Categories: Cricket

Pat Cummins takes five as Australia avert crisis to level series with India

Second Test: India 180 & 175; Australia 337 & 19-0
Mitchell Starc finishes with eight wickets in the match

Crisis averted. Panic stations vacated. All units stand down. Australian cricket followers were hitting every big red button they could find after India handed out a hammering in Perth, but the Australian team hit the big pink button in Adelaide. A different style of thrashing has levelled the five-match series. It took less than two and a half days, not even a third night – under seven sessions – for Australia’s bowlers to take apart India either side of Travis Head’s hundred. A win by 10 wickets that freed up everybody’s Sunday afternoon.

It’s not pure hindsight to say that some of the dire responses to Perth – whitewash imminent, permanent guard change, scrap the team to sell for parts – were overblown. This Australian configuration has achieved plenty in tough situations over several years and is still stacked with quality. It’s also true that some of those players are underperforming, the collective has vulnerabilities, and that appropriately timing a team’s transition requires a cascade of decisions that can be got right or very wrong.

Source: Cricket - The Guardian