India 201 & 200
South Africa 184 & 105
India win by 108 runs
It is often said that Test cricket in India crawls for three days with seemingly nothing happening before suddenly exploding to life. What happens when Tests do not last three days? Time frames get compressed. It was like Test cricket had gone asleep for one hour on the third morning. India lost eight wickets for 39 runs, and yet spun South Africa out to take a 1-0 lead. This was the fourth straight three-day finish in Tests in India. R Ashwin continued his impressive bowling, Ravindra Jadeja completed a successful comeback to the Tests with a five-for, and Amit Mishra contributed with the big wicket of AB de Villiers again.
At effectively 178 for 2 on a pitch that had been turning big from day one, India looked home and dry. It took a big collapse for South Africa to be set a target they could think about chasing. Imran Tahir and Simon Harmer took four wickets each, but the task for South Africa was still enormous: only twice had visiting teams chased 200 successfully in India, most recently in 1987-88. South Africa needed to bat extremely well to add to that tally. They did not.
South Africa's mistrust of the pitch showed in their approach. The demons in their heads were bigger than the ones under their feet. Three of them got out even before the pitch could do a thing. Vernon Philander was promoted to open the innings. He survived two balls. Hashim Amla took guard outside leg, and left alone a straight delivery that hit middle and off. Both of them fell to Jadeja, who confirmed his reputation of being a dangerous bowler on a turning track, by bowling straight and quick. He showed the value of being able to hit the off stump on square turners.
Faf du Plessis overestimated an Ashwin offbreak with the new ball from round the wicket, and edged him to slip. It looked a set plan. He had bowled over the wicket to Philander before this dismissal, and over the wicket to Amla after it. Du Plessis read that it was on offbreak, but the ball didn't turn as much as he expected.
It was mayhem at 10 for 3, which de Villiers calmed down for a bit with his excellent use of feet and ability to punish anything loose. It is a mark of the threat he carries that India did not feel entirely comfortable until they had got rid of de Villiers. For the second time in the match Mishra did the job. This was a rare case of de Villiers' failing to pick the length as he went back to a length ball. A possible explanation could be the flat trajectory of the delivery, but Mishra does bowl that fuller flatter one, which turns only a little. What is more, it stayed low, and took the inside edge onto the stumps.
Only formalities were left after that. Spinners completed them duly with South Africa managing to bat out only 39.5 overs to go with 68 in the first innings, but Varun Aaron too contributed by drawing a big leading edge with a short ball to Dean Elgar. This was the first wicket taken by an Indian seamer, but South Africa, who do not have the luxury of the quality of Indian spinners, did have to rely on seam in the morning. India consolidated their position with 36 runs without loss in the first hour of the day, but South Africa conjured a breakthrough through part-time medium-pace of Stiaan van Zyl.
A major chunk of the collapse in a five-batsmen Indian team was the losing of Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane for three runs. When you have three-day Tests, you often have batsmen falling for no mistake of their own, but all three made errors here. Except that they took longer to make these errors than the South Africa batsman. Kohli went driving outside off at a ball not full enough, and van Zyl and Amla looked like geniuses. South Africa now went to their spinners once Kohli had provided them with the opening.
Tahir began with a regulation legbreak first ball, Pujara went to defend, but was nowhere close to the pitch of the ball, allowing it to turn and take the edge. He had added 14 to his overnight 63. Rahane jabbed at a Harmer offbreak well in front of his body, and offered the acrobatic substitute Temba Bavuma a catch at short leg. Three wickets gone in four overs, India now looked to the lower order for some stability, but Tahir and Harmer got the better of them, which was expected on a pitch like this.
AUS 556/4d & 264/4
NZ 317
AUS lead by 503 runs
Two parallel contests took place on day three of the first Test at the Gabba.
