Adelaide Test: Indian batsmen falter as Australia sniff series-levelling win

Travis Head hits ton before Aussie pacers rip through Indian top and middle order to put visitors in trouble

- TRIDIB BAPARNASH

Travis Head retained his title of being India's biggest nemesis in the last couple of years, as the local boy came up with a whirlwind century to give Australia a handy 157-run lead, before the Aussie pace battery removed half of India's side to leave the visitors trailing by 29 runs at the end of the second day's play in the Pink-ball Test at the Adelaide Oval on Saturday.

Rishabh Pant and Nitish Kumar Reddy went back unscathed after entertaining the crowd in the final session with a few lusty hits, even as the rest of India's top order failed to negotiate with the probing lengths of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland to reach 128 for 5 at stumps.

Cummins, the Australian skipper, gave his side an early advantage as the extra bounce got the better of KL Rahul, who nicked one to Alex Carey behind. Australia were further boosted when first-change Scott Boland came up trumps off his very first ball, sending the dangerous-looking Yashasvi Jaiswal back. Just when things looked like settling down for India, Boland added another one to his bag when a delivery in length had Virat Kohli caught behind for 11.