Head’s hundred burns bright, powers Australia to 332 for eight at dinner

Travis Head continued to be a thorn in Indias flesh with a counterattacking 141ball 140 and powered Australia to a dominant 332 for eight at dinner on the second day of the pink ball Test on SaturdayThanks to Heads eighth Test century which he reached in 111 balls after toying with Indias formidable bowling attack Australia have taken a 152run first innings lead as they looked to restore parity in the fivematch series after the 295run hammering in the opener at PerthHead who got off the mark with a cracking boundary off Jasprit Bumrah 459 got a reprieve on 76 as Mohammed Siraj failed to complete the catch despite getting both hands to it after the batter tried to slogsweep R Ashwin having just smashed his third six against the offspinnerAmid the rejoicing around Heads century at the Adelaide Oval Siraj was rewarded for his discipline as he had Alex Carey caught behind following a faint outside edge with Australias lead crossing 100Desperate to prevent Australia from swelling their lead further India took the second new ball the moment it was made available to them and their lead pacer Bumrah too was brought back into the attackAlso ReadTravis Headrsquos masterful ton propels Australia to strong lead in pinkball TestBumrah however pulled up and was seen holding his adductor muscle as the physio attended to him Fortunately for India Bumrah was up on his feet quickly and ready to bowl again even as Head flicked him for two boundaries in betweenDuring his knock Head played some incredible shots including a pickup six over Siraj over deep square leg but the pacer had the last laugh as he brought his innings to an end when he cleaned him up with a yorkerIn all Head struck 17 fours and four sixesEarlier Rohit Sharma giving his strike bowler Bumrah only four overs in the first session was a bit strange and so were some of his field placements Then in another surprising move he started the proceedings after tea with Ravichandran Ashwin instead of the fast bowlersLuck though was with Ashwin as Mitchell Marsh decided to walk off despite an halfbaked appeal by the Indian teamSeeing Marsh heading in the direction of the dressing room Richard Illingworth raised his finger too but replays clearly showed there was a gap between bat and padUnperturbed by all these Head went about his task in the manner he does best dictating the terms to the bowlers with his freeflowing strokesNone of the Indian bowlers including Bumrah looked like they could cause problems for HeadAlso ReadFaster than light Did Mohammed Siraj actually bowl the fastest ball in historyStraight after tea the aggressive lefthander employed a late cut against Bumrah to send the ball in the gap between gully and backward point And he continued in same vein until he was dismissedThis was after Marnus Labuschagne regained form with a composed halfcenturyLabuschagne 64 whose place in the team was debated prior to this game owing to his prolonged lean run with the bat registered his 26th halfcentury and then launched himself into a flurry of boundaries in what were worrying signs for IndiaBut promising allrounder Nitish Reddy cut short Labuschagnes innings as the batter tried to guide him through gully only for Yashasvi Jaiswal to hold on to the sharp catchLooking to fight their way back into the game after Australias dominance on the opening day India got an early breakthrough through who else but BumrahPlaying in only his second Test after a forgettable debut in Perth Nathan McSweeney had no answer to one of many excellent deliveries from Bumrah which straightened a fraction after landing on the perfect length and all the batter could do was get a little nick while trying to defend after getting stuck on the creaseSteve Smiths poor run of form continued as the former captain got out in the most unfortunate fashion Smith looked to flick a Bumrah delivery tickling down the leg side but only ended up edging it to the keeper Rishabh Pant who completed a neat catch diving to his leftThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever