When television broadcasters first started using the statistics generated by cricket analysts CricViz, there was a widely-held suspicion that some of their offerings were what Mitchell and Webb would term numberwang. That scepticism soon passed.
On day one of the Sydney Test, the data seemed plainly unbelievable: statistically speaking, India’s Rishabh Pant was only the second-worst wicketkeeper in Test cricket, and the man in pole position was twice as bad.
You imagined Bangladesh’s Mushfiqur Rahim making Ravichandran Ashwin’s facial expressions distort even further.
Of course, like Mushfiqur, Pant is picked for what he can do with the bat.
To focus solely on his keeping is like critiquing Tony Soprano’s bookkeeping work at the Bada Bing.
Two summers ago at the SCG, Pant made an undefeated 159 that hinted at superstardom. In the intervening time, his fortunes have waxed and waned but not his relish for staring down Australia.
Not much went India’s way in this game, but Pant’s involvement was an exception.
A horror blow from Pat Cummins seemed to have broken his arm in the first innings. It meant the tidier gloveman Wriddhiman Saha could be subbed in for Australia’s second innings before making way for Pant’s return as a second innings batsman — as remote as the chances seemed.
What a return it was. The cause was hopeless: survive 90 overs or chase down 407.
Not only did Pant declare himself fit to bat, he leapfrogged Hanuma Vihari and wandered out at number five, no padding on his arm.
Only 10 deliveries had been bowled at that point. Nathan Lyon had just dispatched Ajinkya Rahane and Australia seemed set to pounce.
Before play, Lyon eyed the fifth-day pitch like a gourmand appraising a buffet. With the first ball of his next over, he duly tempted Pant into an edge.
Unfortunately, Tim Paine grassed it behind the wicket — a tough chance, but a bread and butter fifth-day dismissal.
Pant’s intent from there was immediately obvious and transformed the contest.
After a few sighters he started clubbing Lyon around the ground with impunity. A pair of sixes helped him to 50 from 64 deliveries and Cheteshwar Pujara dug in at the other end.
In the hours following, they were like bouncers guarding a steel door, Pujara stern, arms folded in front of his chest, Pant repelling the would-be intruders by repeatedly jabbing a finger into their chests.
When Pant was on 53, Paine dropped him again, then on 76 too.
The chances were getting tougher, but thoughts started turning to the horror of Ben Stokes at Headingley two English summers ago.
Inevitably, Pant eventually took one risk too many. With the new ball one over away and the counter-attack raising the prospect of an upset, he tried to bring up his century with another lusty blow off Lyon and sent a leading edge to backward point.
The analysis: 12 boundaries, three sixes, 97 runs from 118 deliveries in a partnership of 148.
It will go in the record books as a half-century. But the way Pant took on the game elevated what should have been a regulation Australian victory into a bare-knuckle brawl.
It also inspired those who followed, which ensured a grandstand finish in which India brilliantly saved the game.
The heroes in the end were Ashwin and Vihari.
With Ravindra Jadeja and his broken hand waiting in the pavilion and Vihari labouring with a hamstring injury, Ashwin came out and was struck all over the body.
For 10 minutes, he looked a walking wicket. But he was also at his most determined, and the partnership that ensued was more epic still than the one which had dominated the first half of the day.
The 62 runs were neither here nor there. The 256 deliveries the pair absorbed denied Australia certain victory.
The effect on the Australians was wholly unedifying.
The longer Ashwin and Vahari withstood what the home side threw at them, the more the ring of close fielders resembled a pack of hyenas, yapping away witlessly and with little more impact than the bowlers.
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Matthew Wade played the tough guy character he didn’t quite pull off with his bat. Paine offered an excruciating running commentary.
Simultaneous to that, a piece of footage from earlier in the day went viral: a stump camera showed Steve Smith petulantly scuffing the batting crease to remove the indentation where Pant had marked his guard, forcing the batsman to mark it again.
