Not many Test matches pan out like this. Even England’s current fast-forward approach has periods of normality, where bowlers bowl and batters bat. Over two days in Delhi, all six sessions have been full of incident, and the match in its third innings sits as evenly as can be. There have been eight Tests in history where teams made the same score in the first innings. With Australia’s 263 followed by India’s 262, this was nearly the ninth.
Within nine overs of India resuming in the second innings at none for 21, Australia had suffered a KL Rahul straight six, dismissed him lbw, lost two of three umpire reviews, applauded Cheteshwar Pujara to the crease in his 100th Test match, and given him a reprieve when stone dead lbw second ball for fear of losing the third review. Two overs after that they had bowled India’s captain Rohit Sharma with a ball that crawled along the floor, then nailed Pujara seventh ball.
All of those chances came from Nathan Lyon, bowling off-spin around the wicket and straightening down the line of the stumps. Within six more overs the final review was wasted on an imagined catch at short leg, Peter Handscomb took a real one in freakish pinballing fashion, and Lyon’s morning read four wickets for eight runs.
