A recap of what happened with the pink ball at the Gabba and some total numbers for Australia in day-night Tests
Andrew McGlashan
The Adelaide Oval is the traditional home of day-night Tests in Australia, but this year the pink-ball game is at the Gabba in Brisbane. The venue has hosted two such Tests in the past. Here’s a reminder of how they played.
Australia 429 (Smith 130, Handscomb 105, Riaz, 4-89, Amir 4-97) and 202 for 5 Dec (Khawaja 74, Smith 63, Rahat 2-40) won Pakistan 142 (Sarfaraz 59*, Hazlewood 3-22, Bird 3-23) and 450 (Shafiq 137, Azhar 71, Younis 65, Starc 4-119) by 39 runs
Asad Shafiq almost pulled off a miracle for Pakistan, taking them to 40 of what would have been a world record chase. Adding 71 with Yasir Shah in the final afternoon, Australia were nervous before a raw delivery from Mitchell Starc removed Shafiq for a superb 137.
For most of the game, it never looked like it was that close. Australia were in the early stages of rebuilding their batting line-up after losing the series to South Africa a few weeks earlier. Peter Handscomb had scored a maiden Test century in a stand of 172 with Steven Smith, while newcomer Matt Renshaw made 71.
In reply, Pakistan exploded under lights on the second night as Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Jackson Bird wreaked havoc. Hazlewood took a hat-trick when he removed Babar Azam and Younis Khan.
After opting not to follow on, Australia quickly built their lead before leaving a target of 490. There was more resistance this time, but at 220 for 6 a comfortable win was on the cards, particularly with another Ella night session. It didn’t work out that way.
Australia 323 (Head 84, Labuschand 81, Lakmal 5-75) won Sri Lanka 144 (Dickwella 64, Cummins 4-39, Richardson 3-26) and 139 (Thirimanne 32, Cummins 6-23) from an innings and 40 runs
Despite Australia’s loss to India, Sri Lanka were predictably overwhelmed by their pace attack. Pat Cummins led the way with career-best figures while Jhye Richardson made his Test debut.
It was Nathan Lyon who took the first wicket of the Test, but from then on it was the home quicks who got down to business. Sri Lanka were bowled out in just over two sessions on the opening day, although Australia initially did not have their way with the bat.
Early on the second day they were 82 for 4 before Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head – then the youngest members of the team – added 166 for the fifth wicket.
Cummins struck with the last ball of the second day and Australia didn’t even need the help of the night spell to complete the win with Cummins taking the first four wickets of the innings.
Basic statistics
All Australia’s bowlers have terrible records with the pink ball, led by Starc in terms of wickets.
Australia have never lost a day-night Test with their batsmen finding a way to score enough runs and sometimes filling their boots. Labuschagne and Head were particularly profitable.
Although the sample size is small with only two matches, the third session of the day has the lowest bowling average in day-night Tests at the Gabba. In Adelaide, which has hosted seven day-night Tests, it is the first session of the day.
Andrew McGlashan is deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo