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Australia are in a dominant position after day one of the second Test in Bangalore thanks to masterful spin bowling from Nathan Lyon, who took 8-50 as India were rolled for just 189.
As Steve O’Keefe grabbed the headlines with his 12-wicket haul in Australia’s first Test win in Pune, spin colleague Lyon cruised along in his slipstream.
Yet, just as encouraging as O’Keefe’s star turn in that Test, was the massive improvement in the bowling of Lyon, who struggled badly for most of the home summer, averaging 50 across six Tests.
Against South Africa and Pakistan, Lyon was too often short and too often straight. The former flaw saw him leak boundaries and the latter made it too easy for batsmen to work him with the spin through the leg side.
Lyon is at his best when his stock ball is tossed up well wide of off stump, daring the batsman to drive him through the offside against the spin. At Pune he held this line and, as a result, he comprehensively outshone the world’s number one Test spinner, Ravi Ashwin, who bowled too straight.
Again yesterday, Lyon tossed many deliveries up well outside off stump and tied the Indian batsmen in knots. Then, as a changeup, he would fire the ball in straighter, quicker and with heavy overspin.
These deliveries got big on the Indian batsmen which brought the short leg and leg slip into play. The way he wreaked havoc had seemed entirely unlikely earlier in the day. For the first session the Bangalore pitch had played as though it was brimming with runs.
With Australia’s quicks receiving minimal assistance, a lack of reverse swing and no unusual help on offer for the spinners, it seemed India would need 420-plus to be happy with their innings.
Then, in the space of two deliveries in the second session, that whole scenario was thrown out the window. O’Keefe landed those deliveries on a similar line and length, yet the first one shot through at shin height with minimal turn, and the second turned 50cm and bounced wildly.
What made this particularly notable was that, of the four specialist spinners involved in this Test, O’Keefe is the least likely to make a pitch play tricks. This is because he gets significantly less revolutions on the ball than Lyon, Ravi Ashwin or Ravi Jadeja. All three of those spinners earned clearly more spin and bounce than Lyon at Pune.
That pitch was an absolute raging turner which was condemned by the ICC, who gave it a “poor” rating. Yet here O’Keefe was on day one at Bangalore getting the ball to misbehave more than he did at any point of the Pune Test.
Around the same time, Lyon started to produce some startling bounce – a delivery on an identical length was liable to either skid through at knee height or leap up to waist height.
The unpredictability of the pitch clearly played on the minds of the Indian batsmen, several of whom gifted their wickets with loose strokes.
Lyon didn’t rely on the pitch for his success, though, far from it in fact. The experienced off spinner plucked three crucial wickets before the deck even began to act up. First he got a delivery to rear up and catch the inside edge of Cheteshwar Pujara, ending a steady 61-run stand between Pujara and opener KL Rahul, who played a wonderful knock of 90.
Then he tricked Indian talisman Virat Kohli into shouldering arms, trapping the superstar plumb LBW. The third of those victims was Ajinkya Rahane, who was beaten in the flight by Lyon and stumped. Lyon thoroughly deserved his haul after being unlucky at Pune, when several catches were dropped off his bowling.
Lyon received fantastic support from O’Keefe, and quicks Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood.
Australia were fantastically disciplined with the ball for the third straight time in this series. Then their blossoming new opening partnership of David Warner and Matt Renshaw steered them safely to stumps. At 0-40, Australia trail India by only 149 runs.
The tourists will need a significant first innings lead, however, as the pitch looks as though it will be a nightmare on which to bat last. Lyon and O’Keefe have played their part, incredibly combining for an average of 26 wickets at an average of 9 so far in this series.
Now it’s up to the Australian batsmen to bat India out of this Test.