Adelaide [Australia], December 9 (ANI): After completion of the day-night (pink-ball) Test of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25, former Australian batter Matthew Hayden provided his take on India’s bowling performance in Adelaide while talking on Star Sports.
A counter-attacking century from Travis Head and magnificent bowling spells from Mitchell Starc and skipper Pat Cummins proved to be the highlights as Australia continued their pink-ball cricket domination, flattening India by 10 wickets during the second Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series at Adelaide Oval on Sunday.
With this win, Australia have bounced back big time from a 295-run loss at Perth and levelled the five-match series 1-1. Also, they have kept their unbeaten run in pink ball Tests at Adelaide Oval alive, registering their eighth win in eight matches. This has put a dent on India’s ICC World Test Championship chances.
“Bowling I thought, on average was pretty good. When you thought of the freakish innings that Travis Head played, 140 off 141 deliveries that was just something else. Sometimes, batsmen have their way,” Matthew Hayden told Star Sports.
Coming to the match, India won the toss and opted to bat first. However, they had to face the wrath of a moving, erratic pink-ball and its mastermind, Mitchell Starc (6/48). Except for a 69-run stand for the second wicket between KL Rahul (37 in 64 balls with six fours) and Shubman Gill (31 in 51 balls, with five fours) and a fighting 42 in 54 balls (three fours and three sixes) from Nitish Kumar Reddy, there was not much highlights from India who were skittled out for 180 runs. Skipper Cummins and Scott Boland also took two wickets.
In the first innings, a 67-run partnership between Nathan McSweeney (39 in 109 balls, with six fours) and Marnus Labuschagne (64 in 126 balls, with nine fours) for second wicket set the platform for Travis Head to impose his domination over Indian bowlers yet again with a counter-attacking 140 in 141 balls, with 17 fours and four sixes, just when Aussies lost some regular wickets. His century took Australia to 337 runs and gave them a 157-run lead.
Jasprit Bumrah (4/61) and Mohammed Siraj (4/98) were top bowlers for India. Ravichandran and Nitish got a wicket each.
In their second innings, India appeared even more toothless as the star-studded top-order and middle-order returned back to pavillion despite starts from Jaiswal (24 in 31 balls, with four boundaries), Gill (28 in 30 balls, with three fours) while KL Rahul (7) and Virat Kohli (11 in 21 balls with a four) failed to score well. India ended day two at 128/5.
On the third day, Pant also lost his wicket for 28 in 31 balls, with five fours. From there on, it was not looking back for the Aussies, who skittled out India for 175 runs in 36.5 overs. India lead by just 18 runs, setting Aussies 19 runs to win.
Skipper Cummins (5/67) took a majestic five-wicket haul, his eighth as a captain. Boland took 3/51 while Starc took 2/60.
Set a target of 19 runs, Khawaja (10*) and McSweeney (9*) chased it down without breaking a sweat in 3.2 overs. (ANI)
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