CHENNAI : New stadium? Check. New hope? After Adelaide, definitely check. Good start for second Test? Umm…Maybe it was the ghost of selection past, but it was a mostly level-headed Australia batting line-up that denied India that last tick. A scoreboard reading 277/6 on a pitch that was doling out bounce like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was a good enough reason for Aaron Finch — and all his teammates — to be a happy man.
“It’s going to be one of those games that’ll be a real grind for both sides. The position we’re in, we would have taken at the start of the day; especially winning the toss and batting. I think Nathan Lyon will enjoy bowling with the amount of bounce on this track. No doubt he will be excited to bowl here.”Virat Kohli and India too were “excited” a day before by how similar the pitch and the outfield looked. With an injury taking R Ashwin and Rohit Sharma out of the equation, talks had centered around how India could end up fielding four speedsters, a la Johannesburg.
But the exclusion of Bhuvneshwar Kumar to accommodate Umesh Yadav in the said quartet was more a la Centurion. Perhaps Ravindra Jadeja’s exclusion — Hanuma Vihari was the like-for-like replacement for Rohit — as well. But there are four days left, and these sidelinings are yet to translate into tangible opportunity costs.
India, though, did feel the heat — literally and figuratively — of operating sans a frontline spinner and being faced with a batting line-up who seemed intent on rectifying errors they’d committed in Adelaide.
Finch replaced his booming drives with abstinence. Marcus Harris too hunkered down. That resilience and the heat — 35 and above — perhaps threw off the pacers’ bearings. Ishant Sharma wasn’t at full steam. For the first time over the last two years, India’s vaunted pace battery had gone wicketless for the first 20 overs.
All said, dreary wasn’t how the entire day turned out to be for India. Jasprit Bumrah spewed venom after his first spell. A Finch lbw, 18 plays and misses, and 16 edges after his 6-over opening spell are solid numbers, says Cricviz. Travis Head and Shaun Marsh looked like they’d just picked up from where they’d left off in Adelaide, but unwarranted shots on a bipolar wicket let India breathe again. Vihari’s part-time off-breaks yielded two dismissals, even if one of them was from a half-tracker that the Optus strip transformed into a ripsnorter. Flashes of brilliance emerged from fielders behind.
Those are perhaps enough silver linings for India to draw inspiration from and tilt the scales back in their favour. Even Vihari felt the same after the end of day’s play.“Our only plan was to be disciplined. I think we did very well in that aspect. In all three sessions, we bounced back really well. They had so many plays and misses. It happens in the game. Overall we put in a good effort,” he remarked.
“The first hour tomorrow will be very crucial. If we get them out for below 320, we will be right back in the contest. As batsmen, we will try to be as disciplined as possible, just like we did in the second innings of the last Test match. If we bat well, we have a good chance.”
SCOREBOARD: Australia (1st innings) Harris c Rahane b Vihari 70, Finch lbw Bumrah 50, Khawaja c Pant b Yadav 5, Marsh c Rahane b Vihari 45, Handscomb c Kohli b Ishant 7, Head c Shami b Ishant 58, Paine 16 (batting), Cummins 11 (batting). Extras (b 4, lb 3, nb 1, w 7) 15. Total (6 wkts; 90 ovs) 277. FoW: 1-112, 2-130, 3-134, 4-148, 5-232, 6-251. Bowling: Ishant 16-7-35-2, Bumrah 22-8-41-1, Yadav 18-2-68-1, Shami 19-3-63-0, Vihari 14-1-53-2, Vijay 1-0-10-0