In the first, which should dictate the outcome of the match, Australia tossed 10 of New Zealand's cricketers around like rag dolls, epitomised by Joe Burns' brutal first Test hundred in partnership with a similarly untroubled David Warner. In the second, Australia's XI fought a lengthy and losing battle to curtail Kane Williamson, who made one of the finest hundreds Brisbane has seen with precious little support from those around him.
The overall result of these two bouts was a vast lead for Australia by the close of the day with their captain Steven Smith needing only to determine how many overs he wants to bowl New Zealand out. Yet Williamson's 140 had at least prevented Smith from enacting his best case plan when play began - namely to bowl the visitors out quickly and send them back in.
Instead, Burns and Warner took progressively greater liberties against a bowling line-up shorn of the injured Tim Southee and also carrying a visibly sore Jimmy Neesham. Brendon McCullum was at one point seen rousing Neesham to greater efforts, but there was little New Zealand's captain could do by way of field placing or motivation to stem the flow of runs.
Burns went to his hundred - a vindication of his recall after the selectors were somewhat harsh in leaving him out of the winter tours of the West Indies and England - with two straight sixes in three balls from the hapless Mark Craig. After a brief rain delay, Warner too made three figures, his third set of twin hundreds in a Test match, after Cape Town and Adelaide in 2014. No previous Test opening pair had ever added 150 and 200 in the same match.
Warner was eventually out essaying a switch-hit; Burns skied a similarly aggressive slog. Smith's brief stay was ended when he sliced low to Williamson and the third umpire S Ravi used welcome common sense to take the small leap of logic required when reviewing low catches on a two-dimensional television screen. These wickets came about largely through the desire of the Australians to attack, and a little from some wear in the pitch.
For New Zealand, these indignities were added to those inflicted by the CA XI in Canberra and Blacktown, where Aaron Finch and Ryan Carters had added 503 together before the match was called off due to a rapidly deteriorating pitch. The tourists may be better for the run in Brisbane, but it will take a resilient team to shrug off the humiliations being piled up here.
As a source of inspiration they can look no further than Williamson, who took on Australia's attack almost single-handedly. His 11th Test century was completely composed, containing none of the lapses in concentration that did for other team-mates such as BJ Watling and Craig, and ensured that Smith would not send the visitors back in a second time.
The second new ball was ultimately required, and Mitchell Starc swung it late at pace to pluck Southee's off stump and then find Williamson's inside edge for 140, the second-highest score by a New Zealand batsman at the Gabba after Martin Crowe's 188 in 1985. While Starc's figures of 4 for 57 were handsome, Mitchell Johnson was repeatedly forced through the off side and ultimately conceded five runs per over for his 3 for 105.
Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood and Johnson all bowled testing spells, but Williamson met them all with admirable technique and an array of strokes that stretched the fields set by Smith. His ability to make the most of the situation was summed up when the Australians raced through an over from Voges to allow Lyon one more before lunch. While Williamson made some efforts to delay and usher the interval, he then proceeded to punch a pair of boundaries in Lyon's over.
Watling and Williamson have a history of partnerships, and would have hoped to push New Zealand through the morning without loss. But after they negotiated Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc, Watling hung his bat out at Johnson's first ball of the morning and a thin edge behind was gratefully accepted by Peter Nevill.
Craig showed evidence of batting talent that has allowed him to average greater than 40 in his brief Test career to date, but after a pesky stand with Williamson he decided to get down the wicket to Lyon, a task invariably more difficult than it appears. A first drive just cleared the head of the man posted at mid-off, and when Smith pushed him halfway to the boundary, Craig's next big shot attempt was a swish across the line that brought a top edge and a simple catch to point.
Bracewell showed good sense to accompany Williamson however, and the loss of partners at the other end seemed the only thing that would prevent New Zealand's No. 3 from going past three figures. Granted enough time at the crease, Williamson cruised to his century, and Australia have found that like the rest of world cricket, they have some thinking to do about how to get him out. New Zealand, though, are hard pressed to dismiss anyone at the moment.
No comments:
Post a Comment