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That was a chastening final session for Australia. It felt like they were in complete control after dismissing India for 150, but you know what they say: you should never judge a pitch until Jasprit Bumrah has bowled on it. He ran riot with the new ball, taking three quick wickets including Steve Smith for a golden duck, and returned to take another just before the close. Mohammed Siraj and the debutant Harshit Rana bowled superbly. But Bumrah was off the charts. We talk all the time about a great captain’s innings; that was one of the great captain’s spells.
Stumps: Australia trail by 83
27th over: Australia 67-7 (Carey 19, Starc 6) Starc drives Bumrah handsomely over mid-off for four, then almost falls to the last ball of an amazing day. He was duped by a slower ball that hit high on the bat and looped short of Bumrah in his follow through.
26th over: Australia 62-7 (Carey 18, Starc 2) A quiet over from Rana, his last of an impressive first day in Test cricket. Figures of 8-1-33-1 are a bit unflattering.
Time for one more from Bumrah before the close.
“Just on Malcolm Marshall, I was a 12-year-old boy who was taken to the MCC Bicentenary Match in 1987 (all the way from Belfast) and saw the short second innings of the ROWXI,” writes Hugh Odling-Smee. “Sitting pitch side on, I saw Marshall clean bowl Gavaskar, who had hit 188 in the first innings. I have never seen anything more exciting in all my years of watching sport. Marshall’s speed, the stumps flying, Gavaskar’s reaction and the huge collective joy that erupted in the stands was overwhelming and I’ll never forget it.”
25th over: Australia 59-7 (Carey 17, Starc 0) Seventeen wickets have fallen today. I’d have to double check but I think that’s the most on the first day of a Test in Australia since 25 January 1952.
Bumrah’s figures update: 9-3-12-4.
“That 10 from McSweeney,” begins Eamonn Maloney, “is aging like a fine wine.”
WICKET! Australia 59-7 (Cummins c Pant b Bumrah 3)
Bumrah wasn’t done after all; he just needed a change of ends. Cummins is drawn towards a length awayswinger and gets a little touch through to Rishabh Pant. The extraordinary Jasprit Bumrah has taken 4 for 12.
24th over: Australia 57-6 (Carey 17, Cummins 1) Harshit Rana replaces Bumrah, whose two-over spell lacked the rhythm and menace of his first. Carey, who has been looking to counter-attack from the start, hits consecutive boundaries with a flick to fine leg and a deft uppercut. If he’s style there in the morning this game could change quickly.
“I’m about to do battle with my new coffee machine (bear with me on this) so I’ll have to read the instructions yet again,” says Gary Naylor. “Unless I put my glasses on, not only can I not read the words, I’m not sure I could tell you their language. I’m a lot older than Virat Kohli and Steve Smith, but I’m not sure (looking at the dropped catch and the first ball miss) that their eyes aren’t on their way to wherever mine have gone.”
You realise they’ll both play five Tests against England in the next 14 months? If they go on to score 800 runs apiece I’m putting your home address and telephone number on every internet forum.
23rd over: Australia 48-6 (Carey 9, Cummins 0) New Zealand’s 3-0 win in India looks even better now. It also highlights the folly of preparing bunsens when you have a pace attack like this.
Carey is beaten three times during a superb over from Siraj, twice on the drive and once trying an uppercut. The daft thing is Australia are 48 for 6 yet the ball must have beaten the bat at least a dozen times, probably nearer two dozen.
22nd over: Australia 48-6 (Carey 9, Cummins 0) Carey has started confidently in the circumstances, although he has a bit of luck when he inside-edges a drive onto the pad off Bumrah.
“No Dennis Lillee in the best ever Test XI?” says Laurence Boyd. “Who’s your spinner? SK Warne?”
Warne, yeah. I’d have McGrath because nobody has ever been as good against the opposition’s best player. Before the World XI sets off for Mars he’d proudly announce which of their top order he was targeting.
21st over: Australia 47-6 (Carey 8, Cummins 0) We’ve focussed on Bumrah’s genius, understandably enough, but Siraj and Rana have also bowled marvellously.
“Regarding your choice of pace attack,” says Krishnamoorthy V, “I would replace Malcolm Marshall with Michael Holding – the other two are spot on.”
Macko was the greatest IMO. His Cricinfo profile, written by our old friend Mike Selvey, captures his greatness perfectly.
WICKET! Australia 47-6 (Labuschagne LBW b Sirah 2)
Mohammed Siraj puts Marnus Labuschagne out of his misery with a very full delivery that hits him below the knee roll in front of the stumps.
Labuschagne’s reviews, just in case, but deep down he knows. He’s gone for 2 from 52 balls and Australia are enduring the evening session from hell.
