ADELAIDE: Australia’s Mitchell Starc claimed a career-best 6-48 to bundle out India for 180 inside two sessions of the day-night second Test in Adelaide on Friday.
India lost in-form opener Yashasvi Jaiswal to the first ball of the Test and slumped to 141-8 before Nitish Kumar Reddy’s belligerent 42 took them past the 175-mark.
Australia will expect their batters to complement the efforts of the bowling teammates as they press for a series-levelling victory.
Armed with the brand new pink ball, Starc gave Australia a perfect start after India captain Rohit Sharma elected to bat at the Adelaide Oval.
Starc dismissed Jaiswal lbw for a first-ball duck and let out a roar that showed how much Australia prized the wicket of the dangerous opener, who smashed a rapid 161 in the series opener in Perth.
Shubman Gill (31), who missed the Perth Test with a thumb injury, played a couple of gorgeous drives but KL Rahul, at the other end, retreated into a defensive shell.
Retained as an opener after his patient half-century in Perth, Rahul needed 21 balls to get off the mark and got two reprieves in Scott Boland’s first over.
Boland, replacing the injured Josh Hazlewood in the only change to the Australia squad, first had Rahul caught-behind off a no-ball and suffered more agony four balls later when Usman Khawaja spilled an edge from the batter at first slip.
Starc returned to end the 69-run stand when Rahul (37) guided the ball to Nathan McSweeney at gully, looking in two minds whether to play or leave.
In his next over, Starc dismissed Virat Kohli for seven in similar fashion with the batter, who struck a hundred in Perth, attempting to withdraw his bat when it was too late.
Boland cut short Gill’s fluent knock by trapping him lbw in the penultimate over before the dinner break.
India kept losing wickets when play resumed.
Rohit, who missed India’s victory in Perth and batted in the middle order, was trapped lbw for three by Boland, while Rishabh Pant (21) was done in by the extra bounce generated by Australia captain Pat Cummins.
Starc dismissed Ravichandran Ashwin for 22 and bowled Harshit Rana in the same over to complete his five-wicket haul.
Reddy decided to fight fire with fire and clobbered three sixes – two of them against Starc – including an audacious reverse scoop.
