As the fourth day’s play began at the Gabba on Tuesday, KL Rahul got a massive slice of luck. Pat Cummins made one rear off a length in the corridor, and the Indian opener jabbed at it. It was an aberration to the way KL Rahul has been playing in this series. Then again, it was the first ball of the day and Cummins’ brilliance forced the error. From India’s perspective, fortune favored the brave, with Steve Smith dropping a sitter, and KL Rahul went on to score 84.
So far, the 32-year-old KL Rahul has scored 231 runs in five innings in the ongoing series. KL Rahul has looked the most assured of the Indian batsmen. What is separating him from the rest. To start with, KL Rahul has been showing impeccable judgment outside off stump. KL Rahul is leaving a lot of deliveries, prompting the bowlers to do something different. And he is giving a masterclass of playing with soft hands.
Day 4 : Morning Session : Australia remain on top despite KL Rahul’s vigilant knock
Australia continued to push for victory on the fourth morning of the Brisbane Test despite substantial time having been taken away from the game due to inclement weather. At Lunch on Day 4, they had India six down for 167, the visitors still 79 shy of forcing the hosts to bat again, which India will hope can eat some more time from this contest they desperately want to save.
The biggest obstacle in the hosts’ march, KL Rahul, was dismissed for an excellent 84 a little before the interval courtesy a superb diving catch at slip by Steve Smith, who incidentally put down a more regulation offering off the first ball of the day’s play from Pat Cummins.
The day began under relatively bright skies but the gloom for India could have set in as early as the first ball when KL Rahul allowed his hands to get away from his body to a wide, length delivery from Cummins. But India’s opener KL Rahul was allowed to add to his overnight score of 33 by a rare show of fielding benevolence from Smith. It was also a rare indiscretion from a batter who continued to make good decisions after getting into very good positions in yet another innings on the tour.
Rohit Sharma, on the other hand, was worked over by his opposite number as Cummins produced a probing five-over spell in the first hour where he kept landing the ball on an imaginary small square on a good length outside off delivery after delivery. The Australia captain eventually played with Rohit’s weight transfers by bowling a sharp, short ball before a follow-up full delivery, which as it turned out wasn’t full enough for the drive. Sensing a rare scoring opportunity, Rohit reached for it and feathered an edge to the ‘keeper.
By the end of it, Australia were left ruing events at its very beginning. Cummins got the first ball of the day to rear at KL Rahul in the corridor, and he fended it straight to Steven Smith at second slip. Smith is one of the world’s great slip fielders – he went on to demonstrate this later in the day – but this time the ball simply bounced off the heels of his hands.
India were 74 for 4 at this stage, and had only faced 23.3 overs. Jadeja’s entry, however, calmed them down, and he settled into an innings where his control percentage hovered in the mid-90s throughout. It helped that Hazlewood went off the field soon after Jadeja walked in, after bowling just one over, and it helped that the ball stopped seaming and bouncing quite as awkwardly as it had done when it was new, but Jadeja batted with an organized gameplan that ensured he made the best of his circumstances.
His wagon wheel against the fast bowlers gave a clear idea of it: plenty of checked drives down the ground with a vertical bat and a full face, plenty of flicks off his legs, but hardly anything through the covers with an angled bat.
He also faced a lot of bowling from Lyon, so often his nemesis back home, but where Jadeja’s method of defending with bat and pad close together makes him an lbw candidate on Indian pitches, it was far less of an issue on this bouncy Gabba surface. He also brought out the sweep, a shot he isn’t known for, and picked up two fours and three singles with it
Cummins struck soon after, removing Rohit Sharma with a terrific one-two. First, he zipped a short ball past his ribcage, not allowing him to connect with a pull. Then he shifted the ball full and outside off stump. Rohit didn’t get far enough forward to play this ball safely – and with his front shoulder too open – and ended up edging his attempted drive to the keeper.
There were no such mistakes from KL Rahul, who continued to pick only the really full deliveries for his shots as well as favoring the square drive to the more expansive variant towards extra cover.
