. He was then bowled on the next ball, but a no-ball made up for it. Cummins introduced Rohit just before the end of the game, making no mistake in his heel placement.

It was Boland who got rid of Virat Kohli by pushing a long ball to a fourth-stump line and depriving him of an outside edge. Boland had earlier struck with his first ball, dismissing 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 will be hoping to return to action for that game.

If Starc didn’t strike with the pink new ball in his first game it might be a mistake, but he came back with the older one and burst through the Gill defense with a shot inside that also arrived late.

However, Pant continued to do Pant things. Despite the onslaught of wickets, he stormed out of the crease and gained the space he needed to smash his first ball over the halfway line for four. He then deployed the reverse pull and falling scoop to momentarily counter Australia’s quicks. He remained unbeaten with 28 off 25 balls.

India will need more of the same from Pant – and more support from Reddy – if it is to somehow pull off another heist in Australia.