20th over: Australia 42-5 (Labuschagne 2, Carey 3) Bumrah’s back! There’s still around 35 minutes to play so this could be the game right here. Bumrah’s first over is a maiden to Labuschagne, who played it pretty well. It helped that there wasn’t as much sideways movement as in Bumrah’s electrifying first spell.
“As an Englishman living in New Zealand I followed the recent Black Caps tour of India closely,” says Jon Saunders. “Winning 3-0 in India has to be one of the most astonishing series results of all time and hasn’t get anywhere near as much credit as it should do. If England or Australia did that we wouldn’t hear the end of it. Nobody saw it coming at all, least of all the Kiwis!”
I can’t recall a more unlikely series win, certainly not a more unlikely whitewash.
19th over: Australia 42-5 (Labuschagne 2, Carey 3) “Wasim over Waqar???” queries David Brook.
Left-arm, better batter, was great for longer. At their absolute peak I might pick Waqar though.
18th over: Australia 42-5 (Labuschagne 2, Carey 3) Rana, who is an abundant unit, has words with Labuschagne after going past his edge once again. That was a serious delivery: just full of good, straightening off the seam. The precision of India’s bowling, at a time when it would have been natural to chase wickets, has been exemplary.
A single takes Labuschagne to 2 from 41 balls of the fiercest concentration (what’s the batting equivalent of hard yakka?); Carey mocks him by driving his third ball through extra cover for three.
17th over: Australia 38-5 (Labuschagne 1, Carey 0) The opening day of a marquee series rarely produces numbers like this: 66.5 overs, 188 runs, 15 wickets.
“Bumrah always makes me think of under-14 cricket, when one kid is so much better than the others that the coach actually has to stop him batting or bowling sometimes to give the other kids a go,” says Pete Salmon. “They always had figures of something like six for nine of eight overs, and then had to retire at 30 not out off about 11 balls. I assume all Test cricketers are that kid.”
If he does this for another 3-4 years and finishes with, say, 300 wickets at 20, I think he’ll be a contender for an all-time World XI. At the moment my pace attack would probably be Malcolm Marshall, Wasim Akram and Glenn McGrath, but his average is superior to all of them.
WICKET! Australia 38-5 (Marsh c Rahul b Siraj 6)
Australia are now officially in all sorts. Marsh fenced at a good delivery from Siraj that lifted and straightened to take the edge. Rahul swooped low to his left at third slip – it wouldn’t have carried to second – and took a superb catch.
There’s no soft signal and I wouldn’t want to be the third umpire right now. My instinct is that Rahul got his fingers under the ball at third slip, but I definitely wouldn’t put the farm on it.
Has Marsh been caught by KL Rahul? It looks good but they’re going upstairs.
16th over: Australia 38-4 (Labuschagne 1, Marsh 6) Marsh has started well and, as usual, looks comfortable against pace and bounce. It’s sideways movement that will trouble him, and he needs a thick inside-edge to keep out a good nipbacker from Rana. It might have been going over anyway.
Later in the over Rana collects the ball in his followthrough and flings it back towards Labuschagne. He blocks it with his bat, at which point the entire Indian team appeal for something or other. It wasn’t a big appeal and was almost certainly designed to affect Labuschagne’s concentration.
15th over: Australia 37-4 (Labuschagne 1, Marsh 5) Australia know from the Indian innings that batting will get easier as the ball gets older. The tough part is managing to hang around until that happens. Labuschagne has been dragged into a desperate fight for survival, which almost ends when he leaves a ball that whooshes just past off stump. I think it was ultimately a good leave, though I wouldn’t put the farm on it.
Another maiden from Siraj. Labuschagne has 1 from 36 balls, Marsh 5 from 10.
14th over: Australia 37-4 (Labuschagne 1, Marsh 5) Rana overpitches to Marsh, who pumps him through mid-off for four. That’s a lovely shot, full of authority. Marsh averages around 160 in Tests on this ground, though batting will never have been more challenging than it is right now.
Rana, who hits the pitch really hard, beats Marsh twice with excellent lifting deliveries. India keep finding players. Rana is 22 and making his Test debut after only 10 first-class games; he looks totally at home.
13th over: Australia 33-4 (Labuschagne 1, Marsh 1) Bumrah gives way to Siraj after a spectacular spell 0f 6-3-9-3. There are still 75 minutes remaining so Bumrah should be back before the close. Siraj has words with Labuschagne over something and nothing, then finds the inside-edge with a sharpl delivery. It flies past off stump and through to the keeper. Labuschagne is living exceedingly dangerously.