With KL Rahul looking increasingly solid at the other end and putting away a number of sweet off-side drives, India began to carve chunks out of their deficit. Then Smith made up spectacularly for his earlier error, stepping to his right in anticipation as KL Rahul shaped for the back-cut off Lyon, and dived to his right to grab the thick edge one-handed. Jadeja and KL Rahul had put on 67.
He waited for the bowlers to bowl straighter to him, which he then flicked, tucked away or on-drove. As has been the case in Australia this summer, the batting pair of KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja found the going easier once the Kookaburra ball was more than 30-overs-old. With an assured Jadeja for company, KL Rahul passed 50 and moved serenely towards a three-figure score before an attempted cut shot off Lyon found the flying Smith to end a promising 67-run association.
Despite their dominant position in the game, the hosts endured their own setback when Josh Hazlewood left the field after sending down a solitary over in the session with an injury. That meant there was a lot of bowling for Nathan Lyon as well as Cummins, the latter’s 11-over effort in the session helped out somewhat by a brief 24-minute stoppage of play due to rain.
Day 4 : Post Lunch Session : Ravindra Jadeja holds firm even as Cummins’ strike threatens India
After 2.5 overs of play, the players were forced off the field by rain for a good part of 67 minutes. When play resumed, the pair of Jadeja and Reddy calmly negotiated a Mitchell Starc spell before Cummins returned and struck in his first over back by drawing an uncertain poke and an inside edge onto Reddy’s stumps. Mohammed Siraj survived a few nervy moments before another spell of rain forced umpire’s to call for Tea.
Australia continued to race against time to force a victory in the Brisbane Test through a truncated second session on the fourth day. In 13.2 overs of play were possible between Lunch and Tea during which India added 34 runs for the loss of Nitish Reddy. The visitors are still 45 runs away from forcing Australia to bat again, which they’ll hope can eat into more time as they strive to save the Test
To achieve that first objective, they’ll need Ravindra Jadeja (65*) to do a lot of heavy lifting alongside the three fast bowlers. Jadeja, playing his first Test series of the series, was largely untroubled by the softer Kookaburra ball and stitched stands of 67 and 53 with KL Rahul and Nitish Reddy respectively. After a delayed start to the post-lunch session, he got to his half-century with a sweetly timed on-drive for four and another boundary that was gifted to him when the ball had only brushed his thigh pad on the way to the fine-leg fence.
Day 4 : Afternoon Session : KL Rahul, Jadeja, last wicket stand ensure India avoid follow-on on the thriller Day 4 at Brisbane
Australia were down to just two frontline pacers, saw more overs taken out of the game by rain and had their victory push thwarted by solid half-centuries from KL Rahul (85) and Ravindra Jadeja (77) as well as a dogged and rousing unbeaten 39-run stand for the last wicket between Akash Deep and Jasprit Bumrah that helped India avoid the follow-on.
India ended the day still 193 adrift of Australia’s first-innings total of 445 but the hosts will now have a maximum of 98 overs, weather permitting, to close out India’s innings, build a quick lead and then give their Hazlewood-less bowling attack enough time and cushion to push for victory while ensuring India don’t have a sniff either.
In the absence of their fast bowling partner, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc toiled for 18.5 and 16 overs respectively of the 54.5 bowled on the fourth day and might have even paved the doors for victory with a little bit of luck.
Jadeja set about putting together another half-century stand with Nitish Reddy, as Australia now faced a race against time with only 13.2 overs of play possible through the middle session during which time Jadeja, playing his first game of the series, got to his 22nd Test match fifty.
The seventh-wicket pair managed to see off a Starc spell after 67-minute rain delay but weren’t as lucky against Cummins, who produced a nip backer to Reddy that dislodged his bails via an inside edge. At that stage, India still needed 51 to avoid the follow on with only the three fast bowlers left to partner Jadeja.
India now needed 55 with three wickets remaining, and it soon became 33 with one wicket remaining as Starc and Cummins, running on fumes, took out Mohammed Siraj and Jadeja, the latter bounced out cleverly while trying to farm the strike. Australia were nearly there, but, as Bumrah and Akash Deep proved, not quite.
