Spin and spinners continue to rule the roost in India. Home spinners bagged 15 of the 20 Australian wickets to fall in the rollercoaster second Test here in Bangalore as Virat Kohli’s team staged a remarkable comeback in the match to win it by 75 runs on Tuesday and keep the series alive. The four-Test series is now levelled 1-1.
Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin captured a six-wicket haul on a pitch that assisted slow bowlers on the fourth day as India clinched the match with more than a day to spare – and marred Kohli’s counterpart Steve Smith’s decision to use unfair means vis-à-vis the controversial Decision Review System (DRS).
Advertisement
Chasing 188 for victory, Australia were all out for 112 in just 35.4 overs. India had scored 189 and 274 while Australia had made a crucial 87-run innings lead.
With this fabulous win, India have ensured they will remain the No.1 Test team on ICC rankings even if they go on to lose both Tests. Ranchi will host the third Test, starting on March 16, and the fourth and final match will be staged in Dharamsala.
India had thrashed Australia 4-0 in the four-Test series on their last visit to India in 2013-14.
Tuesday’s play was no less than rollercoaster, as were the first three days of the five-day match at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. After India started the day at 213 for four wickets, with Cheteshwar Pujara batting on 79 and Ajinkya Rahane on 40, there was a collapse after 12 overs of batting.
Advertisement
India lost five wickets off 19 balls – and their last six wickets for just 61 runs -- as pacers Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc struck in tandem, with the latter missing a hat-trick.
Starc triggered the collapse as he had Rahane (52, 134 balls, 4x4s) leg before the wicket with the new ball, though on a DRS appeal by Australia. India: 238/5. Off the next ball, Test triple centurion-on-debut Karun Nair played onto his stumps the gangling bowler’s next ball. India: 238/6.
Wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha (20 not out) walks in next and prevents the hat-trick. At the other end a dogged Cheteshwar Pujara was inching towards his 11th Test century, but Hazlewood dismissed him eight short of the ton (221 balls, 7x4s). India: 242/7. Hazlewood struck three balls later, this time accounting for Ashwin. India: 246/8.
Hazlewood was not done yet. He also got rid of Umesh Yadav (India: 258/9) and Steve O’Keefe finished the innings by sending Ishant Sharma was to the dressing room. India: 274 all out in 97.1 overs.
Australia thus got a target of 188 to win, but it was always going to be difficult as the fourth-day pitch, after playing pretty fine on the third day, had started showing signs of deterioration.
And it did turn out that way, as the Australian batsmen failed to rise to the occasion. Perhaps the devil was in their minds that might have dreaded that Ashwin and left-armer Ravindra Jadeja would make it difficult for them. Eventually, only four Australian batsmen entered double-digit scores, with Smith being the top scorer with 28 (48 balls, 3x4s).
Advertisement
Smith was also embroiled in the DRS controversy. Kohli alleged that he found Smith taking outside help (read from dressing room) on making DRS appeals. When Smith again tried seeking dressing room help on being declared LBW off fast bowler Umesh Yadav, umpires had to stop him and promptly send him on his way to the pavilion. Later, Smith admitted that he did seek outside help and also said that he shouldn’t have done that.
Ashwin was in supreme form as he made the ball do things. He was virtually unplayable. He received good support from Jadeja from the other end. Together they grabbed 15 of the 20 Aussie wickets that fell in the match.
Advertisement
As a whole, spinners dominated this match so much that it was the first time in Test history that four bowlers – Nathan Lyon, Ashwin, Hazlewood and Jadeja -- had six-wicket separate bursts in the same match.
While spinners ruled, local Bangalore opening batsman KL Rahul won the Man of the Match award for his priceless first-innings’s 90 – the top score of that Indian innings by a distance – in the team total of 189 all out. The top individual score of the match was Pujara’s second-innings’ 92.
Although the match got over with more than a day to spare, many experts felt it was a fascinating contest. “This was the most gripping Test I have watched live at the Chinnaswamy stadium—and I’ve been going there for forty years,” tweeted noted Bangalore-based historian Ram Guha, now member of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators for the BCCI.
Advertisement
Brief scores: India 189 and 274; Australia 276 and 112 (Steven Smith 28; R. Ashwin 6/41, Umesh Yadav 2/30).
Man of the Match: KL Rahul
Qaiser Mohammad Ali in Bengaluru
