Australia v India: first Test, day one –live!





04:11





04:05

WICKET! Prithvi Shaw b Starc 0, India 0-1

Updated





04:01

Updated





03:45





03:40

Updated





03:34

Australian team

Updated





03:32

The toss

Updated





03:28

Indian team





03:24





03:23





03:20





03:15

Updated





02:52





02:51

Preamble

You would scarcely credit it, but – it’s Test match time. We have not seen a Test match played on Australian shores since the 6th of January. January 6! We haven’t seen Australia play one anywhere else, either. In this most horribilis of annuses (if you’ll excuse my Latin), everything has sucked with the incredible interstellar power of MegaMaid. And one small part of that suction has been the relative lack of the game that some of us like, the long unfolding hours, the dreamy buzz of somnolent crowds that allows parts of our brains to switch off and drift into the great ether of the shared universal consciousness, only to snap back to focus when some bright point of light draws us to it. Test cricket. Days and days of it. Nights and nights, too. It’s time.

What does that mean, in more specific terms? We’re in Adelaide. Australia will play India. Two years ago the Indians won an excellent match here, one that got closer than it had any right to thanks to some brave batting from Australia’s tail, one that India eventually won thanks to Che Pujara’s brilliance with the blade and a group effort with the ball.

This time it’s a day-nighter. Far later in the season than we’ve had some others. Deep into actual summer. Adelaide, being typically co-operative with these matters, has elected to be cloudy and unseasonably cool, getting down to 11 degrees tonight. Chill your own gin & tonics! Wonderful.

But look, who cares about minor fripperies like a core body temperature able to sustain life. We have the cricket back, we’ll have a proper crowd in to see it, and for a time we can unmoor and let the rhythms of the game set us adrift.

source: theguardian.com