Australia v India – First Test, Day 2: More experiences and observations from DJS

December 19, 2020 by Almanac Admin Leave a Comment

First Test
Adelaide Oval
Day 2, Dec 18, 2020.

by Daryl Schramm

Well, it was a wicket 2^nd ball yesterday, and another 3^rd ball today. 6/233 overnight became 10/244, a loss of 4/11 in 25 balls (which, again, at 24 minutes, took too long to bowl). The problem of a tail hanging around was averted and the apprehension for our openers Wade and Burns as they entered was measurable at the oval. The first runs came from the 4^th ball of the 4^th over. Yadav was all over Wade and Shami completed the 10^th over within 40 minutes. See, it can be done!

Wade was the first to go in the 15^th over, then Burns followed with the last ball of the 17^th over, both LBW to Bumrah, both reviewed and both umpires call, so no reviews lost. The whole day seemed to be taken up by reviews. Wade was never comfortable, but Burns appeared to grow in confidence as the innings evolved.

Bumrah was a real handful and got through his overs quickly, so the game seemed to be moving even though scoring was difficult. He finished the first session with an almost comical attempt to catch Marnus on the long leg boundary, leaving Australia 2/35 off 19 overs.

The second session had barely started when Shaw made a mess of another Marnus lofted chance at square leg, then Smith and Marnus tried to run each other out, then followed by Smith edging to slip in Ashwin’s first over. 3/45 off 27 overs 34 minutes into the session. Head, always promising, was softly caught and bowled by the destroyer Ashwin in the 35^th over. The vintage scoreboard was telling a sorry story for us.

Green scored from his first ball, and from my vantage point looked the goods. The late cut for a boundary off Ashwin was delightful, but in the blink of an eye a lose shot to Kohli at midwicket off Ashwin in the 41^st over bought an abrupt end to a promising innings, and boy, was he cross with himself. So, at 5/79, India’s 244 was looking a very long way off.

The man of many lives at the other end, Marnus, immediately and confidently reviewed an LBW decision against him. A fairly significant inside edge was the reason. That’s what the reviews are all about folks. Preventing the howler.

Tea was taken with Australia 5/92 off 49 overs and soon after the resumption Marnus ran out of luck, reviewing (because they could with still 3 reviews left) a plumb LBW to Yadav. At 6/111 we were in deep doggy doodle, and it got worse 2 balls later with Cummins succumbing to Yadav’s aggression.

Another dropped catch in the 55^th over and again in 59^th by the keeper Saha, a difficult skyer off Starc, added to the drama of the day. All the while, the skipper was remaining positive with his batting and manufacturing ones, twos and fours at the right time with aggressive running. The urgency between wickets unfortunately bought Starc’s downfall, inches short of his crease trying to complete two (which ironically caused another review delay). 8/139, just under a hundred short.

Drinks at 8:48 pm after 64 overs of 83 to be bowled. India won’t get to use the new ball tonight (but Australia did though). It’s also getting bloody cold. The hoody and a bit of port certainly helped. Yet another review, this time by India on Lyon delayed proceedings, but “the system” came up trumps again.

Oh dear. How soft was that dismissal? Lyon, who was doing quite well with the skipper, coughed one up to Kohli, again placing himself in the right spot. 9/167 at the end of the 67^th. All 4 Indian bowlers were in the forties, an illustration of how well they have bowled to Kohlis’s astute field placings. Paine was the only one causing any real headaches for the visitors as he continued his positive and aggressive approach until the end.

At 9/191 off 72 overs, I was thinking another 30 runs would be really handy. At 10/191 after the next ball, the first of a new spell by Yadav proved once again to never get ahead of yourself.

Eight overs to make some inroads. Shaw’s departure seemed to be of no surprise, but Bumrah in his role of keeping watch performed his task well. 1/9 after 6 overs was yet another tense and dramatic period of the match that is well and truly in India’s favour. If they are good enough, they have the opportunity to bat us out of the test on day 3. Or, could the match be all over in 3 days? In this Test, anything is possible.

See the full scorecard courtesy of Cricinfo HERE