Cummins takes five as Australia draw level with crushing win

Pat Cummins led from the front with a five-wicket haul as Australia flattened India in Adelaide to level the series 1-1 with a 10-wicket win.

India started the day trailing by 29 with five wickets in hand and were pushed on the backfoot straightaway as Mitchell Starc had Rishabh Pant nicking to second slip with a peach of a delivery. The Indian lower-order was then subjected to short-ball barrage by Cummins in particular. R Ashwin managed to get on top of the bounce once but was soon forced to glove it down to the wicketkeeper.

Nitish Reddy was left to farm the strike with the tail for company and trickled along but it was not long before Cummins had Harshit Rana fending at an awkward short ball and ballooning it to the offside. With eight having fallen now and Jasprit Bumrah for company, Reddy took a few chances and one such slog over mid on off Boland pushed India into the lead. He proceeded to hook Cummins for a six again but the skipper had the last laugh. He pounded the short length again and had Reddy ramping it straight into the hands of the fly slip in place in the deep.

It gave Cummins his 12th five-wicket haul in Tests and put his team on the brink of leveling the series. Mohammad Siraj, welcomed