On a day of unbroken sunshine India toiled in Australia’s shadow. Ascendant at the end of day one, Pat Cummins’s side were resplendant at stumps on day two and though Ravindra Jadeja and Ajinkya Rahane had led something of a late fightback India ended the day on 151 for five, still 318 behind.
They will feel they contibuted to their own downfall. There was some unexceptional bowling, occasionally downright wayward, as Australia reached a daunting total of 469. Later, Shubman Gill and Cheteshwar Pujara fell to superlative deliveries, but they would have had a better chance of impeding their progress towards the stumps had they attempted to put their bats in the way.
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If this game is drawn the trophy is shared, which rather takes away the incentive for a side to take any risks once they fall behind in the contest. India’s intention at the end of Australia’s innings must have been to slowly, carefully, find a foothold in the cliff-face. Perhaps they picked up on the fervour of the crowd, who greeted every run as if the scorer had just won a lifetime achievement Bafta, but little about what progress they made at the start of their innings was calm or careful.
The top four all fell having scored 3, 14 or 15, three of them when leaving or at least trying to. Captain Rohit Sharma led the way, pinned lbw by Cummins. Gill followed in the next over, shouldering arms as a Scott Boland delivery swung towards middle and off. The delivery that did for Pujara was nearly identical, for all that it hit only one stump, Cameron Green finally claiming his first Indian Test wicket at the 389th attempt.
Then Mitchell Starc got one to rear viciously into Virat Kohli and as the batter tried to get out of the way it flicked off his right thumb, extended out beyond the handle of his bat, and looped to Steve Smith at second slip. When, moments later, the logo of Indian cola brand and ICC partner Thums Up appeared on the big screen it seemed like a personal affront. Shortly afterwards, the score on 87, Cummins had Rahane given lbw off what turned out to be a no-ball.
It took Rahane more than an hour to score another run as he and Jadeja belatedly brought a measure of solidity to the innings and from 71 for four they doubled the score before Jadeja edged Nathan Lyon to slip.
Australia had been on the front foot from the start, hitting Mohammed Siraj’s second ball of the day for four to move to 99 and the next through midwicket to bring up his 31st Test century in 97 matches. Three overs later, Travis Head cut Mohammed Shami for four to take his score beyond 150, and six overs into the day Australia had added 34 to their overnight score to reach 361 for three.
Seven overs later it was 387 for six. It was a morning dominated more than anything by the law of averages: during the opening day India had produced some fine bowling with little reward, seen catches fail to carry and uneven bounce fail to work in their favour. For a while fortune finally shifted.
Head fell for 163 off 174 balls, victim as David Warner had been on Wednesday to an angled short ball that tempted him into a pull and clipped a glove on its way through to Srikar Bharat. His partnership with Smith was worth 284 – Australia have enjoyed five bigger in England and three of those featured Don Bradman.
Green lasted seven balls before a loose drive gave Shubman Gill at second slip a chance to take a fine catch. Smith misjudged Shardul Thakur’s first delivery of the day, little more than a loosener, and diverted it into his stumps having scored 121 and taken his average in six Test innings at the Oval to a frightening 102.4.
The dismissal of Mitchell Starc seemed to confirm the shift in momentum. Shami, a right-hander, had briefly left the field and the left-handed Axar Patel replaced him at mid-off, and it was to his left side that Starc pushed the ball before calling for a single – he had just played and missed twice, which might have added to his desperation to get off strike. Patel gathered it and released it in one fluid movement and Starc watched it clatter into the stumps and kept running, altering his angle slightly to change his course towards the dressing room.
But India could not stem the scoring and after a slow start Alex Carey accelerated, hitting three boundaries in a single Shami over – one off the edge, to be fair – and biffing Jadeja over long-on for six. But during Australia’s recent Test series in India Carey repeatedly fell attempting reverse sweeps against spin and one ball later it was his undoing again.
In a game where not much as gone their way the umpire’s decision followed the pattern, Carey’s forward stride enough to dissuade Richard Illingworth from raising his finger, but on this occasion India’s review was rewarded.
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