Australia v India: second Test, day two – live!

15th over: India 50-1 (Gill 39, Pujara 10) And who needs Pujara to score when Gill is scoring so freely? Hazlewood bowls beautifully, gets the ball to deck back into him from back of a length, and again gets the inside edge, but this time for four! It flies well wide of Paine and away to fine leg. If Hazlewood can get that movement from a bit fuller, he’ll be thudding into the pads and beseeching the umpire. But the very next ball, as he pitches up, Gill drives him through cover for three! So positive. One ball after the error, puts it out of his mind completely and plays a positive shot. That brings Pujara on strike to someone else but Cummins for the first time today, and El Che flicks a straight ball square. He thinks he’s running two, but the younger Gill insists on three, calling loudly and pushing Pujara through. Love this attitude. Hazlewood has bowled three overs costing 6 runs, then his fourth cost him 10.

14th over: India 40-1 (Gill 32, Pujara 7) Cummins to Pujara, who edges in front of first slip! An interesting rejg to the cordon, with Wade at first and Smith at second. Where’s Joe Burns? Ah yes, he’s at leg gully. I think Wade hurt his knee last night chasing a ball and isn’t feeling so mobile. Pujara plays solidly through the rest of the over, no score. A good day for India is one with Pujara facing out a lot of maidens.

13th over: India 40-1 (Gill 32, Pujara 7) Shubman Gill on strike for the first time this morning, and he has the challenge of facing Josh Hazlewood under cloudy skies. First ball indicates that JH will be a handful, some swing into the pads of the right-hander that strikes him, but going down leg. Second ball, in the channel and going away off the seam. Third ball, decking in, inside edge and dropped! A big deviation from the inside, Paine is wrong-footed behind the stumps, has to dive back to his left and gets his left palm to the ball but isn’t in position and can’t hang on. He curses as he flicks it back towards the stumps. Fourth ball, flicked through midwicket for four! Gill will punch and counterpunch, and as he gets a straighter ball on a fuller length he takes full toll. India get past that 36 mark. What a contest. Gill sees out the over.

12th over: India 36-1 (Gill 28, Pujara 7) Cummins to start, and we go up to DRS with the first ball of the day! Perfect line from Cummins, has Pujara pushing forward, past the edge. Paine is convinced there’s a nick, his appeal is immediate. Cummins is less sure, same with the slips. But Paine goes upstairs on the evidence of his own ears. And he was right that there was a sound, but it happens to be the toe of the bat clipping Pujara’s pad. There’s a Hot Spot mark on the pad, and a slight burble on the soundwave graph, which a less experienced umpire would have given out. But Umpire Blocker Wilson up in the TV box says that it’s not a proper bat spike, and makes the correct call. As the standing umpire Bruce Oxenford had already done on the field. Drama to start.

The other part, of course, is the Australian bowling attack. The three quicks seem in fine fettle, and they’re doing something that very few groups of fast bowlers get to do: play match after match together. I think this is their 17th match together. Starc, Cummins, Hazlewood, and Nathan Lyon’s spin has been a big part of that too. He bowled outstandingly in the first innings at Adelaide. Do the home bowlers swing today in their team’s favour?

What are we looking out for today? Initially, it has to be the performance of Shubman Gill. It is pretty extraordinary that a player on debut walked in for the last few overs of Boxing Day, lost his opening partner within minutes, and then calmly decided to peel off five boundaries before stumps and race India’s score along by making 28 of the total of 36. He’ll resume today and could provide a spectacle.

Now, to local conditions. I am your eyes, your ears, your little goosebumps on your skin. We’re very close, you and I. It’s only of those blustery, moody Melbourne days. The day equivalent of a guy outside a bar who vaguely thinks he might fight someone but isn’t sure who or why. It’s hot and growing hotter, and there’s a lot of cloud overhead and some grumbly breeze. The forecast says it will grow hotter until the middle of the afternoon, then around that time or a bit later will come a cold change and some rain. So we may not have a complete day of cricket, but if we lose some time it should be a curtailment at the end rather than an interruption in the middle. Fingers crossed.

Once you’ve read the report, if you’d like to watch or hear about the first day in more detail, it so happens that a combination of me and Guardian cricket colleague Adam Collins took some time after play for exactly that. With bonus nice cinematography from Cameron Fink.

If you’d like to read a written report of yesterday’s main points, we have conveniently prepared one for your delectation.

As ever, communications at the Guardian OBO are open. We had a lot of cockle-warming correspondence yesterday from across the globe: people in Australia preparing for their day, people in the UK preparing to rest at the later end of their Christmas night, people in place in between. We’d love to hear what you’re up to, what your current few days involves, and what you’re making of the cricket. Email address and tweet thing are in the sidebar.