This is not a one-sided series
On a mind boggling opening day of the first Test of the series in Australia, where three quarters of the day was filled with chants from Australian fans before the Indian tricolour and voices filled the Perth air, the Indian bowlers answered the burning question that faced them ahead of the game: What would happen once Jasprit Bumrah’s first spell ends? Who would keep up the pressure?
A question that hung in the air even more ominously after India were shot out for 150 by tea, and Bumrah had done what Bumrah does, a triple strike that left Australia gasping. The answer came in the final session in an utterly stunning fashion, even as the shadows slowly crept across the arena, as India responded by an audacious counterpunch that left Australia reeling at 67 for 7 at stumps. It’s a bowling performance that has cracked open the entire series and shredded the dread that it might turn out to be a one-sided affair.
Harshit Rana was first to step up, before Mohammad Siraj too perked up after Bumrah’s triple strike as Australia were left wobbling like intoxicated men by stumps.
India’s Mohammed Siraj, fifth right, celebrates with teammates the wicket of Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne on the first day of the first cricket test between Australia and India in Perth, Australia, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. AP/PTI
It of course needed Bumrah to strike first, but that he did wasn’t a surprise. When he finished his opening spell with three wickets, that included the big scalps of Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith in successive deliveries, the fear was that that would be it for India. They would lose the venom, and Australia would bounce back to regain ascendancy. This is where Rana stood up in a rather dramatic fashion with a ball that not only he wouldn’t forget but any debutant from anywhere in the cricketing world would dream of as their first Test wicket.
Picture this. Travis Head, India’s nightmare in the recent years in Tests and white-ball cricket and Australia’s counter-punching hero, was at the crease. He was throwing the punches, cutting Rana for balls that flew over backward point, a region India had packed with two fielders especially for exactly this trait. But Head doesn’t fret about fielders, he just goes for it.
It’s then Rana who was considered ahead of Prasidh Krishna, and whose bowling has been particularly backed by the head coach Gautam Gambhir and the selectors, delivered the most crucial blow of the day.
Delivered from round the stumps, it came in with the angle to land on off and middle stump line. So far so good, nothing alarming for Head, who has the tendency to at times stab from the crease. He isn’t a batsman who covers the line of the ball always but is mostly successful in keeping such deliveries out with his hand-eye coordination. And so, his hands began to move toward what he expected to be the line of the incoming angler.
But Rana had carefully curated this ball to be the one that shapes away from a length and late at that. Too late for last-instant adjustments. And the ball snaked away at pace to take out the off bail and Head quickly turned around and walked away from the crime scene where not just the young bowler, but Virat Kohli was screaming in joy.
The job wasn’t done of course as Australia were 34 for 4, and Mitchell Marsh, their in-form batsman who has rescued from perilous situations often in the last year. This is where Siraj put up his hand. He came up with a lovely straightener that squared-up the tall Marsh, who poked it off the outside edge. And he still might have escaped but KL Rahul dived across to his left from third slip to pouch the ball inches from the ground. It took an umpiring review and zoom-in-camera to spot that Rahul’s palms had cusped the ball cleanly and it was his knuckles that grazed the ground and not the ball. India erupted in joy as Australia’s back was broken.
Now only Marnus Labuschagne remained. His had been a long dour vigil that had lasted 51 balls already for just two runs. He had poked, prodded, pushed around, often hit on the pad, once on his abdomen guard, and had seen the ball rush past the edge. But he was still out there, the last Aussie standing.
It was again Siraj who did the damage by taking him with a full in dipper that tailed in late to trap him plumb lbw in front of the stumps.
All this wouldn’t have happened if it were not for their stand-in captain Bumrah, the world’s best fast bowler who trusts his instincts to do the job. And was his gut-feeling spot on. He sussed out quickly that the debutant Nathan Sweeney was a batsman who is seemingly stuck in the crease, and sent a sharp nipbacker that moved past the defensive prod to take him out lbw. He then took out Usman Khawaja, who has rarely put a foot wrong in the last few years, with an angler that cut away late to take the outside edge.
Then came the little big moment. Bumrah chose a real full ball that moved in as his first delivery to Steve Smith, who had chosen to go back. Did Bumrah’s instincts tell him that? Whatever the case maybe, it proved to be the perfect ball to send Smith back to hutch, and Australia facing the heat. It still might not have been enough if not for India’s supporting cast of Rana and Siraj.
