Fourth Test: Tea break, day one
A recap of the second session of play
The first hour of the post-lunch session was a demonstration of why Australia needs a Sam Konstas to fill the void left by David Warner.
Akash Deep and Jasprit Bumrah bowled 24 dot balls in a row before Khawaja got hold of a short ball from Akash Deep and pulled in front of midwicket for four.
Those four successive maidens constituted a telling demonstration of what happens when batsmen allow bowlers to settle into optimal lines and lengths. Post lunch, the Indian quicks were allowed to operate unchallenged, stringing a series of deliveries that probed at the chinks in the batting armor of individual batsmen.
This is where Konstas was so effective, playing shots of startling unorthodoxy that pushed bowlers off their preferred lengths and lines and challenging them to come up with a plan B.
Numbers tell you a story. Bumrah's second spell, just before lunch and after the fall of Konstas, was 2-1-3-0. His third spell -- the first post lunch -- was 3-2-2-0. Against that, his first spell went for 6-2-38-0, with Konstas facing 33 of those 36 deliveries and carting the bowler for 34 runs.
The contrast is even more startling when you consider that the Indians were operating with a 25 overs-old ball after the break. Bowling sides like it when the scoreboard stagnates -- sooner or later a ball will come along that fetches the wicket and in the interim, the game is going nowhere.
Noticeably, the Indian quicks straightened their lines and altered their lengths after lunch, bowling more at the stumps and on a fuller length to force the batsmen to play and taking out the option of leaving the ball. Against Labuschagne in particular, the Indians operated with a predominantly leg side field and bowling into the stumps, taking the off-side out of the equation and choking down his run-scoring options.
Khawaja, who in the morning session benefitted by not having to take on his nemesis Bumrah, got to his 50 (101 balls) with two fours off a visibly tiring Akash Deep, who at that point had bowled 11 overs for 28 runs (three maidens).
The first hour of post lunch play, which featured all three quicks and a couple of so-so overs from Nitish Kumar Reddy, produced 26 runs in 11 overs; by the drinks break, India had settled into an in-out field and a holding pattern, seemingly waiting on the batsmen to lapse into error.
The hoped-for error came in the second hour. Bumrah came back for a fourth spell, and started with a rare loosener, a long hop at well below pace. Khawaja pulled too early, got it on the toe of the bat and went to KL Rahul at midwicket. The batsman looked bemused, the catcher surprised, and the bowler just a little bit sheepish. (Khawaja 57 off 121, Australia 154/2).
Washington Sundar, who the management increasingly prefers to Ravichandran Ashwin as first pick off-spinner, came on to bowl in the 53rd over of the innings, with Australia on 172/2. It was the last over before tea.
The session produced 64 runs in 28 overs, at 2.29 per over, for the loss of Usman Khawaja.
There are two ways of looking at play in the first two sessions. One way is to say that the Indian bowling unit failed to convert one wicket into two and three, as they had done in previous outings. The other way is to say that the Australian top order managed to bat in partnerships: 86 off 116 for the first wicket, 65 off 150 for the second wicket and 22, unbeaten, for the third wicket.
India has a question to answer: Who is the second strike bowler, the support act for Jasprit Bumrah? Siraj and Akash Deep have looked steady, without ever threatening to break through. Nitish Kumar Reddy is anodyne, and there is nothing in the first day wicket for Jadeja.
The question becomes urgent as the game ends into the final session with the ball now 53 overs old.
PostScript: Labuschagne’s habit of squaring up in defense got him rapped in the groin thrice, against Siraj’s incoming deliveries. You almost felt for the batsman — and wondered how much more of these it would take before he called the physio out for a concussion test.