The four wickets that India prised out in the third session, on balance, swung the game back in the bowling side's favour, says Prem Panicker after Day 1 of the Boxing Day Test.
Morning session:
'We want to throw something different at Bumrah,' the Australian coach said in pre-game comments about blooding teen debutant Sam Konstas at the MCG. 'Different', presumably, from the deer-in-the-headlights style that Nathan McSweeney had adopted against Jasprit Bumrah in the first three Tests.
And different we got. When he ended his first spell, India's -- and arguably the cricketing world's -- premier fast bowler had figures of 6-2-38-0, and had suffered the indignity of having five fours and two sixes hit against his new ball spell on a well-grassed pitch under a heavy cloud cover.
Konstas sets up in a half crouch, bat held in a bottom-hand-dominant grip and raised waist high. The right side of his mouth curls up in a seeming sneer. He stands very still, his only visible trigger movement the 'Come on, come on' he mutters as the bowler gets into the load-up. And out of that stillness, he explodes into frenetic action.
As early as the fifth ball of Bumrah's third over, Konstas attempted a reverse scoop and missed; he tried and missed again in the bowler's next over, to nervous noises around the packed MCG and amused smiles from the Indian slip cordon.
The floodgates opened wide in Bumrah's fourth over. To the first ball, Konstas shuffled towards his off stump and flicked a delivery on full length over the head of Rishabh Pant, to the fine leg boundary for four.
The next ball was greeted with a reverse scoop for six, this time over the heads of the slip cordon. Two balls later, another reverse scoop, another four -- and the debutant was off and running.
Bumrah's sixth over was, if anything, even more remarkable. To the first ball, Konstas moved back towards his leg stump to make room and smashed a drive through mid off; the fourth ball was picked up and swung over mid on for six; when Bumrah sent down an attempted yorker next ball, Konstas calmly opened the bat face and steered it through backward point for another four.
That last shot was the one that was worth noting -- the Indians had set both third man and fine leg fine to inhibit the flicks and reverse scoops, so Konstas found a more orthodox response. Equally noticeable was the fact that Bumrah lost his line, his length, and his equanimity under the onslaught -- not surprising, given that Konstas took him for 34 runs in the 33 balls he faced from India's premier strike bowler.
And it wasn't only Bumrah. In the 10th over, Mohammed Siraj gave the opener a mouthful after stopping a pulverising straight drive with his shin. Konstas responded by giving himself room and carving the next ball through point.
At the end of the over, Kohli with obvious deliberation walked into Konstas and gave him a shoulder charge, then got into it when Konstas objected. The youngster was then 27 off 38.
The next over, Bumrah's sixth and last of the first spell, disappeared for 18 runs and the Indian fielders were noticeably less inclined to get in Konstas' face at the end of that over.
At the end of the 5th over, Konstas was 2 off 18. The next 34 balls produced 48 runs as the debutant raced to his 50 off 52 deliveries in a score of 71/0 in 13.1 overs.
Less noticed, in that flurry of strokes, was Konstas's hunger. He kept pushing his partner between wickets, and with the Indian fielders forced back on their heels, sneaked a second run repeatedly to get back on strike.
The real value of Konstas' innings though was that it allowed Usman Khawaja to coast along in his slipstream -- and equally, allowed Marnus Labuschagne the luxury of walking out to bat in the 20th over, with a cushion of 90 runs on the board, when Ravindra Jadeja finally trapped Konstas in front with a ball on fullish length.
Konstas, 60 off 65 with six fours and two sixes, took one of the slowest, most reluctant, walks from pitch to pavilion that I remember seeing from a batsman -- and a packed MCG stood to applaud him through every reluctant step.
Australia went into lunch on 112/1 off 25 overs with Labuschagne on 12 off 12 and Usman Khawaja 38 off 73 -- a good position to be in after winning the toss and opting to bat first.
The only real talking point of the morning session, from an Indian point of view, was the team selection. India opted to go in with two spinners, teaming Jadeja with Washington Sundar -- but the surprise was the identity of the player they dropped.
Shubman Gill had debuted at this ground on December 26, 2020 and announced himself with an attractive 45 off 65 in the first innings, following up with 35 not out off 36 balls as India sealed an eight-wicket win.
In this edition of the BGT, Gill has again looked attractive, with his trademark back foot punches and short arm pulls -- but his batting philosophy seemed to be 'easy come, easy go'.
