India vs Australia: Cummins on how he mastered Pujara's downfall in Adelaide

Adelaide, December 20: Australian pacer Pat Cummins revealed how he and his teammates mastered the dismissal of Indian batsman Cheteshwar Pujara during the first Test win in Adelaide on Saturday (December 19).

Pujara, who had been a nemesis to Australia in 2018-19 tour, had scored 43 runs in the first innings of the first Test, but he failed to get going in the crucial second innings.

India's Test specialist was dismissed for duck in the second innings by Pat Cummins, who claimed four wickets, while Josh Hazlewood took five wickets to reduce India to their lowest Test total of 36/9.

Australia then chased down the mediocre total of 90 comfortably with eight wickets in hand. And after the match, Cummins said that the sideways movement on offer at the Adelaide Oval helped the pace attack of his side to challenge the defence of Pujara.

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"One of the biggest helpers was the wicket. It felt like there was a bit of sideways movement, so we could just challenge his defence over and over again, and having a bit of bounce in the wicket certainly helped. Nathan Lyon bowled beautifully to him in the first innings, but we're really clear on what we want to do to him," Cummins said in a virtual press conference.

"You saw we brought another man to the leg side as well, to try to really attack his stumps. I thought he batted really well in the first innings, but we bowled well enough for the scoreboard not to go anywhere. So you feel like when you get him out, if he hasn't got onto that big score then you're right in the game," he added.

Australia will now take the 1-0 lead in the four-match series into the Boxing Day Test, which is scheduled to take place in Melbourne.

(With Agency inputs)