Kapil Dev is
not amused in the Press Box. An Aussie commentator on air defends Steve
Smith. Virat Kohli is livid with the Australians for what he deemed unethical cricket. The umpires had to intervene, send the batsman on his way and calm the Indians.
At
one point on day four of the Bengaluru Test, the tension threatened to
spill over. In Nigel Llong and Richard Illingworth, however, there were
two experienced umpires who diffused the situation effectively and let
the focus stay on one of the most amazing Test matches in recent times.
That
point turned out to be the one that swayed the game India's way. They
eventually won the contest by 75 runs and levelled the series 1-1.
Australia
at 73 for 3, chasing 188, were just a tad more than 100 runs away from
taking a 2-0 lead and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Steve Smith had batted
himself to a decent position at 28 off 47 balls. And then the
shattering shift occurred.
Umesh
Yadav got one ball to barely rise from the surface off a
back-of-a-good-length. Smith was deep in the crease and was caught plumb
in front. The umpire ruled in India's favour. Smith walked up to
Handscomb to get his opinion, but Handscomb pointed to the dressing
room. Smith immediately turned back to find out what they were saying
about the DRS call, which was when it all went haywire.
Kohli
and Pujara walked up swiftly to the Australian pair indicating what
they were doing was unfair. Llong too, briskly marched towards Smith and
told him he was not entitled to getting a view from the dressing room,
and sent Smith on his way. The incident had done enough to pump up the
Indians, the crowd and the commentators, with VVS Laxman even taking to
twitter to say that what Smith did was not in the spirit of the game.
Earlier
in the day, the Australians had stormed their way back into the fixture
and slotted into a winning position by triggering another staggering
Indian collapse. Mitchell Starc led the rout with a fiery spell that
brought him the wickets of Ajinkya Rahane and Karun Nair. But it was
Josh Hazlewood who did most of the damage, taking three wickets to end
the innings with career-best figures of 6 for 67.
If
the variable bounce in the pitch and his accuracy did the trick for
Hazlewood, Starc started it all with sheer pace. Rahane, who had notched
up a fine fifty, and Pujara held onto their wickets in the early overs,
but Starc, armed with the new ball, had the former caught in the crease
with a fast inswinger. DRS came to Australia's rescue as they managed
to overturn the umpire's decision.
Karun
Nair was welcomed with a beast of a delivery - a full inswinger belted
at 154 kmph. Nair went for an expansive cover drive and only turned back
to see his middle stump out of the ground and his leg stump broken into
two pieces.
Hazlewood
did the rest. Pujara was out caught at gully for a well-played 92 and
Ashwin and Umesh Yadav fell cheaply thereafter. India were bowled out
for 274, leaving the Australians to get 188 to take a 2-0 lead.
India
knew they had very little time to strike, and Ishant Sharma gave them
that edge by getting Matt Renshaw for a single-digit score for the first
time this series. With the pitch getting slower and lower, the Ashwin
of old returned. After being hit for a six, he had David Warner out LBW
while attempting to sweep.
Shaun
Marsh was caught in two minds and left a ball that snaked into him. He
would have been not out had he used DRS, but he didn't and India had
their third wicket. Seven runs later, the shift happened.
In
the next 15 overs, the game was over. Mitchell Marsh edged his
attempted flick to Nair off Ashwin, while Matthew Wade fell in the same
over, smartly caught by Wriddhiman Saha off a bat-pad. Starc was bowled
by Ashwin, O'Keefe by Jadeja. Ashwin wrapped it all up.
Ashwin ended with 6 for 41 and India drew level in style.
Brief scores:
India 189 & 274 (Cheteshwar Pujara 92, Ajinkya Rahane 52; Josh
Hazlewood 6-67) beat Australia 276 & 112 (Steve Smith 28; R Ashwin
6-41) by 75 runs.
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