Credit where it is due. Australia had pledged themselves to a bolder approach to this Test after the debacle of the first. It sounded like false bravado, but after two days, they’re leading by a short half Travis head.
The first Test in Nagpur was a rude reminder of the trials of cricket in India. For this second Test, on another spinning pitch, Australia knew they could not depend on a draw and so had to win. Otherwise, the trophy would stay in India.
Travis Head.Credit:Getty Images
But they were strapped for manpower, with three first-pick players not available and a fourth earmarked for this series, Ashton Agar, struggling to adapt.
With that in mind, they took gambles. You can argue with gambles they took, but not with the philosophy. More of the same would result in the same, but more so.
So they bet on three spinners, bet on winning the toss, and did.
They batted with enterprise and common sense. Arguably, even David Warner’s torturous contribution was important. Australia needed a 50-run start because they weren’t going to get it at the end.
Nathan Lyon appeals for a wicket.Credit:Getty Images
When bowling, they gambled on DRS, an old addiction. Within 25 overs, they had used all three referrals, for the gain of one wicket and as another went begging. It looked panicky, even desperate, and probably was, but it also betokened a team that would not die wondering. As it transpired, they got away with it. There was no later howler to make them repent at leisure.
In fact, for a time, luck ran with the Australians, a rare suck of the sauce bottle for touring teams in India.
Peter Handscomb did not so much take a catch at short leg as fail to get out of the way of one. Later, Matt Renshaw at square leg and Pat Cummins at mid-off took blinders to halt a late-order Indian runaway.
Australia won marginal lbw decisions against Ravindra Jadeja and then, crucially, an ominously set Virat Kohli; whenever does that happen in India?
Matt Kuhnemann claims Virat Kohli for a maiden Test wicket.Credit:Getty Images.
An hour later, Kohli was still blueing. But there is a caveat. When Kohli made his referral, he gestured that he thought the ball was going down leg. It wasn’t.
In his retro protest, Kohli was aggrieved because the ball may have hit his bat at the same time as his pad. So it might. But that wasn’t the basis of his original complaint. To lies, damned lies and statistics, we really should add batsmen’s alibis.
Axar Patel.Credit:Getty Images
Yes, Australia took risks and rode their luck, but within that framework, they exercised discipline. The spin attack was jerrybuilt, but their least achievement was to make the Indians play at every ball. It was patent Indian-style cricket.
Nathan Lyon took the wickets, but callow understudies Todd Murphy and Matt Kuhnemann kept up their ends. As Australia had hoped, Kuhnemann’s left-arm orthodox spin helped to corral India’s phalanx of right-handers, less so the free-flowing left-hander Axar Patel.
As he had in Nagpur, Patel marshalled an eighth-wicket counter-offensive, there with Jadeja, here with Ravi Ashwin. Make no mistake as they made none: this was not lower-order flailing, but high-class Test match batting.
Australia had lived by the sword, but now found itself unarmed. Murphy and Kuhemann were L-platers, captain Pat Cummins underbowled himself and could not generate reverse swing in any case. Two catches slipped through Steve Smith. A mooted 100-run lead was crumbling into a likely deficit. What had come around was going around.
But fortune favoured the brave as catches stuck for Renshaw and Cummins and the teams squared the first innings. Conscious that matches can run away quickly in India, Australia made sure to stay on the horse.
Australia’s last spin of the wheel was to send out Travis Head to open in place of the incapacitated Warner, rather than Renshaw, an opener by vocation and training.
Peter Handscomb after taking a freak catch.Credit:AP
If it wasn’t Bazball, it was at least Travball. A five-an-over cameo put Australia back in charge of their own destiny, for the loss of Usman Khawaja to one of his patent spirit-level sweeps and another sharp catch. This type of cricket always will incur collateral damage.
For all its derring-do, Australia has no guarantees. But they do have a chip in the game. Now they have to do it all over again. The pitch is turning, of course, but in its sleep. By day four, it may have so little bounce that the game will not be Indian cricket, but French cricket.
In the end, this match might come down to the quirk in cricket that puts non-specialists on the frontline. India’s best bowlers nearly all happen to be able to bat. They’re not picked for it, but they can and do, with the aplomb of experts. It’s a blessed accident of history. Australia, by contrast, have a traditional tail.
Patel and Jadeja took the game away from Australia in Nagpur and Patel and Ashwin took it back to Australia here. Whatever happens, this Test won’t be done until they are.
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