It’s that time again. Not the time when the cricket enthusiasts are paying attention, because we always are – June in Barbados, August in Galle, whatever you’ve got. No, it’s the brief time either side of Christmas when the cricket is high profile enough that everybody outside our odd community also becomes vaguely aware it exists. “Who’s winning?” I’ve been asked twice this week, that dreaded question that gets lobbed from hallways over the backs of couches to torment those of us who know that nobody is ever winning a Test match, they have either won it or not won it. All we have to comfort us is our smug superiority; which is, granted, a consolation.
On the fourth day of Australia’s Test against India at Brisbane, there was a further delight: the game within a game. For the uninitiate, this contest would have looked dead. Australia on 445, India resuming in the morning 394 runs behind and four wickets down. Soon to be five – the captain, Rohit Sharma, an early departure. Combine the gulf in scores with the rain that had taken the match into its fourth day without completing its second innings, and there was no chance for India to get towards parity and stay in the contest.
But then comes one of the game’s great quirks, the blessed spectre of the follow-on. India did not need to reach 445. India only needed to reach 246. That would be enough to exert some control and take the sharpest advantage out of Australia’s hands.
Be bowled out more than 200 in arrears and India could be made to bat again, Australia a fair chance between rain delays to prise out 10 wickets for a second time and win by an innings. But get within that 200-run range and Australia would have to bat a second time. Would have to make decisions about how to bat. Would have to make decisions about if or when to declare.
It would be up to Australia whether they were happy drawing the match, or whether they wanted to take a risk in order to win it. From around 190 ahead, they could bat for safety and settle for the stalemate, or bat aggressively and set India a target. Expecting more interruptions on day five, they would have to decide how many overs to use up batting and how many they might need bowling. Every over batted firmed the chance of the draw, while a batting collapse or declaring too soon might leave India a chance to stage a chasing heist.
So a match that could have meandered instead grew in interest with each passing over. Had Steve Smith held KL Rahul at slip first ball of the day, India might have fallen apart promptly, but instead Rahul held much of the innings together as he went on to 84. Smith eventually caught him from a harder attempt, Nathan Lyon getting the wicket rather than Pat Cummins, but by then the follow-on margin had come down from 195 to 105, and Ravindra Jadeja was well settled.
On went Jadeja, in between rain delays, adding another 53 with Nitish Kumar Reddy, mostly an approach of steady building while targeting a few loose balls. Every break suggested salvation by weather, every resumption reopened the chance of salvation by runs. India needed 52 more when Reddy played Cummins on to his stumps, 45 more when Mohammed Siraj nicked for Cummins’s third. Jadeja opened up with a lofted six off Lyon, then an edged four from Cummins.
With each run the tension was growing, then it seemingly broke decisively as Jadeja pulled Cummins for a catch at deep square leg. Nine down, still 33 runs needed. And so the final drama began, Jasprit Bumrah and Akash Deep urged on. Bumrah top-edged a hook for six, but it was scarcely cheered more than every single from a drop and run, every two from a push into a gap. Cummins and Mitchell Starc bowled over after over, more than 20 each for the innings, until the left-armer had to come off for Lyon’s spin. Cummins continued.
Finally, with four needed, it was Deep who slashed a cut shot from the sticker of his bat just wide of gully, where the non-giant form of Nathan McSweeney is less imposing than the limb forest that is the absent Cameron Green. The ball narrowly escaped a questing hand. The small contingent of Indian supporters, the only spectators who had stuck it out after another wet and frustrating day, cheered it like the winning runs. Deep’s subsequent slap over long on for six was his celebration.
Any thought of a declaration dash at Australia in the 20 minutes before stumps was kiboshed by the umpires calling bad light, and Bumrah and Deep walked off together like Laxman and Dravid in Kolkata 2001. India will presumably bat on on Wednesday, which might last for one ball, or as Australia found on Tuesday, might go on longer than expected. But the most part of their job is already done. From here, every over taken out of the game will take India closer to escape, while Australia would need something special to fashion this damp match into a win.
