First of all, you have to say “fair play” to Australia for making a game of it. Losing some time out of day five of the Brisbane Test was already inevitable with the weather forecast. But when most of the first session disappeared due to lightning precautions and then rain, it seemed sure that any hope of a contest had gone too. Instead Australia came back from an early lunch break looking to smash quick runs, then set India 275 to win in 54 overs. It was a great set up, until rain returned to end the fourth innings just after it had begun.
Looking past that boldness, though, it’s hard to shake the feeling that the helter-skelter of Australia’s second innings was a boon to India. Another crop of wickets for the visiting bowlers, and another failure apiece were chalked up next to the names of Australia’s specialist bats.
You can cite context, and Australia will, that wickets tumbled because they were throwing the bat. Except, when compared with what happened on the ground as opposed to the scorecard, that doesn’t scan. While Australia’s top order were looking to score from other balls, they were following their form lines in this series when dismissals came.
Usman Khawaja’s downfall was from Jasprit Bumrah again, around the wicket again, seaming in towards him again. In this series Khawaja has been caught on the hop, on his toes or in the air as he tries to play the ball. Unsurprisingly, the player off the ground is in less control. Here, the jag off the seam took the ball past his bat to the stumps.
Marnus Labuschagne was out chasing width in Adelaide, and in the first innings here. Second innings, same again, not reading new-ball bounce from Bumrah. Nathan McSweeney has battled as a makeshift opener, looking unsure as to his approachHe was out similarly to Labuschagne, cutting the wrong ball. Mitchell Marsh played a half-hearted prod with a straight bat and nicked it. And Steve Smith, last of the first five, did as he has done so often of late, squared up and closed off and edging down the leg-side.
It was only after the collapse to 33 for 5 that an attacking approach brought wickets, with Travis Head flapping a short ball up for a catch near gully, and Pat Cummins skying to mid-off. They were on the charge. The rest, not so much. But by then, Bumrah had three more wickets. Akash Deep had shrugged off his first-innings frustrations with two, and Siraj also had two. Rishabh Pant had trousered five catches. India got to end this match feeling good.
Australia, meanwhile, have created more questions about their batting frailties. Khawaja; start there. A few good scores last Australian summer between 40 and 90, though he used to take those on past a hundred. The last time he did that was at Edgbaston in the first Ashes Test a year and a half ago. From the New Zealand trip last March, 10 innings with a top score of 33. He has said he wants to play another year, but it’s his 38th birthday today. Runs surely need to come before this series is out. So far he has made 8, 4, 13, 9 not out, and 8.
Labuschagne, under scrutiny in Perth, responding with a half-century and a more positive approach in Adelaide But No 3 in the order has to deal in more than fifties. Add a score of 1 today to his 2, 3, 64 and 12 this series.
McSweeney, in the spotlight since his debut as a stop-gap candidate at the top of the order, is struggling against Bumrah’s early menace as anybody would. Doing his best, but returning 10, 0, 39, 10 not out, 9 and now 4.
Marsh, picked as an all-rounder, named one by his captain, but clearly not fit to bowl, given he sent down two overs even after Australia lost Josh Hazlewood to injury. If he can’t do that job, he has to offer returns with the bat like he did last season. This series: 6, 47, 9, 5, and today a score of 2 when the occasion suited him.
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And Smith, a century in the first innings to break a long drought on that metric, and a player with such a body of work behind him. Even champions, though, fall under question if they keep getting out the same way. The luck of the game can go against anyone for a time, but when your opponent’s plan is working far more often than not, the problem is more than just probability.
During Bumrah’s barnstorming spells to open each innings in Perth, it was easy to sympathise with Australia’s top order failing to cope. This innings was not that. It was a procession of players getting out to bowling that was decent rather than irresistible. It was uninspired at the start, tending toward embarrassing by five down.
Looking ahead to Melbourne at 1-1, this collapse will have done nothing to make these batters feel any better, and one more low score adds to the pressure. It will have put air into the tyres of the India bowlers who got them. The only thing that Australia could deny Bumrah was his first 10-wicket Test, the declaration coming when the pace bowler had nine in his pocket and the ball in his hand. Australia giving themselves a chance in the game ended up suiting their opponent. The Test was a draw, but the last day was an Indian win.
