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Australia v India cricket: Travis Head offers batting hope

Local hero Travis Head holds the key to Australia’s hopes in the Adelaide Test after standing firm amid a batting collapse | VIDEO

Andrew Faulkner and Tom Crystal
12 min read
6:46PMDecember 07, 2018.
Updated 6:58PMDecember 07, 2018
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Australian batsman Travis Head raises his bat after scoring a half-century on day two at Adelaide. Picture: AAP
Australian batsman Travis Head raises his bat after scoring a half-century on day two at Adelaide. Picture: AAP

Day 2 of the First Test between Australia and India from the Adelaide Oval. Australia are 7-191 at stumps in reply to India’s first innings of 250.

Andrew Faulkner 6.35pm: Head masters Indian attack

In standing firm among the wreckage, Travis Head has locked in a spot for the rest of the Border-Gavaskar series.

He joins Usman Khawaja as the only two now guaranteed an extended run in the Australian top six.

Head’s 50, statistician Ric Finlay reports, is the first made by a South Australian at Adelaide Oval since Darren Lehmann in 2004/05.

That speaks of the state of batting in the land of the Chappells just as the Australian scorcard speaks of the broader crisis.

When stumps were drawn today Head was unconquered on 61 (149 balls), and if the tail can stay with him tomorrow the Australians might just sneak past India’s 250.

At 7-191, and with scoring made difficult by some tight bowling, the target appears a long way off.

Mitchell Starc (8 not out), Nathan Lyon and Josh Hazlewood need to dig in against a still-new ball and a refreshed Indian attack.

Cummins resisted for 46 balls but was adjudged lbw on the 47th, the third with the new ball. The paceman shouldered arms to a Bumrah delivery that snaked back to hit him on the back thigh.

He appealed to the higher authority but the review showed the ball hitting the top of off.

Live match blog — how day two unfolded:

6.20pm: Stumps

Travis Head (61) and Mitchell Starc (8) have guided Australia to the safety of stumps on day two. The home side trail India’s first innings by 59 and will look to chip away when play resumes on day three. Indian spinner Ravi Ashwin was the pick of the bowlers with 3-50 of 33 frugal overs.

5.50pm: Wicket!

Jasprit Bumrah gets an immediate result with the new ball, as Pat Cummins (10) pads up to one that is jagging back a long way from outside off. Umpire Nigel Llong raises the finger and Cummins asks for a review, but ball-tracking shows Bumrah’s delivery barely clipping the top of off stump. Mitchell Starc is the new batsman.

5.44pm: New ball is taken

Indian skipper Virat Kohli takes the new rock with eight overs to bowl on day two. It should allow spinner Ravi Ashwin a breather after his 31 mesmerising overs yielded figures of 3-45. Jasprit Bumrah gets first use, bowling to Pat Cummins.

5.25pm: Head em up!

A flurry of attacking strokes from the No.6 suddenly eases, somewhat, the pressure on the Australians. Mohammed Shami is driven to the cover and mid-on boundaries in one over as Head marches toward 50 with some positive intent. The crucial half-ton comes up off 103 balls in his first Test on home soil.

Andrew Faulkner 5.15pm: Local hero leads the way

The Australian skipper’s gone but the local captain is hanging on grimly as the hosts edge within 100 of India’s first innings.

Tim Paine (5) was unfortunate to edge a corker of an Ishant delivery that hit the seam and left him by about the width of a ball.

Paine spun around as the thin edge was safely pouched by keeper Pant.

Since Paine fell on 127, Head and Pat Cummins have added 23 to cut the lead to 100.

Batting with a grim determination, Head (39 from 94 balls, three fours) has made the Indian attack bowl to him.

He unfurled a trademark cover drive in the past half-hour but has otherwise been hawk-like in his watchfulness.

Head’s every run has been warmly applauded by the 24,000-plus in attendance today. The tourists are playing excellent cricket in the circumstances. The pitch is playing well and the conditions are possibly even more extreme than yesterday.

It’s topped 39C but relief is at hand — the change is blowing in from the south-west.

4.45pm: Wicket!

The skipper goes this time. Tim Paine (5) gets a faint edge through to the keeper off Ishant Sharma and Australia are reeling now at 6-127. Pat Cummins strides to the crease amid a familiar batting collapse.`

Andrew Faulkner 4.25pm: Nothing fine about this

Handscomb’s long vigil, featuring five fours, ends after his attempted late cut went a tad finer than he intended — straight into the hands of keeper Pant.

