India Head to doom

Travis Head celebrates his century against India in Adelaide on Saturday. Pic/Getty Images

‘Audacious' doesn't do justice to Travis Head. No situation fazes the Australian left-hander, no bowler drives him into his shell. Over the last year and a half, Head has made it a habit of feasting on India's bowling attack. He did so in the final of the World Test Championship at The Oval in June last year, and reprised that feat in the final of the 50-over World Cup in Ahmedabad five months later. He was at it again on Saturday, flaying the Indians to all parts of the Adelaide Oval.

India's top-order collapse

After Head knocked the stuffing out of Rohit Sharma's men with 140 of the finest at nearly a run a ball, India's top-order collapsed like a pack of cards for the third time in four innings on Day Two of the second Test. Trailing by 157 on the first count, India barely managed to stretch the pink ball Test to the third afternoon, finishing on 128-5 with Rishabh Pant and Nitish Kumar Reddy carrying their slender hopes.

Pat Cummins and the effervescent Scott Boland were the chief wreckers in the second dig, the captain dismissing KL Rahul in his first spell and his counterpart with a beauty in the second, while Boland weighed in with the scalps of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli, once again falling to a sucker ball on the fourth-stump line. Around all this, first-innings hero Mitchell Starc came up with an excellent delivery to uproot Shubman Gill's middle stump as Australia's quicks made the most of bowling in the final session, in direct contrast to India 24 hours earlier, when they didn't make the Aussie openers play enough for the first 45 minutes or so.

Still needing 29 to make the Aussies bat again, India face a long road back. Barring the unforeseen, Australia will extend their perfect record in day-night Tests at this ground to eight games.

Also Read: "That's how they want to represent themselves": Head on Mohammed Siraj's fiery send-off

India began the afternoon well enough through Jasprit Bumrah when Australia resumed on 86-1 through Nathan McSweeney and Marnus Labuschagne. The ace in the Indian pack got rid of McSweeney and Steve Smith, both caught behind but on different sides of the wicket, but India then ran into a tartar in Labuschagne and local hero Head.

Coming off Player of the Test awards in the last two games here, Head picked India apart, particularly feasting on Harshit Rana. Having seen off a torrid opening phase the previous night, Labuschagne visibly grew in confidence and played some handsome strokes of his own, but Head was in overdrive from the beginning, peppering the off-side boundary and opening his shoulders to deposit R Ashwin's off-spin into the stands thrice.

Luck favours Travis

The pressure on Australia eased when Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, desperately unlucky to go wicketless during a fantastic seven-over spell first up, were off the firing line and Head made merry. He took his chances, and they came off; he should have been dismissed on 76, but Siraj put down a difficult chance as he failed to get under the swirling ball running back a long way from mid-on, but apart from that, he was largely in control during an eye-catching exhibition of unfettered stroke-making.

955
No. of runs scored by Travis Head in 12 Tests against India @ 47.75

Brief scores
India 180 & 128-5 (R Pant 28'; P Cummins 2-33, S Boland 2-39) v Australia 337 (T Head 140, M Labuschagne 64, N McSweeney 39; J Bumrah 4-61, M Siraj 4-98)