India had Siraj batting at No.9 and Jadeja’s decision to leave him to face six deliveries from Starc proved to be a mistake as the left-arm quick found the outside edge of the tailender for a sharp catch behind the stumps. Jadeja tried to farm the strike with Bumrah and managed to add a six off Lyon followed by a fortuitous four off Cummins before a well laid out short ball plan ended the all-rounder’s innings on 77, with Cummins grabbing his fourth wicket
At that stage India were still 33 runs away from making Australia bat again, but Deep and Bumrah held firm against a two-man pace attack that was now visibly crumbling under the bowling loads it had undertaken. Bumrah got inside the line to a Cummins bouncer and pulled him for a six before starting to calmly nudge singles in the gaps. Deep added another crucial boundary by slashing Starc over the cordon.
It was then that Akash Deep joined Jasprit Bumrah, in a partnership of extraordinary assurance – Bumrah ended the day with a control percentage of 86 and Akash 90 – that reflected Australia’s straitened circumstances. It also reflected the duo’s skill and resilience with the bat. Bumrah hooked Cummins for six on his way to 10 off 27 balls, while Akash hit two fours and a six to finish on 27 off 31.
India had come to within 14 runs off the follow-on mark when Cummins was forced to go back to Lyon to replace Starc. The Australia captain willed himself on to keep bowling from the other end in search of the last wicket, which would have brought him another five-fer, and ended up conceding seven runs off his 20th over.
It was Akash who moved India past the follow-on mark, slashing Cummins over a leaping gully fielder. Two balls later, he cleared his front leg and launched him for a massive six over wide long-on. That was the last scoring shot of the day with the umpires calling the players off the field for bad light after one more ball.
In his 21st, he was edged over the cordon for a four by Deep which took India past the important milestone. As if to celebrate the moment, which was marked with much gusto in the Indian dressing room, Deep slogged Cummins for a six over deep mid-wicket before the umpires took the player off for bad light to cap off the thriller day for India.
It was another stop-start day at the Gabba, though not to the extent that it was on day three, and if it helped Australia’s depleted attack stave off exhaustion, it also ate away more time from the match. Only 57.5 overs were possible through the day.
Road Ahead on Day 5 for Australia and India
The day couldn’t have ended on a better note for India given their position. Extraordinary last-wicket stand this between Akash Deep and Bumrah to get India across that 246-run mark to avoid the follow-on. KL Rahul set the foundation with some resoluteness and defiance at the top, Jadeja played some beautiful counter-attacking cricket and gave India a solid chance and then these two took them over that crucial threshold.
Now, I know reading all that might make it seem like India have won the game but the importance of them avoiding the follow-on, particularly from the position they were in, cannot be understated. It means that now Australia will need to come out and bat again and they’ll need to do so for at least an hour tomorrow.
Thinking from Australia’s perspective, that eats into valuable time that they would’ve liked to try and bowl India out for a second time. And for India, while playing for the draw is definitely the plan, dare I say there’s a very small, very remote, very minute chance that they’ll be thinking of a win.
All that is in the distance though, the game is beautifully setup for the final day and all we can do is hope that the weather holds up. The expected narrative, though, is that Australia will bat for at least an hour tomorrow and that’ll leave India with too many to get to try and win. Unless something absolutely extraordinary happens, like say, India bowling Australia out really cheaply, that is likely how this game will pan out.
In Hazlewood’s absence, his two great fast-bowling buddies took on a massive workload, sending down 60% of the 74.5 overs of India’s innings, with Pat Cummins picking up four wickets and Mitchell Starc three.
India took a massive step towards leaving Brisbane with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy still level, as their last-wicket pair put on a rousing, unbroken 39 to steer their team past the follow-on mark. With only one day’s play remaining, Australia’s chances of winning this third Test have taken a big hit, particularly as they contend with the absence of Josh Hazlewood, who has been ruled out of this Test match and possibly the rest of the series with a calf strain.