Thrice in three Tests he has gotten himself out playing nothing shots at half volleys -- like it was all too easy, he couldn't be bothered working up a sweat.
Being benched will likely do the batsman some good, prompting him to rethink his attitude and put more of a price on his wicket. Meanwhile, his number three slot will in all likelihood be taken by Rohit Sharma.
Post-lunch session:
The first hour of the post-lunch session was a demonstration of why Australia needs a Sam Konstas to fill the void left by David Warner.
Akash Deep and Jasprit Bumrah bowled 24 dot balls in a row before Khawaja got hold of a short ball from Akash Deep and pulled in front of midwicket for four.
Those four successive maidens constituted a telling demonstration of what happens when batsmen allow bowlers to settle into optimal lines and lengths.
Post lunch, the Indian quicks were allowed to operate unchallenged, stringing a series of deliveries that probed at the chinks in the batting armor of individual batsmen.
This is where Konstas was so effective, playing shots of startling unorthodoxy that pushed bowlers off their preferred lengths and lines and challenging them to come up with a plan B.
Numbers tell you a story. Bumrah's second spell, just before lunch and after the fall of Konstas, was 2-1-3-0. His third spell -- the first post lunch -- was 3-2-2-0. Against that, his first spell went for 6-2-38-0, with Konstas facing 33 of those 36 deliveries and carting the bowler for 34 runs.
The contrast is even more startling when you consider that the Indians were operating with a 25 overs-old ball after the break. Bowling sides like it when the scoreboard stagnates -- sooner or later a ball will come along that fetches the wicket and in the interim, the game is going nowhere.
Noticeably, the Indian quicks straightened their lines and altered their lengths after lunch, bowling more at the stumps and on a fuller length to force the batsmen to play and taking out the option of leaving the ball.
Against Labuschagne in particular, the Indians operated with a predominantly leg side field and bowling into the stumps, taking the off-side out of the equation and choking down his run-scoring options.
Khawaja, who in the morning session benefitted by not having to take on his nemesis Bumrah, got to his 50 (101 balls) with two fours off a visibly tiring Akash Deep, who at that point had bowled 11 overs for 28 runs (three maidens).
The first hour of post lunch play, which featured all three quicks and a couple of so-so overs from Nitish Kumar Reddy, produced 26 runs in 11 overs; by the drinks break, India had settled into an in-out field and a holding pattern, seemingly waiting on the batsmen to lapse into error.
The hoped-for error came in the second hour. Bumrah came back for a fourth spell, and started with a rare loosener, a long hop at well below pace. Khawaja pulled too early, got it on the toe of the bat and went to K L Rahul at midwicket.
Washington Sundar, who the management increasingly prefers to Ravichandran Ashwin as first pick off-spinner, came on to bowl in the 53rd over of the innings, with Australia on 172/2. It was the last over before tea.
The session produced 64 runs in 28 overs, at 2.29 per over, for the loss of Usman Khawaja.
There are two ways of looking at play in the first two sessions. One way is to say that the Indian bowling unit failed to convert one wicket into two and three, as they had done in previous outings.
The other way is to say that the Australian top order managed to bat in partnerships: 86 off 116 for the first wicket, 65 off 150 for the second wicket and 22, unbeaten, for the third wicket.
India has a question to answer: Who is the second strike bowler, the support act for Jasprit Bumrah? Siraj and Akash Deep have looked steady, without ever threatening to break through. Nitish Kumar Reddy is anodyne, and there is nothing in the first day wicket for Jadeja.
The question becomes urgent as the game ends into the final session with the ball now 53 overs old.
PostScript: Labuschagne's habit of squaring up in defence got him rapped in the groin thrice, against Siraj's incoming deliveries. You almost felt for the batsman -- and wondered how much more of these it would take before he called the physio out for a concussion test.
Post-tea session:
How often have you seen a batsman coming down the track at Jadeja, whose forte is control of length on a flat trajectory?
In the first over of the third session, Labuschagne danced down the wicket to loft him to the long on boundary. A couple of overs later, Smith first pulled him to the long on boundary, then came down the wicket and lofted him straight back down the track.
As a commentary on the quality of India's support bowling, this was as emphatic as any. 41 runs came in the first six overs of the session against Jadeja and Akash Deep, before the former was replaced by Washington Sundar.
