There are times, on a placid batting pitch, when a good performance can’t win you a match but the lack of one can lose you a match. There are times when a good innings is an achievement that belongs on the standard tier, but continuing it elevates it to the realm of the special.
When Australia lost two wickets relatively quickly in the final session of day one in Ahmedabad, having chosen to bat in the fourth and final Border-Gavaskar Test, a position of 170 for four could easily have become an insufficient total on a surface where the threat level was beige. By the time the next wicket fell about 22 hours later, Usman Khawaja and Cameron Green had made that score 378 for five, wearing down India’s bowlers for the lower order. When the Australian innings was said and done, the team had made 480 and taken two days out of the game.
