On a day when Indians Cheteshwar Pujara and Wriddhiman Saha sought to slowly bat Australia into the dirt, the visiting bowlers showed fantastic resilience, refusing to wilt on day four of the third Test in Ranchi.
Pujara and Saha are two of the most underrated players in Test cricket, the former a serenely compact first drop, the latter a slick gloveman and plucky batsman.
Yesterday they combined for a grinding five-hour partnership that would have broken most bowling attacks. The intent from India in this innings was clear – occupy the crease for as long as possible, no matter how slow the run rate, and slowly sap the spirit of the Australians.
They executed this strategy perfectly, keeping the tourists in the field for an extraordinary 210 overs. Yet they never managed to break the Australians. It is very, very rare that a team has to spend more than 200 overs in the field in one innings.
Often, once a side has been bowling for beyond 130 or 140 overs things swiftly go downhill – they lose their lengths, they lose their lines, they lose their patience. Again and again I’ve seen teams bowl solidly on a flat deck for four sessions only for their energy and execution to wane and sessions five and six to become a bloodbath.
Australia will have earned respect from the Indians yesterday by avoiding this slide and offering very few loose balls even once they had been in the field for more than 12 hours.
Pace bowlers Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins, and left-arm spinner Steve O’Keefe, each turned in herculean efforts which were as much a display of willpower as skill.
Combined, that trio conceded a miserly 2.55 runs per over across the innings. This was particularly impressive given that Hazlewood had never bowled as much as 44 overs in a Test innings before, Cummins wheeled down 39 on the back of only one first-class match as a warm-up, and O’Keefe broke records as he completed a monstrous 77 overs.
It may seem strange to be praising three bowlers who formed part of an attack which conceded a total of 9-603.
But on a lifeless deck against a commanding and deep Indian batting line-up there was not much more Cummins, Hazlewood and O’Keefe could have done. They encountered some wonderful batting.
But they emerged from that nightmare innings in the field with their heads held high. And, crucially, their ability to keep things tight even across that marathon stint has denied India many more overs in which to force a result.
If Australia do manage to scrap their way to a draw today it will be in no small part thanks to that trio of bowlers and their unrelenting effort. It is yet another example of a fresh, bloody-minded mentality the Australians have exhibited in this series.
After surrendering meekly during their past three series in Asia, Australia have displayed admirable gumption with bat and ball against a dominant Indian team which started this series having not lost a match at home in four years.
It was the dogged efforts of their batsmen in the first Test, as much as O’Keefe’s heroics, which allowed them to humiliate the Indians at Pune. Then they fought hard for the first three innings at Bangalore before their first really poor display of the series, collapsing in a heap batting last.
But the toil of Cummins, Hazlewood and O’Keefe will count for little if Australia’s remaining batsmen do not match their dedication today.
The Weather Girl
Guest
There we go. The Aussies should behave like those saints from India, especially that misunderstood paragon of virtue Virat Kohli.
WQ
Guest
Apparently not the Indians, completely ignored Smith's 100...
Anindya Dutta
Roar Guru
Great call James! Really great call! Excellent fightback and application from hands omb and the "good" Marsh Brother.
El Loco
Roar Rookie
Glenn, Thunder's a troll who I guarantee is laughing his arse off every time he gets a bitey response. I actually find his predictions pretty hilarious.
Armchair Expert
Guest
You better wipe that egg off your face Thunder.
Bakkies
Guest
Given Australia's record at the Wanderers and Centurion the conditions will suit the quicks
El Loco
Roar Rookie
Glenn, Thunder's just a troll who I guarantee is laughing his arse off every time he gets a bitey response. I actually find his posts pretty hilarious.
El Loco
Roar Rookie
Sigh of relief. A fourth test decider is most deserved. Prediction for which - whoever's on top after day one will later be in trouble.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Glad to make a correct prediction for once!
AlanC
Guest
Glenn, don't waste your time on this guy. He adopts many a name and is only interested in baiting.
While we're at it
Guest
Nice call young fella, don't suppose you backed Winx on the weekend either?
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
So are you going to keep making these overly pessimistic predictions for the fourth test despite being proved completely wrong time and again by this team? Or are you going to keep going and say Australia will get smashed in the fourth test like they have in the first three?
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Yeah, if he reaches double figures he's likely to make a fifty! Just doesn't reach double figures that often.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
If they'd bowled lots of part time overs and they'd gone for runs and allowed India to really push the run rate along then it could have made the match state a lot worse for Australia, because instead of having to bat for just over a day to draw the test they could have had more like 5 sessions to bat with an even bigger deficit.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
It's hard to tell. It was a marathon innings, but because it was only a single innings it does sort of limit the damage a bit. For instance, Yadav actually bowled 2 more overs than Hazlewood across the course of the test match, and Jadeja bowled 93.3 overs across the two innings, a full 16.3 overs more than SOK. Sure, that was split into two halves with a rest in the middle, but the Aussie bowlers have also had an extra days rest with them finishing on day 4 while the Indian bowlers were bowling on day 5. So it's hard to know if that one marathon innings will impact them seriously more than bowling as many, or more overs split across 2 innings and with one less days rest will for the Indian bowlers.
Glenn Mitchell
Expert
I very much looked forward to Thunder Nation's response to AUS's gritty final day effort. The all out 89 before lunch did not quite pan out, nor many of his other asinine predictions.
Glenn Mitchell
Expert
Hard to know TN whether AUS holding out for a draw pleases or irritates you. I am tipping the latter given the level of disdain you show for them.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Apparently Pattinson specifically asked not to be considered for the Indian tour. After several failed comeback attempts where he'd possibly gone too hard too soon he didn't want to do that again here, but just wanted to finish off the shield.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
After this test you'd have to suggest it would be Lyon. Apart from anything else he's struggling with a finger injury, but if you are going with that sort of attack you probably need the spinner who can maintain more control and put the pressure on rather than the more attacking spinner who will go for more runs. And then if you want the second spinner and you do throw the ball to Maxwell, he is an offspinner, so the combination works better when you have SOK as the main spinner than Lyon which gives you two offspinners. Especially to a very right-handed batting lineup.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
And I'm delighted that you are now able to be delighted at being proved wrong. Great to see Handscomb and Marsh carry it for so long after the inexplicable double wicket early in the day.