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For reasons that will surely come under close examination after this match, the broadcaster was allowed to run live and uncut a one-way argument between Ashwin and Paine, the latter already fined 15 per cent of his match fee for misbehaviour on day three.
Paine suggested the Australians had more friends in India than Ashwin. It is hard to envisage that being true after this game.
It was also self-defeating. In the Mitchell Starc over following that quip, Paine dropped a regulation chance provided by Vihari and the contest was done.
The only thing worse than the banter on Monday was the glovework.
Perhaps it can be argued that players don’t decide what goes to air. But knowing that anything might, and knowing how unwelcome this Indian team has been made to feel by the SCG crowd, Paine’s team provided an ungracious conclusion to a contest that would have been just as absorbing without the histrionics.
India will depart Sydney battered and bruised, but it has also won itself many admirers.
Towards the end of this match, news filtered through of the death of Colin McDonald, Australian opening batsman in the magical summer of 1960-61.
Frank Worrell’s West Indians were farewelled at the conclusion of that tour with a hero’s motorcade past half a million grateful Melburnians.
You’d hope Brisbane can give India a warmer send-off than what they received here.
Live updates
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IT’S A DRAW! What an effort by India’s batsmen!
India made it through 131 overs, with Ravi Ashwin and Hanuma Vihari negotiating just under 43 of them – 256 balls to be precise. And all that against a legitimately great bowling attack.
It’s worth remembering Rishabh Pant’s thrilling 97 that gave them hope of pulling off a frankly outlandish win, and Cheteshwar Pujara’s 77 off 205, which kept the dream alive.
Ajinkya Rahane fell in the SECOND OVER of the day. Australia took two wickets for the rest of the day. Amazing resilience by India, but Australia will have some questions to answer.
Tim Paine dropped three chances and the Australian bowling attack struggled to produce many others.
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Australia v India: Third Test at the SCG
By Jon Healy
Where the series sits now
Against all the odds, India is taking a 1-1 scoreline into the last Test at the Gabba.
Australia hasn’t lost a Test in Brisbane since 1988, but they have drawn there as recently as 2012 against South Africa (remember that series that included a famous draw where the opposition batted out the entire last day and change?) and India only needs a draw now to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
They won it in 2018/19 when Australia was depleted by bans to David Warner and Steve Smith over the ball-tampering ban, and now India is threatening to flip the script, possible tying the series despite beying without Virat Kohli, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav. And now carrying injuries to Rishabh Pant (although he seemed OK today), Ravindra Jadeja and Hanuma Vihari.
Wow.
I cannot wait to see what happens at the Gabba. And I hope you’ll all join us again when that Test starts on Friday. Until then, congratulations India, and damn damn damn.
By Jon Healy
‘Great bowling attack”…where?
-Koala55
Even legends are entitled to off days every now and then.
By Jon Healy
Imaging what India could have done if they actually decided to play.
-Bored
This is the wrong opinion.
By Jon Healy
2 overs left – Mitchell Starc will bowl the penultimate over
Four off the pads. 11 balls left.
Defended to cover. 10 to go.
Through him! An absolute beauty from around the wicket, swinging away and going past the outside edge. Such a good ball.
AND AGAIN! Where was this three hours ago? 8 balls left. The Cricinfo website has been crashed for hours.
Left alone outside off. Starc has one ball left.
Defended. And they’re calling it!
By Jon Healy
3 overs left – 18 balls to get 5 wickets for Australia
BANG! They’re going for the win! Short and crushed on the hook by Ashwin.
Short again by Hazlewood and Ashwin punches down the ground for two. He’s batting brilliantly. Some of these shots are legitimately excellent.
Hazlewood is nowhere near the stumps here. Too short.
Hazlewood pulls out of his run-up. The suspense builds.
A flash outside off and the ball goes searing past the edge. Interesting choice of shot at this stage.
