A whirlwind century from hometown hero Travis Head blew India’s attack away and thrilled the Adelaide crowd on day two of the pink-ball Test. Head’s 140 off 141 balls swelled Australia’s first-innings lead to 157, leaving India facing a challenging final two hours under the floodlights. The visitors fell further behind when they lost half their side during that period when the pink ball was at its most potent. At stumps, India were 128 for 5, still 29 runs behind.

Head had walked out to generous applause from his home crowd and into a bit of trouble in the middle after Jasprit Bumrah had taken out both Nathan McSweeney and Steven Smith in a space of 13 balls. While McSweeney nicked a Bumrah special behind to Rishabh Pant, after managing to add just one to his overnight tally of 38, Steven Smith was caught down the leg side for 2.

After the floodlights had blacked out twice on the opening day, Australia’s batting threatened to black out on the second afternoon. Head, however, had other ideas and torched the innings with his no-holds-barred approach. He played and missed four of his first nine balls, but that certainly didn’t stop him from playing his shots. He stayed true to his method of staying leg-side of the ball and cracking it away into the shorter pockets of the ground square on the off side.

He also cleared the longer straight boundary when he crashed Ravichandran Ashwin over mid-off and then over his head for sixes, including a 110-metre monster hit over the sightscreen.

Head scored his first fifty off 63 balls and took only 48 more balls to convert it into a hundred. He celebrated the landmark by rocking his bat like a baby in tribute to his family’s new arrival, with his wife among a 51,642-strong home crowd. A hug from fellow South Australian Alex Carey was also part of the revelry.

Indian fans would be sick of the sight of Head by now. Since 2023, he has hit 1052 runs in 19 innings against India across formats at an average of 61.9 with three centuries, including tons in the previous cycle of the WTC final and 2023ODI World Cup final.

Head had set to work on Saturday by adding 65 with Marnus Labuschange and then 74 with Carey. Labuschagne’s innings was as fluent as Head’s but it was one that he needed to work his way back into form after having managed just 123 runs in his last ten Test innings, of which 90 came in one knock against New Zealand, before the Adelaide Test. Having been afforded some fairly comfortable leaves on the first evening, India’s seamers made Labuschagne play a lot more on the second afternoon. Whenever they erred too straight or into his pads, Labuschagne picked them away with compact drives and flicks.

Labuschagne got to his fifty off 114 balls and celebrated it by taking the erratic Harshit Rana for three fours in four balls. After having late-cut the taller, quicker Rana with ease, Labuschagne was caught at gully when he tried a similar shot off the shorter, slower pace of Nitish Kumar Reddy.

Head was more brutal on Rana, hitting him for 41 off 29 balls. It didn’t really matter what came down at Head. Short. Full. On the stumps. Outside off stump. Everything was dispatched.

Mohammed Siraj,  though, gave India some control and backed Bumrah up. He picked up his first wicket in the game when he extracted extra bounce and coaxed an outside edge from Carey.

Ravichandran  Ashwin’s only wicket was Mitchell Marsh but that was down to some good fortune. After shaping to defend a non-turning offbreak from Ashwin, Marsh walked off even before umpire Richard Illingworth raised his finger and didn’t even contemplate a review. There was nothing on Snicko, with replays also indicating that the ball had missed the outside edge.

Head attacked the second new ball as well, whipping Bumrah for a brace of fours. He then picked Siraj up for an imperious six over square leg in the next over, but Siraj struck back the next ball to york Head. Siraj released his pent-up emotions and gave Head a send-off that didn’t go too well with him or his beloved Adelaide crowd.

The boos rang out but Siraj proceeded to dismiss Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland soon after tea to wrap up Australia for 337. Bumrah, who had gone down with some discomfort, which prompted medical attention, four balls into his spell with the second new ball, recovered to knock Cummins over.