CHENNAI: Duck, Duck, Duck. In less than 18 balls India’s pride and nonchalance were sent waddling to the pavilion. Ishan Kishan thought chasing 200 had to be done in 20 overs and flashed outside the off stump in the fourth ball of the first over and got out, reminding us that the man on a sick bed who he replaced, Shubman Gill, needs to get well really soon.
Five balls later, Rohit Sharma got a fast inswinger that punctured his greatness and in a way he could do nothing about. And then Shreyas Iyer perhaps wanted some quick Instagramable shots and YouTube reels, went for a rash flash and David Warner took a sharp catch.
World Cup dreams cannot be chased by curating deliberate nightmares. The bowling was steady but not unplayable. The pitch had no demons for acres. India’s top order decided there were.
And then just when everyone was getting the confidence to fetch a coffee without risking another wicket going in the interim, Virat Kohli pulled a short one from Josh Hazelwood. India held its breath, and the funeral preparations for this game were initiated.
But Mitch Marsh gave a lease of life to the hosts. He dropped Kohli. It’s way too nascent to say if he’s dropped the cup, but if India does stay the course and play like a 50-over World Cup winning team, then this catch will be the elephant in the Aussie room.
Between then and the 38th over there, 165 runs were scored by the King Arthur of India and the Indian cricket, Virat Kohli, whose sword, the Excalibur has been wielded in crucial World Cup games in situations of nowhere. But it was his gallant Knight at the round table K L Rahul, who doesn’t always understand the envelope of greatness his skill creates, carved out one of the most significant low chases, in partnership with Virat, that was threatening to collapse even before it began.
Like deft surgeons, they made crucial stitches in a repair job of accumulation and consolidation. And when the opportunity came, sublime cricket broke the suspense of whether India would chase down 200 after being 3 wickets down for 2 runs. Two back-to-back fours of Kohli off Cameron Green, the first between midwicket and mid-on and the next through midwicket, were from a blade seasoned with greatness.
K L Rahul, before he finished with a flurry of sixes and fours that got India over the line when he was three short of his 100, quietly started as an accumulator, then consolidator and finished off as a quiet aggressor, who says occasionally, “I was always there. You guys didn’t notice”.
Two back-to-back fours off Adam Zampa, one dabbing a googly behind square and then an easy put away off a low full toss, were some icings on a cake that was nicely baked.
But even with so much happening, before this stage, when Kohli and Rahul were stabilising the innings, but far from dominating it, panic had still not wafted in from the Marina beach into Chepauk. Because there were 200 to make, not 280 or 300.
Three artists crafted a classic with the ball for India to make that happen and Kuldeep Yadav, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja performed a concert in symphony, the cricketing avatars of Thyagaraja, Shivv Kumar Sharma and Amjad Ali Khan on a ground in South India, in a land where musicians are worshipped even though actors turned politicians dominate the discourse.
Ashwin unleashed his guile on his home turf. The ball turned and bounced, the ‘doosra’ turned square and unplayable, and the stock balls were bowled at length forcing batsman to play to defend.
Kuldeep Yadav is getting out of bed with a paintbrush in hand, these days. He just turns up at his art gallery, called a cricket ground to etch his brushstrokes on the canvas of Indian cricket in a separate chapter called the romance of spin. It was a treat to watch this class. The flirtatious toss of the ball, the calibrated turn, the Chinaman’s googly, each a raga composed by the Kanpur craftsman.
And the there was SIR, the guru of this triumvirate, Ravindra Jadeja. He bowled as Sir bowls. In one of the finest spells of spin artmanship, he wove neat, weaving mysteries. The ball that got Steve Smith is an early contender for the shortlist of the ball of the World Cup. It pitched on the middle and leg and turned square to beat Smith’s outstretched bat to take the off stump. Even the great Smith, bowed his head and acknowledged that he had been bossed. Steve Smith even said that later talking to reporters, “Jadeja’s ball really turned and hit the stumps and he got me again.”
And his bowling figures read 10-2-28-3. This wasn’t the Border Gavaskar Test series. It was a spell against one of the best sides in the world.
As Jadeja said after the game, “I just bowled wicket to wicket since I knew the wicket would do the rest. This was a Test match wicket.”
Together, the spin wizards bowled 30 overs, gave away a measly 104 runs and took six wickets at less than 3.5 runs an over. The spin rage of Kuldeep Jadeja and Ashwin reduced the size of what could have been a 280 score to a 199.
The damage done was extensive. The first box was ticked. But the three quick wickets have given Team India a bit of work to do and not leave it to King Arthur and his Knight to come to the rescue too many times.