“People want this series to replicate the 2005 Ashes,” wr ites Digvijay Yadav. “Well, the visiting team has been rolled over. And the best fast bowler in the world has snapped back. (Probably no bigger compliment for both Bumrah and McGrath to be compared to the other.) I hope this lives up. Could make this the greatest rivalry in the world.”
It already is, surely.
12th over: Australia 33-4 (Labuschagne 1, Marsh 1) Mitch Marsh, who loves batting in Perth and is a very good player of pace, takes a single off Rana to get off the mark from his first ball. Labuschagne does likewise to get off the mark from his 24th ball, prompting banterous cheers from the crowd.
Mark Waugh points out that, while that was a jaffa from Rana, Head was stuck on the crease when he needed to get forward. Had he done so he’d probably have survived via a thick edge.
“A warming good morning to you (I’ve got the heater full on),” says John Starbuck. “The problems with playing every Test in Perth are (a) Australia would be the permanent hosts (b) no chance of anything like a sticky dog so almost no spin and (c) we here in the UK would have to be out of bed too early.”
All very good points. BUT LOOK AT THIS CRICKET.
WICKET! Australia 31-4 (Head b Rana 11)
Harshit Rana first Test wicket is the big one! Travis Head has been cleaned up by a devastating delivery from around the wicket: fullish and straightening off the seam to beat Head’s crabby defensive push. This is utterly exhilarating.
11th over: Australia 31-3 (Labuschagne 0, Head 11) Head has a fast-handed flash at Bumrah and connects only with fresh air. That aside he plays the over pretty well and steals a quick single off the fifth ball. Head is such a big wicket because he can change both the state and the mood of the game in half an hour, as India know from bitter experience.
“Oh, the joys of test cricket,” says Phil Withall. “Time at hand, 450 overs to slowly absorb the intricacies of bat and ball, savouring the growing tension as pressure mounts and time recedes. Time for the mind to drift, for conversation and banalities. It also has a perverse way of mutating into absolute chaos, either way I am, and always will be in love with it.”
10th over: Australia 30-3 (Labuschagne 0, Head 10) Travis Head starts the counter-attack with two superb boundaries off Rana, a slashing back cut and a deliberate uppercut that bounces this far short of the boundary sponge. How long this lasts, who knows, but his fearlessness is so impressive. He’s like the Tyler Durden of batting; everyone wants to bat the way he does but only he has the courage to consistently counter-attack when the heat is on.
“Labuschagne is receiving the sort of searching examination that would normally require an MRI scanner and X-ray machine followed by the dread sound of a rubber glove being donned,” says Brian Withington. “Just saying.”
And nobody can have you banged up for that. Actually they can, but let’s not worry about that for now.
9th over: Australia 20-3 (Labuschagne 0, Head 1) Head takes a single off Bumrah’s first ball, the old Geoffrey Boycott tactic.
Labuschagne, who has already been hit on the body multiple times, is smacked in the ribs by a malevolent nipbacker. But he survives another over, 0 from 20 balls now; he knows Bumrah can’t bowl forever.
8th over: Australia 19-3 (Labuschagne 0, Head 0) The hulking debutant Harshit Rana replaces Siraj, who bowled a pretty good spell of 3-1-12-0 that was totally overshadowed by the genius at the other end.
He gets some extravagant swing from the first ball and twice hits Labuschagne in or around the box. A brilliant first over ends with a lifter past the edge. Labuschagne has faced 15 balls without getting off the mark; survival is enough of a challenge right now.
7th over: Australia 19-3 (Labuschagne 0, Head 0) The hat-trick ball is full, straight and would have trapped Head LBW but for a vital inside-edge.
A double-wicket maiden from Bumrah, who has stunning figures of 4-2-7-3. They flatter him not one jot.
Smith skipped towards the off side and was pinned plumb in front by another huge nipbacker. It was so plumb that Smith barely discussed a review; replays show it would have hit the middle of middle.
The astonishing Jasprit Bumrah is on a hat-trick.
WICKET! Australia 19-3 (Smith LBW b Bumrah 0)
Steve Smith has gone first ball!
WICKET! Australia 19-2 (Khawaja c Kohli b Bumrah 8)
Turns out Khawaja wasn’t relatively comfortable; he just hadn’t faced Jasprit Bumrah as much as the right-handers. When he does get stuck at Bumrah’s end it’s a quick kill: a beauty past the edge and then a defensive poke that flies off the edge to second slip.
Glorious bowling from arguably the greatest cricketer India have ever produced. I know he doesn’t have the longevity of Gavaskar, Tendulkar, Kumble etc but I’m not sure they were as superior to their peers as Bumrah. He’s astonishing.