INDORE: In 1997, an ODI between India and Sri Lanka in Indore was called off after only a few overs were bowled. After a discussion between the respective captains, Sachin Tendulkar and Arjuna Ranatunga, the teams and umpires walked off the field before coming back to play an exhibition match.
On the first morning of the third Test between India and Australia, it wasn't difficult to think about that instance in 1997.
There was no chance of this pitch being deemed unsafe but it wasn't ideal; the contest between bat and ball was so skewed survival was out of the question. It was always going to be a matter of time before a ball with a batter's name on it came along it.
When the umpire at the striker's end called for drinks, India were reduced to 5/44 after electing to bat first. When lunch came around, they were 7/84 from 26 overs. In terms of wickets lost on the first morning in India, that's the most the hosts have lost in recent memory.
At the pre-match press conference, the Australia skipper, Steve Smith, was categorical in his assertion that the deck would take turn. "I dare say it will take some spin. I'm not sure how much it will take to begin with. We will wait and see," he had said on Tuesday.
He needn't have waited long enough.
As soon as the left-arm spin of Matthew Kuhnemann was introduced into the attack, the ball gripped and started to turn. The pitch, at that point in time, was five overs old but it may well have been a few days old. Off his fourth ball, he got Rohit Sharma to go for a big sweep but failed to connect. Two balls later, the captain, who was on a third life thanks to the largesse of the Australians (they didn't go upstairs for one caught behind and an lbw after their original appeals were turned down), jumped out to hit the ball over long-on. The ball gripped, turned, bounced and beat his outside edge. Behind the stumps, 'keeper Alex Carey did a good job in collecting it cleanly and removing the stumps.
That was a trailer of what was to unfold over the next 90 minutes. Shubman Gill, in place of the out-of-sorts KL Rahul, was looking in fine nick before Kuhnemann found his outside edge. Smith didn't need another invitation to complete the catch.
It's not that the ball wasn't turning on the first day in Nagpur and New Delhi. Both surfaces had a lot in them for the spinners but this pitch could be filed in the extreme category. One host broadcaster graphic held that the average degree of turn off the surface was 4.9 ° — more than a degree than at Delhi.
That sharp turn was in focus when Cheteshwar Pujara went back to a seemingly harmless Nathan Lyon delivery from over the wicket. It pitched on a seventh stump line before it turned in sharply. It almost looked like an invisible hand had diverted it and Pujara didn't have any time to readjust and saw his stumps splattered. The dismissal brought forth an 'ooohhhhhh' in unison from the press box. Words like 'bunsen', 'raging turner' and 'minefield' were doing the rounds and, to be fair, they were apt descriptions.
Even if there were no rough or footmarks to work with, it was turning all over the place. Not just turn but some were jumping off length. Some were keeping low and a few were stopping on the batters. It was no surprise that coach Rahul Dravid came down to have a long, hard look at the surface during the lunch break. On air, Matthew Hayden, one of the commentators for the host broadcaster, wasn't too thrilled with what he was seeing. "You have got to give the batters a chance," he said. "You are judging performances in Test cricket."
One batter whose performances on turners have been okay is Shreyas Iyer. Considered one of India's better batters off-spin as he uses his feet and trusts his defence, the onus was on him. He lasted all of two balls, playing on while going for an expansive drive for a ball that didn't bounce all that much.
One man who didn't seem all that bothered about the state of the strip was Virat Kohli. The No. 4 had already played a few crisp shots on the leg side and was either going right back to give himself all the time in the world or right forward to smother the spin. However, on this lottery pitch, you are never sure of your footing. And so he perished, Todd Murphy, trapping him in front. The lower order once again added a chunk to the total with Umesh Yadav, recalled to give Mohammed Shami a rest, delighting a sizable weekday crowd to a couple of sixes.
In the end, though, none of them stood a chance as they were bowled out for 109, with nine of the 10 wickets falling for spin (the last wicket to fall was a run-out).