Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant tons set up Indians' victory push
Indians 194 and 386 for 4 (Vihari 104*, Pant 103*) lead Australia A 108 by 472 runs
India's batsmen capped off their preparations for the Adelaide Test with a sedate hundred for Hanuma Vihari and a swashbuckling one for Rishabh Pant. Also featuring were fifties for Mayank Agarwal and Shubhman Gill, which took the Indians' lead to 472 at the end of the second day of their last tour match. Significantly, parts of Vihari and Pant's innings were played in the night session, which is traditionally the most difficult time to bat in day-night Tests in Australia. However, a considerable chunk of this time was spent waiting for the new ball, facing harmless spin, which is understandable given how Australia are seemingly losing one bowler a day to injury.
The reason the Indians kept batting into the final session had to be to stretch both their batsmen and bowlers. Not only did it mean the batsmen got a bit of a test under lights, but also that their bowlers will have to work harder - at least in theory - than they had to when they bowled Australia A out in just 32.2 overs in the night session on day one.
Before that, though, Indians began the day looking for some signs of form from their top order. Prithvi Shaw might have failed again trying to hit on the up and away from the body, but Gill showed continued improvement and Agarwal applied himself to turn a hesitant start into a half-century.
In two of his three previous innings on tour, Gill had shown good striking form, but this half-century was more about getting more into long-form mode. It is hard to tell if it was a higher bat speed or hard hands in his earlier knocks, but he looked more in control in this innings. The cover-drive and the pulls were present in earlier innings too, but this one had more in-control shots. Eventually, he fell to what seemed a rough call for a catch at the wicket, but these matches can't have DRS.
With his 65 off 78, Gill, who plays as an opener in domestic cricket, presented a case to partner Agarwal in the first Test. It may well happen given Shaw's lack of runs unless the team management has designs on using Gill as Kohli's replacement once the India captain goes on paternity leave after the first Test. The other lock for the opener role, Agarwal, got valuable time out in the middle after he nicked off early in the first innings. Agarwal maintained a nice even temp in the innings, but he will be unhappy with the break in concentration that brought about his dismissal on 61. He played an absent-minded aerial square drive straight to deep point, just the kind of mental error you'd hate during a Test match.
The Indians had enough on the board by then, but they wanted to have a bat under the lights not having played too much pink-ball cricket. And the tradition held with even the old ball starting to wobble in the final innings, which resulted in the wicket of Ajinkya Rahane, who will be displeased with a second nibble away from the body in this match.
Vihari negotiated the conditions well. He has had starts in each of his innings, which all included his picture-perfect on-drive, but he converted this one into three figures. Pant showed how dominant he can be given a front-runner's position, hitting boundaries with even seven men out on the fence. His last long-form outing brought Pant a hundred, and for some time it seemed he might fall tantalisingly short of another one here. He began the last over on 81 not out, and was hit in the midriff first ball. However, he followed it with 4, 4, 6, 4, 4 to end up with an unbeaten 103 off 73 balls.