Perth Test: India’s winning (in Australia) habit continues

Date: 25/11/2024 - Time Updated 12:41:15 pm

Courtesy: The Indian Express

The turnaround from Day 1 wasn't about clinging on and clawing back, but a resounding stomp of intentful aggression as the home side capitulated by 295 runs.

On the eve of the series-opener in Perth, just before the Border-Gavaskar trophy unveiling, Jasprit Bumrah was excitedly chatting about his son with Australian captain Pat Cummins. He would return to his kid at the end of a sensational come-from-behind win. “My young son was in the stands. He was also there at the T20 World Cup win. He won’t know anything now, but I now have stories to tell him when he grows up; how he was there during special Indian wins.” For a particular generation of older fans, to experience India playing cricket in Australia in the last decade has been a sweet erasure of a torrid past. In 2014, they stood up to Australia; in 2018, they knocked down Australia; in 2021, they seemed on the mat, but conjured a triumph for a lifetime. This 2024 series started like a bad dream, a whitewash at home, absences of key players, doubts about the new management’s working relationship with players. On the first day in Perth India crashed and burned — 150 all out in four hours on a bright sunny Australian day. Yet, within that day, the turnaround had begun, and that was not just consolidated over the next three days but an utter domination was achieved as India wrapped up the first Test in Perth in some style: a 295-run win, India's biggest in terms of runs in Australia. Bumrah would nail down the turning point moment as the one that came after the lowest moment in the Test. “The most positive thing was when we were out for 150. There was no one in the dressing room who was down. They believed that if we could get out like that, we could do the same to them. My only message to the team was not to get too desperate as sometimes bowling teams can do that after getting bowled out cheaply. I told them there was enough on the pitch if we hit the right areas.” Aptly, a debutant helped apply the final seal of victory. Harshit Rana, who had sparkled in the first innings, too, produced a crafty slower ball to castle the stumps of Alex Carey to trigger celebrations. By the time stand-in captain Bumrah could get to the stumps at the non-striker’s end, KL Rahul, whose partnership with Yashasvi Jaiswal in the second innings had set up a huge target, had plucked out two stumps, and he gave one to his skipper. Rana had by then gone on to hug Virat Kohli, who later walked away with Bumrah with their hands around each other’s shoulders. It was a job well done. On the fourth day, only Tra

vis Head offered resistance with a fine 89, even as India rammed through the rest to seal a special win. Last time around in 2021, they had taken the first-innings lead in the opening Test at Adelaide but collapsed for 36 in the second innings to lose that game. No such mistakes this time around. It’s one thing to hang in there, slowly claw back, grit out a bruising fight-back after being down by tea on opening day, but India decided against that old romantic sporting cliche; instead, they chose to boss and own Australia. Time will tell how the rest of the series goes but this performance has now cancelled out all pre-series fears of a one-sided contest. Josh Hazlewood had given up the ghost on the third evening itself when instead of any brave talk of fightback, he said he hoped a couple of batsmen would get to 80 or 100, and tire down the Indian bowlers a bit. One of those batsmen, and a very important one for Australia if they are to bounce back in the series, was Steve Smith. Especially after Usman Khawaja went early, trying to pull a Mohammed Siraj short delivery from outside off, top-edging it to Rishabh Pant. Smith was sorted out by Bumrah for a first-ball duck in the first innings when he had pressed back far too early, and couldn’t get his wrists to effect the jail-break for him. On Monday, on a track that was playing up-and-down, his task was that much more arduous. He did try gamely, trying to play straight. As his innings progressed though, he began to get stuck at the crease, and his hands were doing all the contortions to keep him out there. But then came a length ball from Mohammad Siraj in the off-stump channel and Smith, not only stuck at crease but on his toes almost jammed together, and pushed out his bat to snick it behind. Head did what he usually does to India: slash, carve, smash, swat. And Bumrah brought himself back to end his stay with a straightener outside off that caught the outside edge of an attempted forcing punch shot and flew through to Rishabh Pant. With it, the Australian fight faded out of the arena rather quickly but not before Dhruv Jurel produced the catch of the game, plucking one out of thin air at short-leg to get rid of Mitch Starc. A little later, when the victory was sealed, a digital advertisement flashed around on the first tier of the stadium: "Do Great Things" . They could have added "like India" – to capture some ground reality.