Day 2 – India trail by 29 runs.
Current RR: 5.33
 • Last 10 ov (RR): 66/3 (6.60)
Head’s innings of 140 was scored at a strike-rate of 99.29 and flattened India by the time they came out to bat in the final session
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
A whirlwind century from hometown hero Travis Head blew India’s attack away and thrilled the Adelaide crowd on day two of the pink-ball Test. Head’s 140 off 141 balls swelled Australia’s first-innings lead to 157, leaving India facing a challenging final two hours under the floodlights. The visitors fell further behind when they lost half their side during that period when the pink ball was at its most potent. At stumps, India were 128 for 5, still 29 runs behind away from taking a lead.
Head had walked out to generous applause from his home crowd and into a bit of trouble in the middle after Jasprit Bumrah had taken out both Nathan McSweeney and Steven Smith in a space of 13 balls. While McSweeney nicked a Bumrah special behind to Rishabh Pant, after managing to add just one to his overnight tally of 38, Steven Smith was caught down the leg side for 2.
After the floodlights had blacked out twice on the opening day, Australia’s batting threatened to black out on the second afternoon. Head, however, had other ideas and torched the innings with his no-holds-barred approach. He played 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 leg-side of the ball and cracking it away into the shorter pockets of the ground square on the off side.
He also cleared the longer straight boundary when he crashed R Ashwin over mid-off and then over his head for sixes, including a 110-metre monster hit.
Head scored his first fifty off 63 balls and took only 48 more balls to convert it into a hundred. He celebrated the landmark by rocking his bat like a baby in tribute to his family’s new arrival, with his wife among the crowd of over 51,642. A hug from fellow South Australian Alex Carey was also part of the revelry.
Full report to follow…
Deivarayan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
