Ravi Ashwin took four wickets to give India the edge over Australia on day two of their first Test in Adelaide.

India came into the day on 233/6 but lost 4 wickets for 11 runs in the most awful period.

With the wicket becoming increasingly less two-paced than it was on day one, Australia would have considered that total sub par.

Instead they found themselves confronted with an India attack that refused to give them an inch. Their discipline, skill and tactical preparation for individual batters served to suffocate.

One always felt like a wicket was a ball away, and that pressure told consistently as Australia were bowled out for 191, 53 runs shy of the India total.

Openers Joe Burns and Matthew Wade weren’t given an inch, the fact that they were both out for eight off 41 and 51 deliveries respectively, evidence of this. Credit here must go to India’s seam trio of Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami, who ensured the pressure built to breaking point for the Australia batsmen.

This set the scene for Ashwin’s introduction. He made light work of Steve Smith, setting him up for a delivery that held its line and found the outside edge to slip.

He then beat Travis Head in the flight and took an easy caught and bowled. Debutant Cameron Green was next, deceived by a back-of-a-length delivery that skidded on quickly. Green’s eyes lit up, but he spliced a pull shot to Virat Kohli at midwicket.

India will lament the fact they dropped Marnus Labuschagne three times, but thankful the prolific run scorer never capitalised. He was trapped lbw for 47 (he was on this score for nearly an hour), leaving Australia reeling at 6-111.

Yadav then got Pat Cummins out a couple deliveries later, and it could gave been worse for the Australians had Prithvi Shaw held on to a catch offered by a mistimed pull from Tim Paine. It was their fifth drop of the innings.

But the implosion continued, Mitchell Starc run out attempting a risky two. Paine pressed on defiantly, bringing up his half century with some aggressive batting. Paine hogged the strike when Nathan Lyon departed, getting Australia within 53 runs of India’s first innings total before Josh Hazelwood edged off to slip.

That left India with 25 minutes to bat, but Australia blew an opportunity at making inroads when Paine dropped Mayank Agarwal. It would have been a comfortable catch for Joe Burns at first slip.  Pat Cummins eased the pain shortly thereafter though, cleaning up Shaw with an in ducker.

Bumrah strode to the crease as the nightwatchman and survived some vicious bowling to see India to 9/1 at the close, a lead of 62.