Indian pace bowler Harshit Rana appeared displeased but there were no further issues, even if Australia’s batsmen would have been happy to go off early and come back to bat in sunshine on Saturday afternoon.
“Venue management are working to determine the cause of the issue with the lights tonight,” CA said in a statement. “We will update when they provide further information.”
The lights went out briefly on two occasions tonight at Adelaide Oval.Credit: Getty Images
The prospect of the lights going out during a delivery could have made Labuschagne and McSweeney uneasy, but it didn’t seem to interrupt their concentration.
“Very frustrating for the umpires and the players,” said former international umpire Simon Taufel on Seven’s coverage. “They will be having their concentration and routines broken like everyone else and having to refocus and get back on the job as quickly as possible.”
Earlier, Starc picked up a wicket with the first ball of a Test for the third time in his career as Australia rebounded from an underwhelming display in Perth to put India’s batsmen on the back foot.
Already boasting the most wickets of any bowler in day-night Tests, Starc bettered his previous best innings haul of 6-50 against Sri Lanka in 2016.
Starc swung the ball more than ever in his Test career, according to bowling data, to run through India’s top order. He removed KL Rahul (37), caught at gully, and the prized scalp of Virat Kohli (7), caught at second slip, before cutting short a dangerous innings from Nitish Kumar Reddy (42).
“I feel like the ball has been coming out alright for the last little while and I don’t think we did too much wrong last week,” Starc said on Fox. “I thought we were pretty good.”
Starc now has 72 wickets with the pink ball at an average of 17.81. Nathan Lyon is next best, in terms of wickets, with 43.
In one of the most important Test matches in recent times, Australia’s start could not have been better as Starc trapped Jaiswal LBW from the opening ball.
Starc celebrated accordingly – Jaiswal, having made a duck in the first innings in Perth, tormented the Australians with a score of 161 to set up India’s 295-run win, even sledging Starc for not bowling fast enough.
Starc’s first ball to the left-handed Jaiswal on Friday looked to be sliding down the leg side but swung back late and caught the young opener by surprise. It was a similar line to the ball that bowled Rory Burns around his legs with to set the 2020-21 Ashes series alight.
“I managed to sneak one past. A nice start,” Starc said with a smile.
It was the third time Starc had struck with the first ball of a Test, having removed Sri Lanka’s Dimuth Karunaratne in Galle in August 2016. The last Australian before Starc to take a wicket to begin a Test was Glenn McGrath, also in Galle, in 1999.
The only other bowler in Test history to pull off a treble of first ball dismissals is West Indian Pedro Collins. Remarkably, Collins removed Bangladesh’s Hannan Sarkar from the first ball of a Test on all three occasions in an 18-month period including in back-to-back Tests in 2004.
Pat Cummins (2-41) and Scott Boland (2-54) provided handy support, with Lyon only sending down six balls in the 44.1 overs.
Cummins said he would have batted if Australia won the toss, but losing it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.