Digest this: Australia are sitting in the driver’s seat in the inaugural Test in Pune and are in a position to call the shots in the rest of the match. Yes, after posting 260 in their first innings, Australia bundled out the home team for a paltry 105 to take control of the Test match. By the time stumps were drawn at the end of the second day, Australia had reached 143-4 in their second essay, and must be sitting easy with an overall lead of 298 runs.
Ravichandran Ashwin needed only five deliveries to clean up the Australian innings at the start of the second day. He had Mitchell Starc caught at the midwicket boundary. Australia were in a spot of bother at 205-9, but the last wicket partnership of 55 runs – between Starc and Josh Hazlewood – helped them to what now looks like a match-winning first innings total.
Starc and Hazlewood were not done; they rattled India with the new ball, dismissing Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli early on. While Vijay reached out to one outside off and edged to the wicket-keeper, Pujara gloved a snorter from Starc to Wade behind the stumps.
Two balls after Pujara was dismissed, Virat Kohli was dismissed for a duck – for the first time after 104 international innings – when he attempted a flamboyant drive, edging it to Peter Handscomb in the slip cordon.
KL Rahul held his end even as wickets fell at the other end. He and Ajinkya Rahane put together an important partnership for the fourth wicket to keep the Australians at bay for 17 overs. But soon after the partnership had reached the 50-run mark, Rahul played one attacking stroke too many and was dismissed.
For someone who looked so assured in the middle and was accumulating runs without too many difficulties, the opener played a reckless stroke. He attempted to go over the top without getting to the pitch of the ball, lost his shape altogether and didn’t get enough wood on the ball.
End result, he holed out to the man running in from the boundary. Rahul was dismissed for a well-compiled 64, made from 97 balls, decorated with ten boundaries and a six.
But that one rash stroke from Rahul turned the match on its head, and possibly handed Australia the chance to dictate terms not only in this Test but also in the rest of the series. Wickets tumbled thereafter and there was a procession of sorts; from 94-3 just before Rahul was dismissed, India lost seven wickets for 11 runs – their worst seven-wicket collapse in Test history – to be bundled out for 105.
The Australian who spearheaded India’s collapse was left-arm spinner Steve O’Keefe. When the 32-year old was given the new ball, he couldn’t cause too much of an impact. In fact, at one stage it appeared O’Keefe could emerge as the weak link in the Australian attack.
But then came a third spell, a change of ends, and he ran through the Indian side. He picked up six wickets – in a spell of only 4.1 overs – as he accounted for the likes of KL Rahul, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha, Jayant Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja and Umesh Yadav with some impressive disciplined bowling.
Australia were shaky at the start of their second innings as they lost the two openers – David Warner and Shaun Marsh cheaply.
On a pitch where the ball turned square consistently, Australia needed one big score to take firm control of the match. That big score came from their captain Steve Smith who was dropped thrice – on 23 by Murali Vijay, on 29 & 37 by substitute fielder Abhinav Mukund.
The Australian captain rode his luck and ensured he made the Indians pay for their largess. By the time the umpires called time to the day’s proceedings, Smith had been involved in partnerships of 13, 38, 50 and 30*, and helped himself to an important half-century. The Australian captain, who earlier in the innings went past the 1000-run mark in Tests against India, remained unbeaten on 59 and will be eyeing his 18th Test century.
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