When the fourth Australia-India Test at Melbourne finished with an hour to go on the final day, those who love the long game were sated. The experience was hearty and nutritious, like working your way through a large slice of dense and worthy rye bread. The first two days of the fifth Test here, by contrast, have been a pure sugar rush. Eleven wickets on day one were followed by 15 on day two, as the match careered towards a conclusion though a winner remains unclear.
India all out 185 was the first-day story, but somehow that turned into a four-run lead. Reading that sentence could only leave the assumption that Jasprit Bumrah must have made that happen, but as it turned out that was only true of the first 20%. It was Bumrah who made Usman Khawaja nick behind on the first evening, a wicket on the very last ball of the last over and it was Bumrah the next morning who drew the faintest forensically detected edge from India’s roadblock in Melbourne, Marnus Labuschagne.
Related: Scott Boland leads Australia fightback as India sweat on Jasprit Bumrah’s fitness
That took Bumrah to 32 wickets in the series, going past Bishan Bedi to take the record for an India bowler touring Australia, and sitting six short of the all-time mark set by Maurice Tate in 1925. With a potential 18 wickets available, injury was the only thing likely to stop Bumrah’s march and that’s when it arrived, a massive turning point as he left the SCG for scans on his back.
All the lifting has been done by Bumrah, but at last India’s other bowlers stepped up. On a pitch offering bounce and lateral movement from tufts of patchy grass, Mohammed Siraj was also swinging the ball and hitting an inviting length. Sam Konstas edged to gully, Travis Head to second slip, and Australia were 39 for four.
Calamity was averted for Australia by the man on debut, Beau Webster, in partnerships with Steve Smith and then Alex Carey. After a few seasons in which Sheffield Shield cricket has often had challenging tracks, the tall Tasmanian didn’t look too bothered by the surface. But after the rebuild it was Prasidh Krishna’s turn to come to the fore. The fast bowler in his first match of the series found enough seam to have Smith edging on 33, enough angle around the wicket to bowl Carey through the gate for 21, and, height versus height, enough bounce to get Webster’s thick edge to gully.
By the time Webster fell, the Melbourne century-maker, Nitish Kumar Reddy, had used his mediums to have Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc caught in the cordon, and while Nathan Lyon and Scott Boland’s 16 runs were useful, it was well short of their 55 at the MCG. Given the help both sets of bowlers had found from the surface, a three-day Test now looked the most likely.
India had the lead by a boundary, which soon became five boundaries after Yashasvi Jaiswal laced Starc all through the off-side in the opening over. But the seam movement was always likely to tell and Boland first jagged one through the right-handed KL Rahul, then through the left-handed Jaiswal. Virat Kohli was left punching his thigh after what must be his final indiscretion outside off stump on Australian soil.
With India going at nearly five an over, they were 59 for three, but a match that already seemed manic was about to dial it up again. Rishabh Pant ran at Boland first ball and flat-batted his first ball miles over long-on for six.
It was an especially significant move after criticism for sparking the collapse in Melbourne, but that blowback was justified. The attempt there to clear the rope was totally redundant when India were batting for a draw. Here, there was a tactical argument for fast runs rather than letting Australia’s bowlers set the agenda. If that was the order, Pant delivered.
Missing a reverse ramp third ball, he carried on with a series of airborne boundaries through midwicket, cover and down the ground. He nailed a pull shot while falling over backwards, slog-swept Webster’s medium pace for six, then did the same twice in a row off the far more express Starc, in the process passing 50 from 29 balls. The only faster half-century for India was – hard to believe, of course – by Pant.
For a while he had Australia at a loss, but the game kept galloping. Shubman Gill had fallen during Pant’s ransacking, giving Webster a first Test wicket via an inside edge and a brilliant Carey catch. When Pant fell for 61 just after drinks in the last session, it gave Australia time to dislodge Reddy with an attempt to clear mid-off that would have been badly executed at any time of day, but was also badly conceived 15 minutes from stumps.
So here we are, India leading by 145, six down in the third innings, with Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar the last of the genuine batting, and we have had two days of play. Another 60 runs may make this a contest, in a match that has been unable to slow down.
It is just as well that we will get day three, given that is when the McGrath Foundation does most of its fundraising.
But we look unlikely to go beyond that, in which case Cricket Australia and the SCG Trust would miss out on two days of bumper revenue. Ask any parent: every sugar high is followed by a crash, but the cordial just tastes so good.
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