Spinpricked in Sydney

CHENNAI: Now, even the weather gods can’t delay the inevitable. As India closed out Friday with their second 600-plus innings tally since 2018, the only chance of Australia pulling a series-levelling rabbit out of their hat in the final Test hinged on them doing something similar today.

But even a bad-light-curtailed Friday was India’s. Kuldeep Yadav’s and Ravindra Jadeja’s, to be precise. The start of proceedings at Sydney Cricket Ground, though, didn’t hint at what was going to come. In Marcus Harris, Australia finally seemed to have found a semblance of solidity. He and fellow southpaw Usman Khawaja seemed to be laying a platform for the hosts to camp on and build from. Harris, in particular, looked like he’d finally break Australia’s century rut, flicking away to his heart’s fill to coast to 63 off just 80. Even Kuldeep was carted for three boundaries in one over.

But then again, the older the ball gets, the more India seem to like it. It was Jadeja who put the foot on the door to hold it ajar for India to barge in. After all his hard work, Harris decided to late-cut a length ball outside off, and ended up chopping it onto his stumps, sending the left-hander back for 79.

That was the invitation card that India needed. Kuldeep was called upon. The chinaman’s form in Tests has plateaued a bit since the bang he created in Dharamsala. Even in past press conferences, he’s touched upon the fact that switching over from the white ball — he had a good outing during the T20Is — to red hasn’t exactly been a cakewalk for him.

That’s why here, Kuldeep decided to stick with — a fact that he’d acknowledge in his own words after the end of day’s play — what he does best: loop the ball away to glory and tempt batsmen with full lengths. Looking at the buffet of flight on display, Khawaja decided to target Kuldeep to get away with his release shot. A slog was mistimed into the hands of Cheteshwar Pujara courtesy dip, and off he went for 27.

Mohammed Shami and his captain conspired perfectly to set up Marnus Labuschagne. Jadeja capitalised on the pressure built from the other end to get rid of Shaun Marsh with a straighter one. Kuldeep’s flight made Travis Head go back to Australia’s favourite catch-phrase — “brain-fade” — and also went on to eventually splay Tim Paine’s furniture. 

That two-thirds of Kuldeep’s balls were on a full length and him being at least 10kph slower than any other bowler in this Test — according to Cricviz — sum up the day for the chinaman quite nicely. For Australia, Pat Cummins again had to channel his inner batsman to take them to end of day’s play without any incident, in the company of Peter Handscomb.  

“You know, for a spinner, it’s very important to stick with the basics and just follow what we call the basic thing of spin bowling: little bit of flight, turning the ball,” remarked Kuldeep after stumps.“More important than the perfect area is deceiving the batsman in the air. I’m still working on that. I don’t believe in mystery or something like that. If you’re good enough to deceive batsmen in the air, that’s good enough. I’m looking only for that.”

Scoreboard
India (1st innings): 622/7 decl
Australia (1st innings): Harris b Jadeja 79, Khawaja c Pujara b Kuldeep 27, Labuschagne c Rahane b Shami 38, Marsh c Rahane b Jadeja 8, Head c & b Kuldeep 20, Handscomb (batting) 28, Paine b Kuldeep 5, Cummins (batting) 25. Extras (b4,  lb2) 6. Total (6 wkts, 83.3 ovs) 236. FoW: 1-72, 2-128, 3-144, 4-152, 5-192, 6-198. Bowling: Shami 16-1-54-1, Bumrah 16-4-43-0, Jadeja 27.3-9-62-2, Kuldeep 24-6-71-3.