BRISBANE: Somewhere in the middle of the first innings, Virat Kohli rushed out of the Gabba dressing room, called up Abhimanyu Easwaran, told him something in earnest and sent him off the ground.
In the middle were Jasprit Bumrah and Akash Deep - India’s tenth wicket pair - trying to avoid follow on. The duo had got together with 33 runs required to get to 246 on another rain interrupted day in Brisbane.
They had, inch by inch, run by run, moved towards the total. And just before Kohli sent a message, Akash Deep had taken a swipe at Pat Cummins, albeit unsuccessfully. So, the message - as KL Rahul would confirm later - was simple. The field was spread out. There was no hurry. So don’t do anything extravagant and pick up singles as they had till then.
India needed those runs more than anything else. They had started the day at 48/4. Rohit Sharma failed again. Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja came together to keep India alive. Australia had a small setback when they lost Josh Hazlewood to a calf injury. But Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc were steaming in.
Multiple rain stoppages only allowed them to keep coming at the Indian lower order more intensely. Rahul scored fifty but missed out on another hundred. His 86 was the best of the lot with Jadeja making 77.
It is not just the runs that mattered the most, but the time they had spent in the middle. Rahul had batted for 139 balls and Jadeja 123. Nitish Reddy, who joined Jadeja after Rahul got out, stayed for 61 balls. The three batters cumulatively faced 323 balls - 53.5 overs - from the 396 legitimate deliveries that were bowled till Jadeja fell.
In the larger scheme of things, it's longer than three of the four innings India had batted as the team in the first two Tests.
They did so by leaving balls as much as they can, playing close the body, keeping the interception point - where they meet the ball - as late as possible. Among the three, Rahul of course had the toughest job. For him, it was very simple. Give the first 30 overs to the bowlers.
He had watched Marnus Labuschagne and Nathan McSweeney in Adelaide and Steve Smith in Brisbane. He followed it to the T.
“The only thing you can do in the first 30 overs is to tighten up your defence, try and respect that the first 30 overs is the bowler's time and give them their time. Leave balls, try and play as tight as possible and then really try to cash in once the ball gets older,” Rahul said.
Understandably, once the ball got older and softer, it was easier to bat. Even more so considering Australia did not have Hazlewood who walked off the field after bowling just one over on Tuesday. The way they batted made the likes of Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill and Sharma look worse. They needed some discipline especially after conceding 445 runs in the first innings.
Even then, Cummins, like the bowling machine he is, kept running in, kept hitting the right lengths troubling the lower order. And the results came in intervals with Cummins taking four wickets. He and Starc took turns while Nathan Lyon held up one end. The result - India were nine down for 213.
Bumrah was in the middle with Akash Deep and the mind went to his comments on the press conference before. The Indian vice-captain reminded everyone that he holds the record for most runs in an over when responding jokingly.
Then there were references to Kapil Dev coming in and hitting four sixes to avoid a follow-on against England at Lord’s in 1990. The anticipation only grew when Bumrah hooked Cummins into the stands for a six with 27 runs needed to avoid follow-on.
By the time Kohli sent in a message, Akash Deep and Bumrah had brought it down to five. The duo took a single in a Lyon over and Akash Deep was up against Cummins. Dark clouds were back once again, and India wanted to get to that point soon.
On the second ball of the 75th over, Akash Deep played at a length delivery from Cummins, the ball took the outside edge, flew past Steve Smith in slips for a four. Kohli yelled in joy and so did head coach Gautam Gambhir in the dressing room. There were high fives all around with Sharma, and assistant coach Abhishek Nayar in all smiles. In the middle, Akash Deep tapped his badge on the chest and gestured as if ‘he’s there, not to worry’.
He didn’t stop there. Two balls later, Akash Deep stood tall and launched Cummins down the ground. The soft ball hit the tier two stands with a massive noise and that was that. Minutes later, bad light stopped play and stumps were called with India 252/9.
Australians weren’t amused for he had just hit a six off a pacer. It didn’t matter in the end. What seemed like another drubbing in making ended up being one of the memorable passages of play in the series so far.
Not all is done. Another rainy day in Brisbane left. India will want nothing more to avoid a loss while Australia, with their three-man attack, have to take 11 Indian wickets to go 2-1 up.