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Journalism of Courage
Halfway into the final session of Day Three,Nathan Lyon and the close-in fielders appealed for a bat-pad catch against Virat Kohli. None of them exercised their lungs too strenuously,knowing fully well that Kohli hadn8217;t edged it. The spectators at the Feroz Shah Kotla,however,roared a collective,eardrum-shattering howazzaaaaat and groaned when they realised it wasn8217;t out.
India,chasing 155,were 119 for one. Under such circumstances,it wasn8217;t that blasphemous an act for a Delhi crowd to urge the umpire to send a Delhi boy back to the pavilion. Especially when Sachin Tendulkar was padded up to come in next,to play what would most likely be his last Test innings on home soil.
When India began their chase,few would have expected that they would coast in this manner. All through the day,conversations in the press box had revolved around how much of a lottery batting had become on this pitch.
Australia seemed to be thinking along the same lines when they began their second innings 10 runs behind,having taken only 13 deliveries to scalp the last two Indian wickets. In walked Glenn Maxwell and David Warner,an opening pair with a distinct Twenty20 whiff about it,ostensibly sent out to throw the kitchen sink at the new ball for as long as they could before that inevitable unplayable delivery came along. They scored 15 before the first one showed up.
The perfect bowler
In Ravindra Jadeja,India had the perfect bowler for these conditions. He came on first change,and immediately got to work,hustling the ball through at a pace that gave the batsmen no time to use their feet. Some of his deliveries hit cracks,some landed on unmarked spots,and everything was stump-to-stump,forcing the batsman to play.
The left-armer bowled Maxwell with a ball that that pitched on middle and hit off stump,and trapped Ed Cowan LBW and bowled Mitchell Johnson through the gate with balls that turned just as much. But his wickets of Warner and Steven Smith came off balls that went with the arm.
All this was enough to induce paranoia in anyone. Skipper Shane Watson became its most high-profile victim of the day,as he played on to Pragyan Ojha,aiming a pull at a ball that wasn8217;t short enough for the stroke on any wicket; on this wicket,anything pitched on the stumps demanded a straight bat.
For the second time in the match,a Peter Siddle half-century gave Australia renewed hope. This one came at better than a run a ball,but was,counter-intuitively,the product of orthodox technique. Siddle8217;s attacking strokes either came off loose balls two full-tosses in one Ashwin over,for instance or off flighted deliveries from Jadeja that he met on the half-volley. Siddle8217;s defensive technique looked more organised than most of the Australian top-order,some of whom it can be argued contributed to their dismissals by getting into unsound positions.
It was no coincidence that Australia8217;s second-highest score came from Cowan,another batsman with a good defence. Waiting out the good balls,the left-hander pounced on anything loose,cutting Ashwin when he dropped short,driving through cover when he overpitched,and stepping out of his crease the one time Jadeja gave it some air.
And it was sound technique and intelligent shot-selection that brought India to a situation in which the crowd could urge the umpire to give a decision against one of their own. Those virtues,once again,were packaged into a Cheteshwar Pujara half-century. He was helped by the fact that Australia8217;s attack looked far less threatening than India8217;s,with Johnson and James Pattinson bowling just five overs between them and Siddle none at all.
Nathan Lyon,expectedly,and Glenn Maxwell,unexpectedly,formed an all-off-spin new-ball combination. Murali Vijay twice swept Lyon for four before he was bowled by Maxwell attempting a reverse-sweep,tempted by the vast empty spaces behind point.
Pitch no matter
At the other end,Pujara showed no sign that he was worried about the pitch,driving both offies through cover for four. Both times,he had danced down the pitch and reached the pitch of the ball,just as he had done against Graeme Swann earlier in the season.
When Johnson came on,Pujara spanked him for three fours in an over. The first,off a bouncer,saw him sway out of the line and watch the ball pass overhead before helping it over the keeper8217;s head with a little dab. The next two were more classical,a fierce cut in front of point and a cover drive.
Kohli,at the other end,looked in no trouble till he was out to Lyon in similar manner to his first-innings dismissal,LBW trying to turn the ball into the leg side. Tendulkar walked in to a thunderous ovation and walked back soon after,dismissed the same way as Kohli,before Ajinkya Rahane ended a forgettable debut by chipping one straight into the hands of deep midwicket. A little wobble,to remind everyone that this was still a difficult pitch to bat on.
Not for Pujara,though. With 14 runs to get,he ran down the track to Maxwell and twice drove him hard,wide of mid on,for four. In between,he stayed back and cut him to the point boundary. With two balls to go in the over and two runs to win,Watson brought the fielders into the circle. Pujara,never a fan of hitting in the air,blocked them out.
That brought MS Dhoni on strike. India8217;s captain sealed victory,and 4-0,with a swipe to the midwicket boundary. It had been easier than expected.
Pujaras classic innings: On a vicious pitch,despite a fractured finger
On a crumbling pitch that saw almost every other batsman struggling,Cheteshwar Pujara not only batted like a dream for his match-winning 82,he did so while playing with a broken finger. Pujara picked up the injury during his 52-run knock in the first innings. He is now out for at least three weeks and will miss the early part of Royal Challengers Bangalores IPL VI campaign.
Cheteshwar has been ruled out for three weeks due to fracture finger. He batted with a heavily bandaged finger in the second innings, a team source said.
On Saturday,a James Pattison ball had hit him flush on the index finger. He didnt come on to field in the morning session. Even as the Indian bowlers were trying to wrap up the Australian tail,Pujara was getting the treatment done in the dressing room under physio Nitin Patels close watch. Set a target of 155 runs,the team management briefly thought to open with Ajinkya Rahane,but Pujara said he was fine and could bat.
Devendra Pandey
