An anticlimactic ending to a play in three acts

Yashasvi Jaiswal just hit the ball to mid on and started running. Until then, Jaiswal and Virat Kohli had been in command and looked easy at their respective ends. So just like that they ended up at the same end looking at each other. It was so random. It was anticlimactic. It all happened so fast.

But to understand the shock and awe at how quickly the Test match turned in that moment, it’s important to get to grips with what led up to it. And how unlikely a wicket falling at that point had seemed before Jaiswal drove a ball straight to mid-on and set off. Only for Kohli to understandably not respond in kind.

It was the 41st over of the Indian innings. The ball no longer sewed around. Not as if it had done much of that in the 15 or so overs leading up to that moment. The opener and no. 4 had forged a stand of 102 runs. And Pat Cummins had turned to Scott Boland for a late burst under gloomy skies at the MCG. That was the last throw of the dice from the Australian captain on Day 2.

Jaiswal, now going through the gears and in the mood to get the game going, had cut the delivery before he would be dismissed for four through backward over. He had done so with a bit of disdain as the ball whizzed across the vast expanse of the MCG. As the two batsmen bumped fists, India looked set for a strong finish to a day that had not started too well for the visitors. A few overs earlier, Jaiswal had launched Mitchell Marsh over the long-on fence for six in even more audacious fashion. He looked to be heading for his second ton of the series.

Kohli on the other hand had shown extreme discipline in large parts of his innings. He had left alone or shouldered the arms to almost 40 per cent of the deliveries he had faced in the early part of his innings. Although both Starc and Cummins kept trying to pull him to play a drive away from his body. Not only was he very judicious with the balls he left behind, but Kohli also kept his hands very close to his body to ensure they did not betray him, as they had on several occasions on this tour. And for once, the former Indian captain had won the mini-match, which made the Aussies start coming much more evenly, allowing him to start playing shots to both sides of the pitch, as well as rotating the strike as he likes to do. . Kohli looked good, though not yet for a really big score, but certainly for something substantial. He also got the most out of batting with Jaiswal and fed off the youngster’s energy on the crease.

India’s only two centurions from this series so far also made the MCG pitch look a lot more docile than it was expected to be. Although the Australians were still well ahead in runs with the Indian score up to 2/153, they began to have the springs in their step loosened. The Indian flags fluttered around an almost full MCG and most of the noise came from the Indian fans with Australian fielders largely silent. Except for Sam Konstas of course, who continued to play with the crowd or pose for selfies near the boundary like a kid who still can’t believe he’s a Test cricketer.

There had been a few more minor misunderstandings between the two in the run-up to the fatal call from Jaiswal and the rebuttal from Kohli. But they had ended with Kohli smiling and Jaiswal trying to explain his position. There was no room for explanations here. There was no time for that either. Jaiswal had fully committed to reaching the bowler’s end. Kohli had committed not to budge from the bowler’s end. It all seemed like a waste of the solid platform the two had built for themselves and their team. It all seemed like a bonus for the Aussies, who at that point didn’t really look like getting a wicket.

And as it is, the unexpected expiration triggered a collapse. Kohli, after showing steely determination to avoid any delivery that he had to outside his off-stump, poked a classic Boland delivery on virtual fourth stump. Only to be cut off for 36. The agony on his face was all too understandable. Boland was not done of course as he added another MCG wicket to his tally, removing night-watcher Akash Deep, to reduce India to 5/159, three wickets for 6 runs in three Boland overs. The Australians were back in full voice, not just on the field but around the MCG. The game had turned. The home team was well on top again.

Just as they had been for much of Day 2 of the Fourth Test. It was a day played out in three parts. There was the first session when India were bullied by Steve Smith and the Australian lower order. Even Cummins helped himself to a very impressive 49. And a spell in which Rohit Sharma’s captaincy seemed to be quite inadequate. As it has been ever since he took over from Jasprit Bumrah after landing in the country ahead of the second Test in Adelaide. For someone known for his shrewdness in strategizing and lining up opposition players in cohorts with his bowlers, Rohit has spent a lot of time, especially at the Gabba and here in Melbourne, chasing the ball around and letting the Australians dictate the terms completely. . At one point you could literally guess what his next move was. Set a fielder or move one to the exact spot where the previous delivery left off. It was all rather disappointing and seemingly clueless as the Aussies hung on and scored almost 100 runs in the first hour of play. The only real move that had worked for Rohit on Boxing Day was throwing the ball to Bumrah. But even that did not go as expected the next morning.

And if the captain Rohit was found wanting, the batter Rohit was found out. He was too slow, too late and eventually too out of position to even complete the awkward shot he attempted on a delivery from Cummins that wasn’t there for the shot he attempted in the first place. It ended in an unfortunate and rather embarrassing sending off, when the ball was skied but only as far as Boland in the middle of the pitch. Unfortunately for Rohit, it was the latest in a series of odd ways to get out at a time when he desperately needed a score, more so after promoting himself back to open the innings in place of the in-form KL Rahul .

That led to Rahul walking out to bat in the second over and he looked as good as he has throughout the series. Only to be run out by probably the best delivery Cummins has ever bowled in his career. Length ball pitched outside the off stump, angled in slightly towards the right-hander before literally turning on its axis and hitting the top of the off stump.

Then the second act of the day began as Jaiswal and Kohli rebuilt the Indian innings and gave the visitors something to hang on to. There was confrontation and hope for a solution for India. But the third and most decisive action of the day stopped it all. As Jaiswal hit the ball straight to mid on and started running.