Yesterday again

Subhash Rajta

Tribune News Service

pune, february 25

Virat Kohli just couldn’t believe it. Neither could anyone else in the stadium, including the celebrating Australians. The Indian skipper had shouldered arms to a Steve O’Keefe delivery, expecting it to turn. To his horror, and that of the thousands chanting his name in the stands, the ball didn’t turn; instead, it came in with the arm and rattled his stumps. He had been undone by a trick that he had so often seen the visiting batsmen falling prey to, especially against Ravindra Jadeja. Vanquished, the Indian skipper stood his ground for a pretty long time, perhaps marvelling over his dismissal and the defeat that had become even more imminent with his fall.

Worst fears

And his fears didn’t take long to come true. India folded up for just 107 in 33.5 overs, roughly 17 overs after the skipper’s dismissal, to crash to a massive 333-run defeat, one of their worst losses. Once Australia set them a massive 441-run target, a victory was out of equation for the hosts. Yet, the No. 1 team was expected to put up a fight and make the Australians work hard for the win. However, India imploded again, just like yesterday. And just like in the first innings, they fell to the spin of O’Keefe, who picked up his second six-wicket haul of the match to walk away with a match haul of 12/70 in 28.1 overs, the second-best figures ever by a visiting bowler in India.

O’Keefe does a Jadeja

Having come up short against the left-arm spinner in the first innings, one would have expected the Indian batsmen to cut him down to size in the second innings. The spinner, however, came up with an even better effort in the second innings; this time he polished off the top-order, including the scalps of Murali Vijay, Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara. While he got a little lucky in the first innings with a few players throwing away their wickets and Peter Handscomb taking a couple of stunning catches, O’Keefe was absolutely superb in the second, fooling most of his victims, including Kohli, with his arm ball when they were expecting the ball to turn.

Adaptation issues

The Indian batsmen, always encouraged to express themselves, which essentially means to play attacking shots, showed a striking lack of the ability to adapt. The surface required the batsmen to apply themselves and, in Anil Kumble’s words, mix caution with aggression. The Indian batsmen failed in both the innings to change their game and approach as per the conditions and situation. While a few of them were guilty of throwing away their wickets in the first innings, the second innings was all about failing to read O’Keefe and falling while trying defend.

Smith masterclass

On a wicket where the Indian team managed just 212 runs in two innings, Australian skipper Steve Smith scored a masterly 109 off 202 balls. He negated the Indian spin threat by playing the line, not for the turn, the mistake the Indians made. He, of course, rode his luck — he was dropped thrice yesterday and once today — but that wouldn’t take away much sheen from a knock that he said was among his best.

“I formulated some different plans than how I normally play, sort of problem-solving on the spot,” said Smith, explaining how he adapted his game to suit the conditions. The Australian skipper was overly defensive in the first innings (he made 27 off 95 balls, at a strike rate of 28.42). Realising it wasn’t the way to go on this track, he changed his approach in the second and, without compromising his defence, looked far more positive and aggressive, using the sweep and reverse-sweep to good effect.

And the result was a fine century, enabling his team to set India an improbable 441-run target, and a fine win that they had been waiting for a long, long time — 4502 days, to be exact, as Smith reminded everyone after the match.