Ind vs Aus 2nd Test: Travis' ton helps Australia take control as visiting top-order crumbles
Adelaide, Dec 7: Australia tightened their grip on the pink ball Test as their formidable pacers scythed through India's top-order after nemesis Travis Head's counterattacking century handed his team a substantial first-innings lead on a riveting second day here on Saturday.
The Adelaide Oval was throbbing with life through the three sessions of play as Head dominated India with his wide range of strokes on way to a 140 off 141 balls before the trio of Scott Boland (2/39), Mitchell Starc (1/49) and Pat Cummins (2/33) left the visitors in a spot of bother at 128 for five in their second innings and trailing by 29 runs.
At stumps, Rishabh Pant was living dangerously on a 25-ball 28 and Nitish Reddy was batting on 15 off 14.
Thanks to Head's eighth Test century, which he reached in 111 balls after toying with the Indian bowling attack, Australia ended with 337 all out, and more importantly, a 157-run first-innings lead.
The hosts are looking to restore parity in the five-match series after the 295-run hammering in the opener at Perth.
Head's hundred, the fastest in a pink ball Test, reduced Marnus Labuschagne's (64) composed half-century, coming after a lean run of form, to a mere footnote.
India lost KL Rahul (7) early in their second innings and Yashasvi Jaiswal (24) was done in by a peach of a delivery from Boland, who again struck with his first delivery that had a hint of late movement.
Boland then had Virat Kohli (11) caught behind after he got one to land right in the channel which has been troubling the Indian batting mainstay for a while now.
To make matters worse for the visitors, Starc knocked down Shubman Gill's (28) middle stump with his late in-swing doing the damage to leave India at 86 for four in front of a record crowd of over 50,000.
However, unperturbed by the Australian inroads, Pant looked to be batting in a universe of his own and played some outrageous shots against the fast bowlers, leaving everyone stunned.
Least bothered by the fact that India were three down with not enough on the board, Pant danced down the track first ball and smashed Boland over mid-off for a boundary, and he maintained that audacious approach until the umpires called stumps.
Earlier, Head continued to be a thorn in India's flesh with yet another magnificent knock that powered Australia's response after bowling out India for 180.
Head, who got off the mark with a cracking boundary off Jasprit Bumrah (4/61), got a reprieve on 76 as Mohammed Siraj failed to complete the catch despite getting both hands to it after the batter tried to slog-sweep R Ashwin, having just smashed his third six against the off-spinner.
Amid the rejoicing around Head's century, Siraj (4/98) was rewarded for his discipline as he had Alex Carey caught (15) behind following a faint outside edge with Australia's lead crossing 100.
Desperate to prevent Australia from adding to that advantage, India took the second new ball the moment it was made available to them, and their lead pacer Bumrah too was brought back into the attack.
Bumrah, however, pulled his adductor muscle as the physio attended to him. Fortunately for India, Bumrah was up on his feet quickly and ready to bowl again, even as Head flicked him for two boundaries in between.
During his knock, Head played some incredible shots, including a pick-up six over Siraj over deep square leg, but the pacer had the last laugh as he brought his innings to an end when he cleaned him up with a yorker.
In all, Head struck 17 fours and four sixes.
Earlier, Rohit Sharma giving his strike bowler Bumrah only four overs in the first session seemed odd, and so were some of his field placements.
Then, in another surprising move, he started the proceedings after tea with Ashwin instead of the fast bowlers.
Luck, though, was with Ashwin as Mitchell Marsh decided to walk off despite a half-baked appeal by the Indian team.
Seeing Marsh heading in the direction of the dressing room, Richard Illingworth raised his finger too, but replays clearly showed there was a gap between bat and pad.
Head, though, went about his task in the manner he does best -- dictating the terms to the bowlers with his free-flowing strokes.
None of the Indian bowlers, including Bumrah, looked like they could cause problems for Head.
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Supreme Court strikes down Trump's sweeping tariffs, upending central plank of economic agenda
Washington (AP): The Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump's far-reaching global tariffs on Friday, handing him a significant loss on an issue crucial to his economic agenda.
The 6-3 decision centres on tariffs imposed under an emergency powers law, including the sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs he levied on nearly every other country.
It's the first major piece of Trump's broad agenda to come squarely before the nation's highest court, which he helped shape with the appointments of three conservative jurists in his first term.
The majority found that the Constitution “very clearly” gives Congress the power to impose taxes, which include tariffs. “The Framers did not vest any part of the taxing power in the Executive Branch,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote.
Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh dissented.
“The tariffs at issue here may or may not be wise policy. But as a matter of text, history, and precedent, they are clearly lawful,” Kavanaugh wrote in the dissent.
The majority did not address whether companies could get refunded for the billions they have collectively paid in tariffs. Many companies, including the big-box warehouse chain Costco, have already lined up for refunds in court, and Kavanaugh noted the process could be complicated.
“The Court says nothing today about whether, and if so how, the Government should go about returning the billions of dollars that it has collected from importers. But that process is likely to be a mess,' as was acknowledged at oral argument,” he wrote.
The tariffs decision doesn't stop Trump from imposing duties under other laws. While those have more limitations on the speed and severity of Trump's actions, top administration officials have said they expect to keep the tariff framework in place under other authorities.
The Supreme Court ruling comes despite a series of short-term wins on the court's emergency docket that have allowed Trump to push ahead with extraordinary flexes of executive power on issues ranging from high-profile firings to major federal funding cuts.
The Republican president has been vocal about the case, calling it one of the most important in US history and saying a ruling against him would be an economic body blow to the country. But legal opposition crossed the political spectrum, including libertarian and pro-business groups that are typically aligned with the GOP. Polling has found tariffs aren't broadly popular with the public, amid wider voter concern about affordability.
The Constitution gives Congress the power to levy tariffs. But the Trump administration argued that a 1977 law allowing the president to regulate importation during emergencies also allows him to set tariffs. Other presidents have used the law dozens of times, often to impose sanctions, but Trump was the first president to invoke it for import taxes.
Trump set what he called "reciprocal" tariffs on most countries in April 2025 to address trade deficits that he declared a national emergency. Those came after he imposed duties on Canada, China and Mexico, ostensibly to address a drug trafficking emergency.
A series of lawsuits followed, including a case from a dozen largely Democratic-leaning states and others from small businesses selling everything from plumbing supplies to educational toys to women's cycling apparel.
The challengers argued the emergency powers law doesn't even mention tariffs and Trump's use of it fails several legal tests, including one that doomed then-President Joe Biden's USD 500 billion student loan forgiveness program.
The economic impact of Trump's tariffs has been estimated at some USD 3 trillion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The Treasury has collected more than USD 133 billion from the import taxes the president has imposed under the emergency powers law, federal data from December shows.