The pressure imparted by the slow pace of scoring no doubt played a big part in his demise. His shot selection appeared premeditated, as the Bumrah ball was in the vicinity of Handscomb’s off-stump.

Tim Paine has joined Head at the crease with 30 overs required today.

The forecast change is yet to arrive so the Indian bowlers are toiling in conditions every bit as oppressive as yesterday.

4.15pm: Wicket!

Peter Handscomb (34 off 93) departs, caught behind while trying to steer Jasprit Bumrah down to third man. It’s another woeful shot from an Australian batsman and leaves the hosts in deep trouble at 5-120. Skipper Tim Paine is the next man in.

Fox Sports commentator Mark Waugh laments “a lazy shot, a soft dismissal”.

Adds Brendon Julian: “It’s more of a one-day shot than anything. You look back at the replay and just ... ‘no’.”

Adam Gilchrist: “It’s not a shot for this wicket.”

Andrew Faulkner 3.50pm: Tough customers

Handscomb and Head have steered Australia to the safe harbour of tea while adding 30 runs for the fifth wicket. They’ll start the final session with 33 overs required in the day’s play.

Handscomb (33) has left well and played straight as a die. Head has worked the ball well off his legs and blunted the serious threat posed by Ashwin (3-38).

Ashwin is the natural enemy of left-handed batsmen

— all three lefties above Head in the order have fallen to the champion off-spinner.

Travis Head and Peter Handscomb on day two. Picture: Sarah Reed
Travis Head and Peter Handscomb on day two. Picture: Sarah Reed

3.43pm: That’s tea

Australia reach 4-117 at the end of the second session on day two, with Peter Handscomb (33 off 84) and Travis Head (17 from 44) surviving after the loss of two big wickets early in the session. The home team are still 133 behind India’s first innings and this Adelaide deck is not the batsman’s paradise we’ve come to expect. It’s old-fashioned Test cricket out there.

3.25pm: Absorbing contest

It’s tough going out in the middle, with Ravi Ashwin probing the techniques of Peter Handscomb and local product Travis Head. These two are the last of the recognised batsmen and there’s still a long way to go before India’s first innings is chased down. Off-spinner Ashwin, who has delivered 20 overs and picked up 3-37, is getting some turn and looks dangerous with close fielders parked around the bat, waiting for a catching chance.

Andrew Faulkner 3pm: Unlucky number for Khawaja

Australia’s hopes of posting a big first-innings lead departed when Khawaja trudged off, caught behind for 28.

Eighty-seven was the very definition of the devil’s number as Khawaja’s downfall was added to the fall of wickets column on the old Adelaide board.

Travis Head has since skipped to nine and Handscomb has looked solid in progressing to 22.

With 40 minutes remaining in the second session, the hosts are 4-97 from 45 overs.

Usman Khawaja prepares to leave the pitch as India’s players appeal for a review. Picture: AAP
Usman Khawaja prepares to leave the pitch as India’s players appeal for a review. Picture: AAP

2.35pm: Wicket!

Big breakthrough for India as Usman Khawaja falls, caught behind off the bowling of Ravi Ashwin for 28. A good-length ball on off stump turns just enough to brush the thumb of Khawaja’s glove and through to wicket-keeper Pant. Umpire Dharmasena rules not out but a quick video referral reveals the bad news for Australia.

Andrew Faulkner 2.20pm: ‘Park-cricket swipe’

Shaun Marsh has spent another of his rapidly diminishing lives as an Australian player after making only two today.

It was not so much the low score, as the manner of the dismissal — a park-cricketer-like swipe at a wide ball.

Marsh’s front foot went down, rather than across, the wicket. His inside edge went the other way to dislodge the leg bail.

It was a well-directed, rather than a challenging, delivery from Ashwin, who has 2-23 from 13 overs.

Khawaja (27) and Peter Handscomb (8) have taken the score to 3-73 after 36 overs.

The tourists are a bowler down after Shami injured his shoulder in the first session.

Shaun Marsh drags one back onto his stumps. Picture: AP
Shaun Marsh drags one back onto his stumps. Picture: AP

1.45pm: Wicket!

Shaun Marsh drags a wide one from Ravi Ashwin back onto his stumps on the sixth ball of the second session to be bowled for 2. Shocking shot. Australia 3-59.

Fox Sports commentator Kerry O’Keeffe calls Shaun Marsh’s shot “innocuous, nothing ... and it’s cost him his wicket. That is just a gift”.

Brendon Julian: “It’s a wild swing, that, from Shaun Marsh.”

1.40pm: Session two is underway

This looms as a crucial couple of hours for Australia, with Khawaja and Shaun Marsh out in the middle. Ravi Ashwin will take up the attack for India.

Andrew Faulkner 1pm: Evenly poised at lunch

The hosts are 2-57 at lunch on day two after Marcus Harris fell 15 minutes before the break.

After looking comfortable against Ravi Ashwin — confident even, when he advanced to peel off two boundaries — Harris perished trying to defend a well-pitched ball.

His thick inside edge puffed off his front pad and into the hands of Murali Vijay at bat pad.

Harris’s 26 came from 57 balls and included three boundaries.

He looked comfortable at the level. He also looked very much like his fellow Sandgroper Justin Langer — the stance, the leave and the stature are all the same.

Khawaja took 44 balls to go from 17 to 18 as India tightened the screws.

Australia’s best batsman is showing the patience lacking in so many others so far in this Test.

Australia’s 2-57 has come in 27 overs since the Indian innings ended on the first ball of the day.

Khawaja is 21 at the break and Shaun Marsh is one.

12.43pm: Wicket!

Debutant Marcus Harris (26) is out after edging right-arm spinner Ravi Ashwin onto his pads and straight to Murali Vijay for an easy catch at silly mid off. Australia are 2-45.

12.30pm: Trouble for India?

Right-arm fast-medium bowler Mohammad Shami has looked to be in some discomfort with his bowling shoulder. He’s been rotating it during a four-over spell that yielded just one run but it may need more attention.

Andrew Faulkner 12.15pm: Rescue effort underway

The Australians have limited the damage to the loss of Aaron Finch an hour into their first innings.

Marcus Harris (14) and Usman Khawaja (17) have taken the score to 1-33 after 13 overs.

Both have looked relatively untroubled, although they’ve been aided by an Indian attack that’s struggled with its direction.

Harris opened his account with a crisp three off his pads and later jabbed an uppercut four over the cordon.

Khawaja has done as Khawaja does, defending compactly, leaving wisely, and working off his legs neatly.

Shami has replaced Ishant at the Cathedral End and Ravi Ashwin is into the attack at the River End.

Usman Khawaja has looked typically stylish during his innings against India. Picture: AAP
Usman Khawaja has looked typically stylish during his innings against India. Picture: AAP

12pm: Amid the drama, a big moment

Andrew Faulkner 11.40am: Close call in Finch dismissal

The off and middle stumps at the River End have been retrieved and reinstated after they were sent flying by Ishant Sharma three balls into Australia’s innings.

Aaron Finch played onto his stumps trying to expansively drive at a ball that seamed back but was not there for the stroke.

Replays showed it was perilously close to a no-ball, but it’s a game of millimetres and Finch’s luck was out.

Since Finch’s duck Marcus Harris and Usman Khawaja have taken the score to 1-11 after five overs.

The ball’s darting about but the two left-handers have looked untroubled thus far.

11.15am: Wicket!

Disastrous start for Australia as Aaron Finch is dismissed off the third ball of the innings for a duck — dragging an Ishant Sharma delivery back onto his stumps, which go flying spectacularly. 1-0.

Andrew Faulkner 11am: Wicket!

One ball. That’s all it took the Australians to wrap up the Indian innings this morning.

Josh Hazlewood digs one in — a rank half-tracker that demands harsh punishment — only for Mohammed Shami to glove his intended pull shot to Tim Paine.

The keeper/captain moves smartly to glove the hard catch in both hands well down the leg-side.

It is fitting that Paine took the catch given his performance yesterday, and a well-deserved third scalp for Hazlewood, who was the pick of the bowlers yesterday.

Mohammed Shami edges to Tim Paine down the leg side. Picture: Getty
Mohammed Shami edges to Tim Paine down the leg side. Picture: Getty

Andrew Faulkner 10.30am: Aussie bats face big test

The bowlers have done their bit, as we knew they would — there was never an issue with the Australian attack.

The acid test is when the recast Australian batting list tries to build on the bowlers’ good work.

They won’t be waiting long, for as hard as the Indian tail wagged yesterday, Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah come from the Jim Higgs/Alan Hurst school of batting.

The Indian bowlers will be glad of some relief from the heat today. Some. For the forecast is for 38C after it touched 40C yesterday.

But a surprising westerly — coming straight off Gulf St Vincent — is taking the edge off the close humidity under heavy cloud cover.

A change is due, but not until sunset, the Bureau says. Until then it will remain sticky — as it will for the Australian batsmen.

