Adelaide: The Indian cricket team struggled on the first day of the much-awaited Pink Ball Test. Despite captain Virat Kohli’s patient, controlling and high-quality half-centuries, Team India lost seven wickets in 23 overs on Thursday and scored 233 runs. With unbelievable concentration and dominant innings, Kohli’s unfortunate run out just before taking the second new ball derailed India’s innings. At the call of vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane, 42, Australia returned to the match with Kohli’s huge, significant and valuable wicket for a bullfight. India, meanwhile, lost four of their four batters by the time the stumps were removed due to a sudden disaster from 18/3. Rahane, who had called for Kohli to be single, was unable to cope with the pace and bounce found in the pink ball under the floodlights. Hanuma Bihari, 19, also did not stay long. After Kohli, Rahane and Bihari returned to the pavilion with 16 runs, the first day’s honors for the first time went to Australia. In the first day’s play, however, the biggest disappointment was the opening star Prithviraj. Instead of Shubman Gill, the captain and coach put more faith in him, but it was only in the second ball that he was bowled clean by Mitchell Stark’s ball. Mayank Agarwal, one of the young starters, was also disappointed after the shock of the first over. May was the victim of Pat Cummins. And India were in crisis, losing two early batsmen by 32 runs. Agrawal was unable to open the account, while Agrawal scored only 14 runs. After that, dependable Cheteshwar Pujara (43) and Kohli started to form Pali. Both added four runs for the third wicket. In the 50th over, Pujara came forward and attacked Nathan Lyon while the ball went into the hands of Marnus Labusane in the Leggie area. The umpires rejected it, despite appeals from Australian players to be caught out. After succeeding in the review, Lion finally broke up with this dangerous pair. Rahane-Kohli added four runs for the fourth wicket after Pujara was worth a lot to India. So one of Rahane’s calls was that everything went awry. Kohli, of course, completed his 23rd half-century before being run out. Rahane, Bihari missed the opportunity to extend their dominance on the first day after being lbw by Stark and Jose Hazelwood, respectively. At the close of play on Thursday, wicketkeeper-batsman Ruddhiman Shah and spinner Rabichandran Ashwin were batting for 15 runs.
