India dropped to number three in the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) rankings after losing to the Australians by 10 wickets in the second Test at Adelaide Oval, while Australia topped the rankings.
Australia has now won eight straight day/night Test matches in Adelaide, including this one. They have won 12 of the 13 day/night tests overall.
As India’s Test captain, Rohit Sharma suffered his fourth straight loss.
India chose to bat first in the match after winning the toss. But they had to contend with the fury of a roving, unpredictable pink-ball and Mitchell Starc, its mastermind (6/48). There were few highlights for India, who were bowled out for 180 runs, aside from a 69-run partnership 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 valiant 42 in 54 balls (three fours and three sixes) from Nitish Kumar Reddy. Both Scott Boland and captain Cummins claimed two wickets.
Travis Head’s counterattacking 140 in 141 balls, with 17 fours and four sixes, just as the Australians were losing some regular wickets, was made possible by 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 the second wicket in the first innings. Australia now leads by 157 runs after his century, which brought them to 337 runs.
India’s best bowlers were Mohammed Siraj (4/98) and Jasprit Bumrah (4/61). Nitish and Ravichandran both claimed a wicket.
Despite starts from Jaiswal (24 in 31 balls, with four boundaries) and Gill (28 in 30 balls, with three fours), India looked even more toothless in their second innings as their star-studded middle-order and top-order slumped back to the pavilion. Virat Kohli (11 in 21 balls, with a four) and KL Rahul (7) also did not score well. India finished the second day with 128/5.
Pant was also dismissed for 28 in 31 balls with five fours on the third day. After defeating India for 175 runs in 36.5 overs, the Australians had no turning back. India leads by barely 18 runs, giving the Australians a 19-run victory margin.
Captain Cummins (5/67) claimed his ninth wicket in a spectacular five-wicket haul. Starc took 2/60 and Boland took 3/51.
Khawaja (10) and McSweeney (9) set a goal of 19 runs, which they easily took down in 3.2 overs.