It was never going to be easy. Not for either team in one of the most volatile, pulsating, combative Test matches in modern memory. But India found their nose in front at the only time that matters, defying Australia’s attempt to wrap up the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with a 75-run victory at Bangalore, steamrolling Steve Smith’s side for 112 inside 36 overs.
The hosts threw away their own advantage on the fourth morning when Australia’s quicks ran rampant with the second new ball, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood combining for 5-20 in the space of 18 electrifying balls. 188 runs stood between Australia and an unbeatable 2-0 series lead with two sessions remaining on the fourth day.
But after lunch India’s bowlers went to work, taking six wickets in the session, including two with the score at 101 on the cusp of tea, before finishing the job in style. Australia’s last four wickets fell in half an hour after the final break, the lower-order collapse reading a disastrous six wickets for just 11 runs.
Ravichandran Ashwin was the predictable destroyer, the best spin bowler on the planet finishing with 6-41. It was a clinic of how to bowl in the fourth innings without a mass of runs to defend: all out attack. It is the 25th time he has taken a five-wicket bag in Tests.
When Steve Smith and David Warner came together after Matt Renshaw was the first to go, edging a delightful Ishant Sharma delivery, Indian skipper Virat Kohli was heard on the effects microphone willing his team: “Get these two and it’s wrapped up!” He wasn’t far from the mark.
Warner was first of the leadership pair to depart, electing to review a leg before decision after Ashwin beat his bat when sweeping. The technology sided with umpire Nigel Llong, albeit just, in keeping with tightness that defined this contest from the moment the teams returned on day two.
Shaun Marsh suffered the same fate when Umesh Yadav jagged a delivery back towards the left-hander from around the wicket. The West Australian shouldered arms and Llong didn’t hesitate. Knowing a review was already lost through the Warner dismissal, he walked off. On reflection, he should have asked the question – the ball was missing by a significant margin.
There was no consideration for the captain Smith to go upstairs either, the unfortunate recipient of a ball that barely bounced above ankle height, from one of the many cracks that opened over the final 24 hours of the match. The animosity between he and Kohli was significant when Smith appeared to seek guidance from the dressing rooms as to whether he should review. More to come on that, no doubt, from the match referee.
A period of productive consolidation played out at the point between Peter Handscomb and Mitchell Marsh, the two combining for 27, taking the runs required down to 87. However, with five minutes remaining before the tea break was scheduled, Ashwin caught Marsh’s glove on the way though to short-leg. The all-rounder left dismayed, realising how close the pair had came to putting together a defining partnership.
Savvy work from Ravindra Jadeja, racing through a maiden in the space of 90 seconds, ensured that Ashwin would sneak another in before the interval with 30 seconds to spare. He made the most of it, his penultimate ball holding its line to collect Matthew Wade’s inside edge before he scored, wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha completing a fine diving catch racing around from behind the stumps.
The rapturous celebrations from Ashwin and his captain as they left the field suggested that they knew that Australia were now as good as done, with only the bowlers left to partner with Handscomb in what would inevitably be the final session of the Test.
And they were right. Fewer than eight overs were required for Ashwin and Jadeja to finish the job. The former hit the top of Starc’s off-stump within minutes of the resumption before Steve O’Keefe was also castled when Jadeja slipped a slider underneath his bat. Handscomb went down swinging in the absence of any other viable option, before Nathan Lyon returned a catch to Ashwin to end the match.
The bowling quarter have the right to be disappointed. Lyon set up this game for Australia with 8-50 on the opening day. Then Starc and Hazlewood got the visitors out of the hole, as Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane’s fifth-wicket partnership was swelling to one that would make any fourth innings chase insurmountable.
Hazlewood in particular was outstanding. His three wickets on morning four complemented three on the third afternoon, 6 for 67 a well-earned return and the fifth time he has claimed five wickets in a Test innings.
The not out overnight batsmen put on 118 before Starc beat Rahane for pace; the catalyst for another plot twist in a match that was full of them. It was given not out on the field, but an excellent review from Smith had the decision overturned, and the door ajar for Australia with the new ball and Starc routinely hitting 150kph and above.
Next ball, Starc broke Karun Nair’s leg stump in half with a rocket. All of a sudden, he was on a hat-trick and they were into India’s vulnerable tail. That didn’t happen, but Hazlewood’s next over claimed a further two wickets, benefiting from some variable bounce to crash through Ashwin’s gate before Pujara prodded a short ball into the gully nine runs short of what would have been a fine century. But Australia will also know that the chances he was given behind the wicket on three then four proved highly influential in the context of the final margin.
Four wickets in nine balls became 20 for five shortly thereafter when Umesh spooned a catch to mid-off. A last wicket stand of 16 between Ishant and Saha frustrated the Australians for a further 10 overs and ensured that their ill-fated chase would only begin after the lunch break.
After having one hand on the trophy bowling India out for 189 on the opening day, Smith’s side will know they leave Bangalore having missed a significant opportunity. Some fine, gutsy cricket was played across the four days by the visitors in this wonderful Test, but they learned the hard way that India are the top-ranked side, and virtually unbeatable at home, for good reason. They now have the better part of two weeks to regroup before the third Test begins in Ranchi on 16 March.
