Australia thrash India by 10 wickets, level series 1-1

PTI, Dec 8, 2024, 11:29 AM IST

Australia maintained their unblemished record in Pink-ball Tests with an emphatic 10-wicket victory over a completely out-of-sorts India on Sunday, leveling the five-Test series 1-1 within just two-and-a-half days.

This was the shortest-ever Test between India and Australia in terms of balls bowled.

Starting the day at 128 for 5, Nitish Kumar Reddy’s (42) cavalier approach prevented a second successive innings defeat under lights at Adelaide as India were bowled out for 175.

The required 19 runs were a formality which was achieved in just 3.2 overs.

India’s second innings lasted only 36.5 overs, with skipper Pat Cummins using the short ball effectively to claim 5 for 57. Scott Boland (3/51) inflicted early damage, while Mitchell Starc (2/60) chipped in with crucial wickets.

Such was the dominance of the three premier quicks that Cummins didn’t even need Mitchell Marsh and Nathan Lyon in the second innings. In fact, the specialist spinner and all-rounder bowled just five overs between them in the entire game.

After a facile 295-run win in Perth, Indian batting unit won’t be too amused to learn that they survived a total of 81 overs across both innings, which isn’t even a whole day of Test match batting.

It was a tale of two shoddy batting efforts with the two senior-most players Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli looking well past their best. Jasprit Bumrah gave it all but lacked a potent bowling partner at the other end. Had India pulled off a coup in this game, it would have been something miraculous but Starc, the undisputed ‘OG’ of Pink-Ball Tests with 74 victims, bowled a delivery on length which Rishabh Pant (28) didn’t fully press forward while jabbing his bat at it. The regulation catch was duly accepted by Steve Smith stationed at second slip.

Reddy, who is time and again showing that positive attitude and big heart at times trumps technique, continued to defy the Australians. In the first two Tests, Reddy’s commitment and ability to gut it out has been exemplary. He hasn’t yet got a fifty but scores of 41, 37 not out, 42 and 42 shows a lot of promise for the future and his seam-up wicket-to-wicket bowling can only improve if he stays around the national team.

But it was difficult to survive the Pink Kookaburra as Ravichandran Ashwin perished trying to hook Pat Cummins.

The Australian skipper then completed Harshit Rana’s misery with a short ball that could have knocked his head off and it didn’t take much time to polish off the tail.