The Australians have stressed on learning and improving during the series but at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium on Friday their application lacked both and as a result they’re struggling once again.
As one’s misery is other’s pleasure in a game, India are on top once again. They have the Kangaroos down at 231 for eight after Day One in the fourth and final Test, to go with their 3-0 series advantage. It’s never over until the final ball is bowled but hosts might have done enough already.
The fact that the visitors’ number nine Peter Siddle was their highest scorer - second time this is happening as Mitchell Starc with 99 was the first in the last match at Mohali - unbeaten on 47 tells the story of a top-order failure once more.
The Indians started well, consolidated in the middle but gave some initiative away in the end. Ishant Sharma got rid of David Warner in the second over of the day, a wideish delivery outside off-stump, left hander poking at it and giving a regulation catch to Virat Kohli at second slip for naught.
STRIP TEASE
That brought in Phillip Hughes in, who played some elegant shots on the off-side but when he looked settled at the crease, venom oozed out of the pitch and resulted in Hughes’ casualty. It was the 21st over and Sharma bowled a good length delivery that jumped and hit the left-hander on his helmet. Shocked at getting stung, the southpaw couldn’t quite restart from thereon. To Sharma’s final delivery of that over, one bowled from round the wicket and darting in, Hughes was stuck in the crease and indecisive footwork meant that he bottom-edging the ball into his stumps.
The score read 71 for two and in came captain for the day Shane Watson as Michael Clarke had to sit out due to a back injury. Ed Cowan was at the other end trying to be the sheet anchor. The duo went to lunch at 94 for 2. When they returned, the ball was 28 overs old and spin was inevitable on a rough Kotla wicket.
Spin still a mystery
In came Ravichandran Ashwin and the visitors were staring at a similar scenario, men around the bat and the ball turning. Cowan tried to sweep the off-spinner, who was bowling over the wicket but the batsman was standing on leg-stump and not outside to guard in case he missed the shot, which he did and the ball disturbed the furniture behind him, just like Warner and Hughes had done in the second Test at Hyderabad.
Watson had played 55 deliveries to get himself in when he tried to come dancing down the wicket to Ravindra Jadeja but was outdone by the lack of flight ion the delivery as Indian captain MS Dhoni did the stumping, the dismissal reminded of Clarke’s during the first innings of the third Test in Mohali. Then, Matthew Wade, who was back in the side after his ankle sprain made him miss last Test, was caught at silly point to give Ashwin his second wicket and the Australians had half their side in the pavilion with score reading 117.
Glenn Maxwell, another of the five changes that the visitors made for the Delhi Test with James Pattinson coming in for Starc and Mitchell Johnson coming in for Xavier Doherty, came, hit a few shots, mistimed a Jadeja delivery and headed back.
Ashwin’s party continues
With two already in the bag, Ashwin had had a good warm up. He was giving the loop to the ball, had variations and was letting the pitch do the rest. A carom-ball bowled from over the wicket became too much for Johnson, who tried to leave it, thinking it would leave him instead of coming in. He then got rid of Steven Smith , caught at short leg with debutant Ajinkya Rahane accepting it gleefully. That was another example of an Aussie batsman not getting in line of the spinning ball. Ashwin’s four-for on Friday has given him 26 in the series.
Smith (46), before his dismissal did look decisive in his footwork and his partnership with Siddle of 53 for the eighth wicket and a Siddle-Pattinson combine yielding unbeaten 42 for the ninth helped the visitors reach 200-mark which may have disappointed the Indians a little bit.
Day Two looks ominous for the visitors, their bowlers have to first evade the Indian spinners and then find a way to escape the grind of the home batsmen, else Saturday night fever ahead.
Brief Scores
Australia: 231/8 in 98 overs (Peter Siddle 47 not out, Steven Smith 46, Phil Hughes 45, Ed Cowan 38; Ravichandran Ashwin 4/40, Ravindra Jadeja 2/34, Ishant Sharma 2/35) against India at close on Day 1.