The Boxing Day Test did not disappoint as Pat Cummins’ Australia and Rohit Sharma’s India went head to head in the all-important fourth test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy that saw shifts in momentum almost each session.
At the end, Pat Cummins’ Australia emerged victorious on an action-packed fifth day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in what was officially the highest attended Test ever in Melbourne.
The home side have now taken a 2-1 lead in the series, with the fifth and final Test set to be played in Sydney, starting January 3rd.
On that note, here are four reasons behind India’s embarassing defeat against Australia in the fourth Test:
1) Allowing Sam Konstas to dominate on debut
Replacing Nathan McSweeney in Australia’s side for the fourth Test, Sam Konstas was faced with the responsibility of facing an in-form, red-hot, and ruthless Jasprit Bumrah.
The Indian pacer has been on absolute fire this series, with no batter apart from Travis head seeming to have a solution to his incredible lines, lengths and movement off the seam.
On debut, though, Sam Konstas took the Indians by surprise. In the build up to the game, he expressed his desire to take on Jasprit Bumrah, and he made sure he did not just talk the talk, but also walked the walk.
He decided to put pressure back on Jasprit Bumrah, deciding to go after the bowler, which was not too bad an approach because Jasprit Bumrah’s movement off the pitch, along with the angle he creates with his action, almost makes it impossible to defend or play some of the deliveries that he bowls with the new ball.
It was almost like he was bowling off-cutters and leg-cutters at 135 kph.
The 19-year old notched up six boundaries off Jasprit Bumrah’s bowling, but what stood out really was the audacity of the youngster to take on arguably the best pacer in the world at the moment.
It was the sheer fearlessness and the willingness to put India’s best bowler on the back foot that impressed everyone. He was scooping and reverse-scooping an unstoppable and menacing Jasprit Bumrah on his debut, in a Boxing Day Test, in front of about 80,000 people, in the first session of a crucial Test.
He scored 60 off just 65 deliveries, and that first session put Australia in a commanding position. They ended up scoring 112 runs in the first session – the highest total in the first session of the first day of a Boxing Day Test since 2000.
While it wasn’t a big ton from the debutant, it still sent across the message that he is here to take on the Indians. His approach may not be sustainable, as was seen with his second innings’ dismissal against Jasprit Bumrah, but that little cameo took Rohit Sharma and his men by surprise.
They looked clueless, and it positioned Australia in the driver’s seat.
2) Steve Smith and Pat Cummins dominating with the bat in the first session of Day 2
Despite Sam Konstas’ blistering knock early on Day 1, the visitors still managed to send half of Australia’s side back to the pavilion before they had breached the 250-run mark. It was a decent recovery after Sam Konstas came out all guns blazing.
Once again, as has been the trend under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy over the past couple of months, India allowed the game to slip away from their hands.
First, Steven Smith and Alex Carey put up a 53-run partnership for the sixth wicket. After dismissing the Australian wicketkeeper, India still had Australia six down before they had reached 300 runs on the board.
On the second day, however, India could not capitalize on the opening that they had, and allowed Steve Smith and Australia’s skipper – Pat Cummins – to run away with the game.
They put up a 112-run stand, with runs flowing quite easily off the bat on the second day of the game. Steve Smith’s 34th Test ton, and Pat Cummins’ gritty 49 quickly led Australia to a score that was simply a mammoth first innings total.
Pat Cummins ensured that he held one end and did not trigger a collapse with a reckless shot, while Steve Smith continued to score.
Steve Smith did not look at his very best in the previous test. Although he managed to score a ton at the Gabba, he looked really scratchy.
This time around, though, there were glimpses of peak Steven Smith that the cricketing world saw a few years back. He made changes to his trigger movement as compared to the first Test at Perth. Taking a leg-stump guard, he moved across to cover the stumps and looked at his fluent best.
He respected the good deliveries, even acknowledging some of the deliveries bowled by the bowlers, but that is what Test cricket is all about, and who better than Steve Smith to demonstrate the skill of putting away the loose deliveries and continuing to keep the scoreboard ticking.
With that partnership between Australia’s former and present captains, they were guided to a total of 474 in the first innings, meaning that India had a large mountain to climb.
3) Unnecessary singles, ineffective communication, dropped catches and Australia’s tail wagging
With 474 runs to cover, India were cruising along at 153-2 at one stage, with Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli looking assured out there. The last thing one would want at that stage, or at any stage at all in Test cricket, would be a run-out.