And driven down the ground. The over negotiated.
By Daniel Colasimone
Hope fades
📻
Alex Blackwell can’t see a lot of positive body language out there.
“Australia just need to be thinking ‘it’s five deliveries’
“But they look quite deflated.
“They have been going with the short bowling and the surprise full delivery, but I think they could have reversed that.”
By Jon Healy
4 overs left – Nope. Starc again.
Starc is having his best spell of the game, but I don’t know. Maybe Cummins is gassed from carrying such a load.
Meanwhile Vihari is defending like a beast. There’s just nothing that can be done to penetrate the defence.
Rank one down leg.
CRACK! Four runs on the cut thank you very much. That brings up the 50 partnership for this pair. IN 247 BALLS!
By Jon Healy
Time for a miracle? Smith and Warner to have a bowl to try and save Australia with the ball as they have countless times with the bat?
-Richard
Nope. Hazlewood and Cummins. It has to be them.
By Jon Healy
5 overs left – Hazlewood replaces Lyon
And you’d think Cummins will replace Starc. That feels like Australia’s only recourse now.
The first is down leg, and almost strangled down there.
A stifled shout for LBW. Good line and length, but Ashwin belted it with the bat.
Every ball that can be left alone is like gold for India.
A decent short ball is well evaded by Ashwin. Can Hazlewood hit the top of off?
Runs! But more importantly, another full, swinging delivery kept out.
Another punch off the back foot, but it pulls up short of the rope, and the batsmen stay put. But that’s another over ticked off.
By Jon Healy
Surely they’ll put Cummins out for Starc – Starc is off form today.
-Doc
He is, but he also created the most genuine chance for hours.
By Jon Healy
6 overs – Who we got now? It’s Starc again, for one last chance you’d think
He’s around the wicket and Vihari is blunting the ball behind point. Is there enough movement to get ANOTHER genuine edge behind?
Only 5,852 people here today. This Indian effort probably deserved more.
Clipped off the thigh and it doesn’t carry to Cummins at leg gully. Wasn’t entirely under control but pretty good.
Wade goes into a close gully position, with a helmet on. And the ball comes his way. But not through the air.
He beats the edge one more time for good measure, and then the last ball of the over is a rank wide one. That will probably be the last we see of him today.
By Jon Healy
7 overs left – Nathan Lyon to Ashwin
Ashwin is doing brilliantly against Lyon, who just can’t find that turn and bounce.
He drives at one, and it’s off the inside edge! Big gate there. A bit more turn and that’s gone. God the margins are fine in this game.
Maiden. India continues to survive.
By Daniel Colasimone
Over the top sledging from Paine?
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Andrew Moore: “A lot of listeners very critical of Tim Paine and his sledging of Ravi Ashwin.”
Stuart Clark: “I don’t know what he was saying but he was talking as Ashwin tapped the bat, and he pulled away. Then he’d talk again and he’d pull away.”
By Jon Healy
Well you now what they say Mr Paine Catches win Matches.
-Josho
Gobbing off and dropping catches is never a good combo. Paine has really set himself up for a merciless grilling here.
By Jon Healy
8 overs left – Starc gets another go. I feel like I’m losing my mind.
And he’s beaten the edge first up. Very late in the day to start bowling grenades.
I don’t see how they take five wickets at this point.
Half a shout as a full one goes past the outside edge. Vihari hit the ground. Also, that yorker has to get on the stumps.
There it is. Great yorker from wide on the crease, but well dug out. Late in the day, the pace is a bit lower than Starc would like.
By Daniel Colasimone
That was the chance
📻
Stuart Clark on that dropped catch:
“He should have taken it.
“David Warner was there as well.
“There are moments in the game, aren’t there?
“There are moments and you just have to take them.”
Audience comment by Jo
Maybe stop trying to put the batsman off with chat and concentrate so that you can do your job catching behind the wicket.
By Jon Healy