9.40am: Another warm day forecast

9am: Pitch update

8.30am: Indian team cops criticism

8am: Pujara opens up after stellar knock

7.30am: Day-one recap

6.50am: Cummins gets his man

In just four balls, Australian paceman Pat Cummins has become Virat Kohli’s nemesis.

Cummins has twice in four deliveries in Test cricket dethroned the Indian king. In the first Test in Adelaide yesterday, Cummins dismissed Kohli with his third ball of the innings, and third to the Indian captain.

In Ranchi in March last year, the Australian quick claimed Kohli’s scalp with the only ball he bowled at the Indian hero.

Both times, Kohli has fallen cheaply — just three runs in Adelaide, only six in Ranchi.

Kohli yesterday fell to a barely believable catch by Usman Khawaja at gully. The Indian skipper played a loose shot, driving away from his body to a fullish Cummins delivery.

The ball caught the edge of Kohli’s bat and flew to the left of Khawaja who, diving at full-stretch, completed a stunning one-handed catch.

“Literally: nick, react, catch,” Khawaja said.

“You do it in training all the time, some stick and some don’t. You don’t take too many catches like that so it was a lot of fun, especially being Virat, obviously one of their key men.”

As Australian players mobbed Khawaja, a man not renowned for his fielding, Kohli stood at the batting crease in disbelief at the brilliant catch. After a prolonged pause, Kohli turned and headed to the dressing room after a rare failure in Adelaide.

In the last Test he played in Adelaide in December 2014, Kohli posted twin tons — 115 and 141. And in the January 2012 Test in Adelaide, Kohli scored 116 and 22.

Khawaja, who pre-match detailed a fitness regime in which he had lost 10kg in weight, took the field yesterday just two days after his brother was arrested following a counter-terrorism investigation.

Australian players celebrate the wicket of Virat Kohli. Picture: AP
Australian players celebrate the wicket of Virat Kohli. Picture: AP

Arsalan Tariq Khawaja was arrested in Sydney on Tuesday and charged with attempting to pervert justice and forgery.

He was granted bail amid accusations he framed a colleague with a fake terror hit-list targeting senior politicians.

Australian paceman Mitchell Starc praised Usman Khawaja’s ability to retain his focus on the Test match in the wake of his brother’s arrest.

“He is someone who keeps his cards close to his chest,” Starc said. “He has done a great job preparing for this Test match. I’m sure he will do a great job for the next four days as well.

“It was a great catch and hopefully he’s going to have a great couple of days with the bat as well.”

AAP

Andrew Faulkner 6.40am: Paine’s brilliant day

It started badly and it was all uphill from there, writes Andrew Faulkner in The Australian today.

“The lowest point of Tim Paine’s first session of his first home Test as captain came before a ball was bowled. He lost the toss. After saying he also would’ve batted, and trotting out the standard line about bowling first not being such a bad thing, Paine led his men out of the fire and into the furnace, whereupon they dominated the first session.

“Everything worked. There’s nothing a captain likes more than a bowling change that brings ­immediate joy. Paine tasted such sweet success twice yesterday.”

Read the full story here.

Australian captain Tim Paine (left) and paceman Josh Hazlewood talk tactics yesterday. Picture: AAP
Australian captain Tim Paine (left) and paceman Josh Hazlewood talk tactics yesterday. Picture: AAP

Gideon Haigh 6.30am: Fearless kings fall on reckless blades

India won’t hold onto their mantle as the world’s No.1 cricketing nation for long if they continue to play reckless cricket, Gideon Haigh writes in The Australian today.

“When you’re No 1, at anything, there will exist a temptation to behave accordingly. After all, leaders proverbially have a presence, project an aura,” Haigh says.

“Plus, let’s be frank, it’s fun. In Australia’s long cricket primacy, they exuded a mentally disintegrating air, a self-reinforcing expectation of success.

“India have enjoyed cricket’s yellow jersey for four of the 15 years in which rankings have been officially calculated — a good run, all things considered. But they have not toured here with that status before, and yesterday, as their top four sacrificed themselves in 20 overs with swishing, open, diagonal blades, they looked like a team expecting the world to bow down before them. Never mind going hard at the ball. These were hands of stone to rival Roberto Duran’s.”

Read the full story here.

More Coverage

Pleasure for Paine after right calls
Andrew Faulkner
Indian kings fall on reckless blades
Gideon Haigh
Flying Khawaja’s career-best catch
Peter Lalor

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/cricket/australia-v-india-second-test-day-2-live-coverage-from-the-adelaide-oval/news-story/7a24b245f4dfd0db1ea04fe221abbcae