Smith's exaggerated movement across off saw his pads peppered by Akash Deep, to appeals that went from emphatic to desperate to frustrated.
India wasted a review on one such and opted out of reviewing on two other occasions -- in all cases, the ball was bouncing over, and wide of, leg stump.
Tactically, India's quicks didn't attack the outside edge enough, opting instead to bowl fuller and on the stumps. The tactic, likely the result of video analysis of Labuschagne and Smith, both of whom have exaggerated movement across the stumps and tend to square up in defence, produced those pad strikes against Smith but no joy against Labuschagne.
Both batsmen bided their time and cashed in on loose deliveries, of which there was plenty. Against 64 runs in 28 overs in the second session, the first ten overs of the third session produced 50.
Rohit Sharma had problems to solve. His two spinners were ineffective. Nitish Reddy bowling with a soft older ball is no threat. Siraj and Bumrah needed to be preserved for the second new ball.
And all of this put inordinate pressure on Akash Deep, who had to bowl long spells with a spinner at the other end.
It wasn't as if there was nothing in the wicket for the quicks -- Deep, tired as he was, time and again made the ball lift dangerously close to the outside edge of both batsmen.
The problem was that none of the bowlers on view appeared to have a consistent plan against two set batsmen who looked increasingly fluent with their footwork as the session progressed.
Sharma juggled his field, occasionally with a leg-side bias, then in-out with protective cover on both sides -- but there seemed a noticeably disconnect between the field that was set and the lines and lengths the bowlers operated on.
For the second session in a row, batsman's error produced a wicket against the run of play. To the first ball after the drinks break, Labuschagne danced down to Washington Sundar and tried to loft a ball over the infield without quite getting to the pitch, and ended up wafting it to mid-off.
Labuschagne's 72 off 145 was an innings of two parts -- an ugly struggle at the start, and increased fluency and authority as he spent more time at the wicket.
The third wicket partnership produced 83 off 127 -- more importantly, it was the third successive partnership of over 50 in the innings, a statistic that underlined why Australia found itself in pole position heading into the last hour.
It took Bumrah to change the script.
In a rare good move on the day, Sharma brought him on immediately after the fall of Labuschagne, and the star quick produced a magic ball, just back of length on fourth stump line.
The batsman left for both length and line; the ball straightened to hit top of off -- a rare duck for Travis Head, and a glimmer of an opening for the fielding side.
Ironically, Head had repeatedly helped pull Australia back from the brink when the top order failed; here, with a substantial cushion of 237 runs and facing a ball 66 overs old, Head fell for a seven ball nought.
Immediately thereafter, Mitchell Marsh had a brain fade. He pulled at Bumrah without getting into position, the top edge went at a nice catching height to Rishabh Pant and in the space of 15 balls, the Australian middle order had undone all the good work of the top four. Or to give credit where due, Bumrah had with an old, soft ball turned back the tide and put his side back in the game.
Taken with the Labuschagne wicket, a five over period after the day's last drinks break produced three wickets for 14 runs, and turned the game on its axis.
Then again, the Boxing Day Test is well named -- for every punch, there's a counter punch coming sooner than later. Steve Smith and Alex Carey didn't just stem the rot, but counter-punched.
It helped that Bumrah, who was cramping a bit, soon after the fall of Marsh; against the likes of Siraj and Sundar the two played an array of shots, at one point going at a run a ball.
Smith brought up his 50 during the final hour of play -- and with that, Australia had the rare luxury, on this tour, of seeing the top four all score individual fifties.
This passage, from the fall of Marsh to the taking of the second new ball, again showed up India's paucity of strike options. For a space of 11 overs, India went back into a holding pattern to give Bumrah rest, and this allowed Smith and Carey to settle back into their work and rebuild after those three quick wickets.
Akash Deep ended the partnership with his first ball of the second new ball -- a back of length delivery that seamed and kicked at Carey, taking the edge through to Rishabh Pant. (Carey 31 off 41, the partnership 53 off 80).
The four wickets that India prised out in the third session, on balance, swung the game back in the bowling side's favour.
Against that, Australia has a happy knack of winning games at the MCG when they have batted first and put in excess of 300 on the board.
The first hour on day two, with India operating with the still-new ball, is make or break for both sides, with the onus on Bumrah to break through, and an increasingly fluent-seeming Smith to take Australia well into the comfort zone.
