India won the first Test in Adelaide yesterday by 31, but the only reason the baggy greens came so close was the determined tail wagging batting of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon and Josh Hazlewood.
And to prove the point, they did it in both digs.
In the first dig, Cummins and Travis Head put on 50 for the seventh wicket.
Starc joined Head for a 27-run stand for the eighth wicket, and Lyon made an unbeaten 24 in a 31-run stand for the ninth wicket.
Hazlewood was dismissed for a first ball duck, but the three previous stands accounted for 108 of the 235 total to get the Australians to within 15 of India’s first dig.
The Test came alive in India’s second dig when Starc and Lyon combined to claim the last four wickets for just four runs.
That gave India a 322-run lead which had loomed as 360-370 before Starc and Lyon struck – an out-of-the-question target.
But 323 for victory gave the brittle Australian lineup a small sniff, albeit unlikely.
And so it proved until the attack again showed the top order how runs could be made.
Cummins joined his skipper for a 31-stand for the seventh wicket, and Cummins repeated the dose with 41 with Starc for the eighth, and 31 with Lyon for the ninth.
Lyon continued the good work with a 32-run 10th wicket stand with Hazlewood to get within 31 runs of an unlikely victory.
The tail had put on 135 of the 291 Australian total, with Lyon starring with two unbeaten knocks of 24 and 38, leaving Cummins as the pivot twice with scores of 10 off 47, and 38 off 168.
The strike rates tell the story:
Lyon’s unbeaten 62 off 75, batting 10, topped the strike rates with 82.67.
Starc’s 43 off 78, batting nine – 55.13.
Tim Paine’s 46 off 93, batting seven – 49.46.
Debutant Marcus Harris’ 52 off 106, batting two – 49.06.
Head’s 86 off 229, batting six – 37.55.
Peter Handscomb’s 48 off 133, batting five – 36.09.
Shaun Marsh’s 62 off 185, batting four – 33.51.
Hazlewood’s 13 off 44, batting 11 – 29.55.
Aaron Finch’s 11 off 38, batting one – 28.95.
Cummins’ 38 off 168, batting eight – 22.62.
And Usman Khawaja’s 36 off 167, batting three – 21.56.
That translates to the top six scoring 295 off 858 – strike rate 34.38.
And the bottom five – 202 off 458 for a strike rate of 44.10.
Sure it wasn’t a win, but when you look at the world’s top six ranked Test batsmen – Virat Kohli, Steve Smith, Kane Williamson, Joe Root, Cheteshwar Pujara, and David Warner, the Australians did very well without Smith, and Warner.
A whole lot better than India would have done without Kohli and Pujara.
India’s Cheteshwar Pujara celebrates after reaching a century during the first cricket test between Australia and India in Adelaide, Australia,Thursday, Dec. 6, 2018. (AP Photo/James Elsby)
So it’s off to the brand new state-of-the-art Optus Stadium in Perth, starting Friday, for the award-winning ground’s Test cricket debut in the second of the four-match series.
How the wicket will play in the 60,000-seat stadium is a virtually unknown factor, but if Australian top six can pull their weight, and the bottom five keep firing, it should be a fascinating Test.
One thing for sure, at least half the crowd will be Indian supporters now their side has a genuine sniff of an historic series win Down Under.
The Aussie needed every centimetre of his height and reach to reel that one in!
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