#360view: India collapse breathes life into series

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  • Australia are on their way to a famous win.

    Suffering from an upset stomach, 20-year-old Australian opener Matt Renshaw showed enough spirit on day one of the first Test in Pune. He had to go off, just before lunch, leaving his side in the lurch after they had just lost David Warner. But he returned, a couple hours later, and scored his second career half-century.

    “He went off to respond to nature’s call, and no amount of will power can control that,” said India’s assistant coach Sanjay Bangar. “But he really showed character and applied himself well. His innings showed that runs can be scored on this pitch, if batsmen apply themselves.”

    He might have been despondent to walk off, but he returned to bat with grit, digging Australia out of a hole at 149-4. On either side of his toilet break, Renshaw batted for a total of 168 minutes. In response, the entire Indian first innings lasted 173 minutes as they collapsed to 105 all out.

    In July 2016, Australia had lost 3-0 on turning tracks in Sri Lanka. As such, before the start of this long home season for India, England were deemed the toughest opposition among the four visiting teams.

    They were beaten 4-0 in the five-Test series, a marker more of Alastair Cook’s lethargic, run-of-the-mill captaincy than the English team’s current standing in world cricket.

    Meanwhile, Australia lost 2-1 at home to South Africa. It triggered some panic, and they made some changes in personnel, bringing in Renshaw and Peter Handscomb. More importantly, they responded to the need of the hour, particularly with the Indian tour on the horizon.

    For, this is the thing about Australia. They are more combative than most, with pride in performance seen as a vital attribute.

    They are unwavering in will power and can sniff out opposition by constantly plugging away at them. They are persevering, and when you give them a sneak peek through the door, they will kick it open and barge their way in.

    This is precisely the story of this Pune Test. Renshaw’s half-century allowed Australia’s first innings to cross the 200-mark, but it was never going to be enough.

    At 205-9, though, Mitchell Starc came out fighting and his counter-attacking 61 set the stage for an Australian sucker punch. In the final minutes of day one, India let things drift and it came back to bite them on day two.

    It didn’t appear so initially, even when the score read 44-3. After all, you expect some resistance from the opposition, especially on as difficult a pitch as this one.

    Starc was true to form – a brilliant over in his second spell that got both Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli (for a duck). There was some extra bounce as Pujara nicked behind, similar to how Josh Hazlewood got Murali Vijay. But the set up to Kohli was excellent.

    First up, he bowled a full and wide delivery and the Indian captain was only too happy to let it go. The second one, also fuller, had less width. But it held a similar line, going across the stumps and Kohli’s eyes lit up.

    Through the mountain of runs he has accumulated in the last year or so, he has dispatched many such deliveries to the cover boundary. Here was one more. Or so he thought, nicking it to first slip instead.

    Three in-form batsmen gone, and Australia were still ahead by 216 runs at that juncture. Never mind, you could hear the Indian dressing room say.

    They had been under pressure before this home season and came out with flying colours. Plus, they had KL Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane at the crease, and the duo stroked a 50-run partnership.

    This is where Bangar’s words ring true. Application was the keyword, and India’s foremost set batsman were unable to stick it out.

    Rahul played an uncharacteristic skier and the slide began. There is a parallel here with how Renshaw got his runs, grinding it out in the middle. In comparison, India’s situation was direr as they had only five full-time batsmen, yet Rahul succumbed to temptation.

    Then, Steve O’Keefe took centre-stage. He is part of the Australian renaissance that has transpired this season. Even so, his induction is properly down to the requirements for this Indian tour. The statistics herein are staggering.

    This is only O’Keefe’s fifth Test overall. This is his first Test on Indian soil. His previous best figures were 3-53. Now, with 6-35 in this Indian collapse, he bettered counterpart Ravindra Jadeja without as much as batting an

    It was surprising to see him open the bowling, mirroring India’s plan. Perhaps the aim was to exert control with pace from one end and exploit conditions from the other. It worked like a charm, either way, because the Australian pacers didn’t let the top-order batsmen get away.

    When the left-arm spinner came back for his second and third spells, there was a change in trajectory.

    “I was bowling in my comfort zone, like I would back in Australia. During lunch, I worked on my pace and flight, and some variations. It worked out,” he said, after the day’s play.

    O’Keefe shortened his length a tad, but the devilish detail was in flight. It helped get more bounce from a wearing pitch, and Nathan Lyon was inspired to try the same at the other end. Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha and Ravichandran Ashwin were each accounted for thanks to that extra turn and bounce.

    It resulted in an unprecedented batting collapse – from 93-4 to 105 all out. By the time Australia closed the day 298 runs ahead, there was only one probable outcome. But the immediacy of this day’s implication – one that could see the end of India’s unbeaten run – is far greater.

    In totality, the Australian attack looked more rounded and more penetrative on a weary wicket. While India needed to deploy Jayant Yadav, and asked Ishant Sharma to perform the holding role on day one, Steve Smith didn’t even need Mitchell Marsh to come out with reverse swing.

    It underlines Australia’s traditional strength in pace, backed up by some good spin options. More importantly, it points to the simple fact that India have a challenge on their hands going ahead in this series. If the world’s No1 ranked side can escape with anything other than a loss here, it would be a near miracle.

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