Unfortunately for Yashasvi Jaiswal, he fell short of his crease after some indecisive calling and running between the wickets. It was always going to be a risky single, so it would not be right to blame either of the two specifically.
Strike rotation is indeed key in order to put pressure back onto the bowlers and the fielders, but taking risky and tight singles was not exactly the need of the hour for India considering they were 321 runs behind Australia’s first innings total.
The communication was not there at all, as Virat Kohli was ball-watching, but Yashasvi Jaiswal continued to run towards the non-striker’s end.
Moreover, both batters were looking in good touch, and were getting boundaries every now and then. It was not a situation where the runs had dried up, making that attempted run seem so much more needless.
After that mixup in the middle, Virat Kohli probably had that blunder in his mind, causing him to lose focus. He poked at deliveries that were outside the off-stump, something he had avoided doing pretty well thus far in the knock.
About an over later, he nicked one off Scott Boland’s bowling, and that one run-out brought two quick wickets for Australia, both being highly prized scalps.
After Nitish Kumar’s heroic ton, India recovered decently. They avoided the follow-on, and ended the innings with a 105-run trail, which was still a towering lead from Australia’s perspective.
Jasprit Bumrah bowled one of the greatest spells one would ever witness, and India started to sense something special. They reduced Australia to 91-6, which effectively meant that Australia were 196-6, and if India were to eventually chase a score less than 250 in the fourth innings, they would probably come out with a positive, chasing mindset.
India, yet again, did not cash in on the opportunity. They dropped three catches from that point onwards, with Yashasvi Jaiswal guilty of spilling two of those, one each of Marnus Labuschagne and Pat Cummins. Mohammad Siraj also dropped a Nathan Lyon chance off his own bowling.
Yashasvi Jaiswal’s were regulation catches at gully and silly point, and the failure to grab those probably ended up costing India 100 extra runs. Pat Cummins played a captain’s knock for the second time in the game, scoring 41 hard-earned runs.
Nathan Lyon scored 41 as well, while Scott Boland added another 14 runs to the tally. The duo survived 20 full overs at the crease, making their 61-run partnership the highest stand for Australia in the second innings, intensifying India’s frustration.
Eventually, some misjudged singles, unclear communication, squandered chances and the fightback by Australia’s tail took the game away from the visitors.
4) A horror final session on the final day
With 340 runs to chase in almost 90 overs, India came out looking to play for a draw on the final day of the game. At the lunch break, India were 33-3 in 26.1 overs.
Pat Cummins relentlessly hit the deck hard ball after ball, with the ones generating some extra bounce and rising onto the batters from a length causing real troubles for the Indian batters.
From that position, it was clear that the remaining two sessions would be all about surviving, taking the chasing route out of the equation. Statistically speaking, the last time 240 runs were successfully chased down at the MCG in Test cricket was way back in the 1960s.
The second session was totally India’s, as they managed to play out the session without losing a single wicket. They then had to play out 38 overs with 7 wickets in hand, which was a reasonable ask.
What unfolded was another collapse. It all started with Rishabh Pant’s wicket in the fifth over post the tea break. Rishabh Pant fell right into the trap, trying to go for a mighty pull off a Travis Head half-tracker. He was caught by Mitchell Marsh near the ropes, and Australia capitalised on this little opening.
Scott Boland and Nathan Lyon struck in successive overs soon after that to get rid of Ravindra Jadeja and the first innings’ centurion – Nitish Kumar Reddy. Washington Sundar looked comfortable and just as things were starting to stabilize, Yashasvi Jaiswal gloved one to the wicketkeeper trying to pull a short delivery outside leg.
An absolutely unnecessary pull shot from Yashasvi Jaiswal allowed Pat Cummins’ side to enter the Indian tail, and it was only going to be a matter of time from there onwards.
From being 121-3 to being bowled out for 155, India lost 7 wickets for just 34 runs, failing to play out the day and draw the game.
Yashasvi Jaiswal may have had a good game, and Rishabh Pant may have played some handy knocks in the past, but they must be held accountable for the shots they played in the final session of this Test.
With a little under 40 overs to survive, the shot selection was poor, and a boundary or two would not have made any impact as such. The game was all about playing out whatever number of deliveries are bowled at you until the end of the day.
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