Australia vs India: Visitors star with the ball to win the Adelaide Test by 31 runs

India clinched a rare Test victory over Australia Down Under as they defeated the hosts by 31 runs in Adelaide on Monday to lead the four-match series 1-0.

The Australians were handed a tough ask to chase down a 322-run target on a fourth innings track. But they were rocked early with four wickets on the fourth day itself. They needed 219 more on the last day with six wickets in hand but Virat Kohli and his men didn’t let their grip on the match slip as they turned out to dismiss the hosts for 291 runs, thus securing a 31-run win.

India had begun the Test on the backfoot as they could only muster 250 runs in their first innings. When all their batsmen failed, it was Cheteshwar Pujara who held one end tight and ensured that the team didn’t get bundled out for a low total.

Challenging the Indians without the likes of David Warner and Steve Smith was always going to be a tough ask and the team dearly missed the duo in the second innings.

Having set a target of 323 runs, India did pretty well to defend the total as they dismissed the first four Australian batsmen for 84 runs on the board.

It would have indeed taken a really heroic effort from the hosts to overhaul the total and take the series lead and the partnership between Shaun Marsh and Travis Head promised a lot but could yield only 31 runs.

India separated the two left-handers when Ishant Sharma’s short ball was gloved to gully by Head. But Marsh, who hasn’t been in the best of forms of late, hung on and added another 41 runs with the skipper Tim Paine as they slowly edged closer to the target.

But India delivered a sucker punch with the wicket of the well-set Marsh with the score at 156. A perfectly-angled in delivery from Jasprit Bumrah caught a slight edge of Marsh’s bat and Rishabh Pant did no mistake in grabbing an easy catch to leave India four wickets away from a victory.

That idea was further denied by skipper Paine as he pulled his best game to play with his 73-ball 41 with four hits to the fence. He added 31 runs with Pat Cummins before skying one high in the air while trying to execute a pull shot. The ball from Bumrah climbed on him more than he anticipated and took a top-edge to loop up in the air. Pant carefully takes the catch–his 10th of the match as Australia now needed a miracle to save, let alone win the contest.

That was made possible to some extent by the Cummins-Starc partnership of 41 runs but couldn’t deliver the impact it had promised. Despite a defiant 38 from Nathan Lyon’s blade towards the end of the match, the Indian bowlers were too hard to stop as Ravichandran Ashwin, Bumrah and Mohammad Shami took three wickets apiece as the Australian innings ended on 291.

Also read: Australia vs India: Virat Kohli and co edge closer to victory