Well, that escalated quickly. After Day 3, the Second Test between Australia and India at the Gabba seemed evenly poised.
Then India collapsed, setting Australia a small target that they (eventually) ran down to take a 2-0 lead in the series. Here are the ratings for all the action from Day Four.
Practice Nets
Grade: D
India began the fourth day on 1/71, only 26 behind Australia. However, Shikhar Dhawan was not resuming the innings. At first, most people assumed the moustachioed opener must have forgotten that he wasn’t the dismissed batsman or that new batsman Virat Kohli had perhaps devoured him and taken his place at the crease.
In fact, it transpired that Dhawan had been injured while batting on Gabba practice pitches, infuriating the Indian management who fired off an official complaint about the substandard conditions under which they were forced to practice.
Even when Dhawan eventually returned to the crease and top scored for India with 81, they failed to retract the complaint, suggesting that they’d expected him to make many, many more runs than that. Good to see them standing behind their out-of-form opening batsman with such blinkered, unjustifiable optimism.
Still, given what happened to the rest of the batsmen, and in the rhyming spirit of ‘catches win matches’, I’d now quite like to coin the phrase ‘bad practice pitches are bad practice for Mitches’.
Mitch Johnson
Grade: B+
It is often said that when Mitch Johnson bats well, he bowls well. This maxim is not necessarily backed up by robust statistical evidence – it is perhaps fairer to say ‘When Mitch bats well… he scores a decent number of runs before being dismissed, and this may or may not impact his bowling in any consistent way’.
Nevertheless, Johnson batted well on Day Three. And he certainly bowled frighteningly well on the morning of Day Four, triggering a collapse from 1/71 overnight to 5/87.
Even more cleverly, Johnson took his three wickets with deliveries that were mere millimetres away from no balls. While most Australian fans were urging him to move his bowling marker back a centimetre or six, Johnson was having none of it. It soon became obvious that his plan was to dismiss the batsmen, then have them wait around while his front foot was checked, only to be dismissed again, thereby doubling their humiliation.
Mind games.
Interestingly, replays of footage from the prior day showed that he’d also batted ever so marginally inside his crease. So, maybe there is something to this batting-bowling link after all.
India eventually recovered sufficiently to take a small lead. At one point they were 5/102, effectively 5/5 (or, if you score the English way, effectively 5/5), before going on to make 224 all out.
Brad Haddin
Grade: C-
One of the big concerns for Australia must be the form of Brad Haddin. Not so much his batting, although that has deteriorated since last year’s Ashes. And not so much his keeping, given that he took the first five wickets of the Test and nine in total for the match.
No, it’s Haddin’s increasing honesty that would have the coaching staff worried. Several times during this Test he failed to appeal or appealed only half-heartedly, presumably because of the bizarre technicality that he didn’t believe the batsman was out.
Strange form from Haddin. Let’s hope he can sort out this technical flaw in his game quickly.
Dave Warner’s Thumb
Grade: B-
Australia were set 128 to win, and their chase met an almost immediate setback with Dave Warner being struck on the thumb and dismissed shortly thereafter for 6.
The prospects of a broken Dave Warner thumb had people looking ahead to the Boxing Day Test, wondering who might replace him. Ed Cowan was a popular suggestion, although surely the most sensible (i.e. hilarious) option would be to move Shane Watson to open, with Glenn Maxwell batting at three And captaining.
Before debate could get too heated on the topic, however, it was revealed that the thumb may not have been broken at all, thereby ruining all our Boxing Day Test speculation. Selfish from Warner. I say we should drop him anyway.
Small Fourth Innings Target Collapses
Grade: B+
Since Australia had been set such a small fourth innings target, this gave Channel Nine full licence to make constant callbacks to famous Australian small fourth innings target collapses, most notably the one against South Africa in 1994 when de Villiers toppled the Australians for 111 when chasing a mere 117.
Astonishing to think that AB de Villiers has been a thorn in Australian sides for two decades now. Amazing player.
For a time, it looked as if these modern Australians weren’t going to have any such wobble chasing down the small fourth innings target. Sure, Warner and Watson both fell cheaply. But Chris Rogers anchored the chase with 55, the exact same score he’d made in the first innings. (Is he superstitious about scoring more runs than his age, perhaps?)
But then Captain Steve Smith ran himself out off a no ball, as part of a collapse from 3/114 to 6/122. It wasn’t a particularly great collapse, as far as these things go, since Mitch Johnson then joined Mitch Marsh and they Mitch-slapped the winning runs without too much further trouble. But it showed that Smith respects the traditions of Australian cricket in a way that perhaps some of his Gen Y teammates don’t, what with their hair gel and their Instagram and their insistence on being named Mitch.
Speaking of which,
Mitch of the Match: Johnson
Marsh of the Match: Mitch
Mitch Marsh of the Match: TBA
Harshal Patel was not a happy man!
David Lord has been remembered as an icon of Australian sports journalism following his death, aged 84. The renowned writer and broadcaster was an…
Sign the man up for a contract next season!
RCB have suffered a massive HEAD-ACHE after Travis Head smashed the fastest century by an SRH player in just 39 balls, as they amassed…
A brutal century by Travis Head has blasted Sunrisers Hyderabad back into the Indian Premier League play-off places in another match for bowlers to…
Two Aussies abroad have endured wildly different fortunes as Jake Fraser-McGurk joined the world stage with a thrilling first IPL half century, but Scott…
