Australia thrash India by 10 wickets in second Test, level series 1-1

Nathan McSweeney, Pat Cummins, Travis Head (Pic: X/@ICC)

Australia maintained their unbeaten record in Pink ball Tests with a stunning 10-wicket victory over Team India.

The five-match Test series between India and Australia is now levelled at 1-1. The second Test match also marked the shortest-ever Test between these two teams in terms of ball bowled.

Starting day three with 128 runs for the loss of five wickets, Nitish Kumar Reddy's knock of 42 runs prevented a second successive innings defeat under lights at Adelaide as India was bowled out for 175.

Australia required to score 19 runs which was achieved in just 3.2 overs.

The visitors' second innings lasted for only 36.5 overs. Australia's Pat Cummins claimed five wickets for 57 runs, followed by Scott Boland's three for 51 runs. Mitchell Starc too snapped two wickets for 60 runs.

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.

Also Read: India Head to doom

After a facile 295-run win in Perth, the 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 Australian.

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.

Australia's 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.

(With PTI Inputs)