Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Indian batters lose the plot as Australia take 2-1 lead
MELBOURNE: Once again, it all began with a reckless shot by Rishabh Pant. From 33/3 on the brink of lunch while chasing 340, India had batted through a session without losing a wicket. Yashasvi Jaiswal looked better than he did in Perth with Pant giving him company.
When the duo took the field at 3.30 PM (local time) in front of an all-time record attendance at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, it was cinematic.
Test cricket at its very best. The senior batters had made a quick exit — a recurring theme in the series — earlier and with the lights gradually fading, the onus was on the next generation stars to navigate the visitors to safety. Jaiswal was at the forefront while Pant was showing plenty of restraint to hold fort at the other end. Only two days ago, Pant had scooped his way back to the pavilion, leading Sunil Gavaskar to lose his cool on air. "Stupid, stupid, stupid," Gavaskar had yelled on air while being on ABC radio commentary.
The last thing Pant would have wanted is to frustrate the legend, whose name is on the Trophy India are trying to retain, once again. That is also the last thing India would have wanted. But to everyone's dismay, that's exactly what Pant did.
Sensing the value of his wicket, the left-hander had displayed plenty of calm until then. He had played over 100 balls, gotten hit in the arm in the process while getting just two boundaries. However, his work was far from over. India, with seven wickets in hand and needing 219 runs from 34 overs, needed Pant and Jaiswal to stay as long as possible. With Virat Kohli and struggling Rohit Sharma's dismissal earlier, it was about survival for India then. There was plenty of hope with the two in the middle. That turned to hopelessness soon as Pant had pressed the self-destruct button yet again.
On the fourth ball of the 59th over, Pant tried to dispatch a long hop from Travis Head into the stands but ended up skying it to Mitch Marsh at long-on.
As the keeper-bat walked back, he was visibly upset with himself. He knew no matter where Gavaskar was watching from, he would have lost his cool once again. Clearly frustrated, Pant threw his glove up but failed to catch it. He stood in the middle of nowhere, all by himself while MCG roared and celebrated with the Australian team, bent down and picked his gloves up before heading back to the dressing room.
From the hosts' point of view, that was exactly what they needed. The floodgates had opened up. Ravindra Jadeja lasted only 14 balls before fending one behind the stumps off Scott Boland. Centurion from the first innings, Nitish K Reddy, lasted just five balls before he was sent back by Nathan Lyon. India were staring at a defeat with Washington Sundar and Jaiswal at the crease.
The duo hung around for about 35 minutes before Jaiswal, while going for a pull, was sent back by Cummins. He was initially given not out but the third umpire decided there was enough visual evidence to overturn despite snicko not showing any spike. That caused a stir as a sizeable number of Indian fans — 73,362 fans were present on the day and a total of 373,534 attended across the last five days to break an 87-year-old record for biggest crowd for a Test at MCG and in Australia — started chanting 'cheater, cheater' in unison. With Jaiswal back, India were reduced to 140/7.
While describing his decision, third umpire Sharfuddoula Ibne Shahid Saikat said that he had visual evidence of ball touching the gloves and the deflection after suggesting the same. Former umpire Simon Taufel, speaking on Channel7, explained that there is a hierarchy of redundancy while making a decision for the umpires. "When the third umpire sees a clear deflection off the bat, there really is no need to go any further and use any other forms of technology to prove the case," he said.
Even as everyone tried to make sense of the technicalities and rationalise what seemed like a legitimate dismissal, emotions were running high in the middle. It only went up a notch when another dismissal — Akash Deep's — sparked off a DRS debate. This time he was caught off the pad at short-leg. The spike appeared late, but the red mark on the inside edge of the bat cleared it all.
From thereon, it was just a matter of time. Boland removed Jasprit Bumrah and Lyon trapped Mohammed Siraj. When the finger went up for one final time, Australians engulfed Lyon. They had beaten India by 184 runs. More importantly, they had taken a 2-1 lead.
While this will be a forgettable day for Pant & Co, Australia, who had played good cricket through the course of five days, will remember this victory for a long time.