A new ball game

Bhuvneshwar puts India in charge as pacers take 11 out of 13 wickets on Day Four

Fluid footwork and silken wrists navigated the ball to the fine leg fence. With those four runs,Murali Vijay reached his 150 and India led Australia for the first time in this game. Looking pleased as punch with himself,Vijay tore off his helmet and raised his bat to the stands. It was his third such instance in the game,but the first time that the crowds really acknowledged his celebration. Or for that matter,his presence one seemingly lost for a period of exactly 100 overs.

For a man who had just scored his second successive century-and-a-half score in Test cricket,Vijay hadnt been given the credit he deserved. It wasnt that he had gone about his business in a clandestine manner. It was just that for the first half of his innings,Vijay lurked in the shadow of Shikhar Dhawans freakish debut innings. And in his second half,on Sunday,at the other end of him stood the magnetic Sachin Tendulkar,drawing eyeballs like a hobbit in Mordor. With both Dhawan and Tendulkar now gone at the two extreme ends of the first session the focus had finally shifted to Vijay in session two.

It spanned over a total of two balls.

At the end of the 101st over,Australia chose the second new ball. It would be the most defining act of the day. Mitchell Starc,with a gleaming sphere in hand,galloped in. It bounced on middle and Vijay shouldered arms,expecting the ball to follow Starcs natural,away moving line. Instead,it boomeranged back in and thumped into his pads. If Vijay looked confused as he walked back to the dressing room,then the huddled Aussies were no less surprised. For a Test and series that hadnt witnessed any lateral movement of the new ball,violent natural swing had finally made its presence felt. By the end of this day,it would be a blessing that India never saw coming.

Slender lead

When Sunday began,MS Dhoni perhaps expected his top-order to bat just once,declare and bowl the Aussies out on the final day. But what he wouldnt have expected,especially with a lead as slender as 91 runs on a wicket that refuses to crack,was to finish the fourth day with the last of those ambitions intact. With Australia 75/3 by stumps and Michael Clarkes back putting his availability in doubt for Monday essentially making it negative 16 with six wickets in hand,Australia now rely on this series walking wicket,Phil Hughes,to save them. For that,the Indians will thank Bhuvneshwar Kumar,who in turn must have had his notepad and jotter out during Starcs big over.

At Vijays fall,in walked the Indian skipper. To negate Starcs swing,Dhoni jumped two steps forward and leaned into a majestic forward push that careened over the central hoardings. Next ball,Starc swung it big again and went up in thunderous appeal as it thumped into Dhonis pads. But this time,the banana movement had indeed done too much. For the fourth time this over,Starc pedalled in. While he smoked it in,Starc controlled the swing and added a few yards of pace. This time,the low full toss sprang against him right in front of middle stump.

Siddle in the saddle

And had Ravindra Jadeja not got the faintest of nicks on to his knee-roll,Starc would have finished with three wickets in the first new ball over. With natural swing giving way to early reverse,the Indian resistance did not last long. It reinvigorated the Australian quicks,led by the terrific Peter Siddle,who reduced India from 3/412 to 10/499 with a nimble-footed Virat Kohli left stranded on 67. With the perspective of what happened next,though,being bad was a good thing.

Right from the second ball of the Australian second innings,Bhuvneshwar Kumar got the ball to shift prodigiously. It landed in front of David Warners middle-and-off and moved swiftly away from his poking bat. The edged fell just short of Ravichandran Ashwin at first slip. Next ball,Warner wasnt so lucky. This time,Kumar cut off the swing with a short,wide and ugly ball,which an uglier stroke placed in Dhonis hands.

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While Ed Cowans dismissal could be argued over Kumars ball pitched only partly in line there was no debate over his third of the evening,in the 14th over of the innings. Masking a ball that had lost a few shades of red until the last moment,Kumar angled one in and right up to Steven Smith. He drove expansively,only for the ball to straighten and blow off stump out of the soil. Bhuvi punched the air in delight and perhaps quietly thanked the Aussies for teaching him to do his homework.