Australia ended up with 277/6 at the end of Day 1 of the second Test after electing to bat first. They’ve got runs on board but both teams will be hard-pressed to say how good the total really is, given how uncertainly the Perth pitch has behaved.
One will have to wait for both teams to bat before giving any sort of verdict on the pitch but it doesn’t look like batting is going to get any easier as the match goes on. If Australia manage to get 350 on board, India will be under pressure to get much more as they bat last on this wicket.
The first session
This was the best session for the batsmen. The ball did virtually nothing – no seam movement, no uncertain bounce. It seemed like the kind of wicket where one could trust the bounce and punish the loose balls. At this point, this was in line with what the experts were expecting.
The consensus was that the sun would beat down on the pitch through the day and make it quicker by Day 2 and quickest by Day 3. Day 1 was generally said to be the best for batting before the famous Perth cracks would making batting very difficult.
In this period, Australia made the most of the slightly wasteful Indian attack in the first 11 overs, putting on 45 runs before the Indian bowlers decided they needed to change things around. Still, 66/0 from an opening partnership that has looked completely out of sorts was a good return for Australia.
It settled their nerves and India knew they were in for a fight.
The second session
Now, this is where things got, to put it mildly, interesting. Australia’s openers marched to a 100-run partnership with confidence – Marcus Harris leading the charge and Aaron Finch following suit.
But this is where Jasprit Bumrah showed why he has become skipper Virat Kohli’s go-to man in tough situations. The paceman decided to adopt a simple tactic — slam the ball as hard as possible into the deck and then every once in a while throw one up. He upped his speed as well into the high 140s.
His first spell wasn’t that great but he came back, made the adjustments and did the job for his skipper. The fact that he learned so quickly is a sign of just how good he is and why Kohli trusts him. Just look at the way he has come on and taken wickets to break partnerships at crucial junctures for India:
Adelaide Test
1st innings:
33 (Handscomb-Head)
50 (Cummins-Head)
27 (Starc-Head)2nd innings:
41 (S Marsh-Paine)
31 (Paine-Cummins)
31 (Lyon-Cummins)Perth Test
112 (Finch-Harris)
This immediately got the run-rate under control and, then, as Finch looked to get going, he was trapped leg-before. There was no need for a replay or a review, this was plumb in front.
At this point, Australia were 112/1 and the ball was around 36 overs old. But it suddenly starting seaming off the wicket. Usman Khawaja, who was at his uncertain best during his stay in the middle, was next to go. He chased a wide delivery.
But the one that truly got the wide-eyed look was the ball from India’s part-time spinner Hanuma Vihari, which jumped on the well-set Harris. The ball pitched on a good length but then took off to surprise the left-hander. He could only fend at it as Ajinkya Rahane completed an easy catch at first slip.
This was when one started thinking that Australia have Lyon while India chose to have just Vihari. Australia will also have the luxury of bowling last on this wicket – when it should theoretically be at its worst.
The third session
The first session saw the pitch play true, the second session saw seam movement and some odd bounce come into the picture, and the third session still managed to serve up very different fare. Now, we could even add swing to the mix.
One ball in the session stood out. It was from Bumrah to Australian skipper Tim Paine. The fourth ball of the 84th over pitched on a good length, beat the batsman all ends up, then kept climbing to go over the keeper’s head and straight to the boundary line. Paine looked at the wicket. Bumrah looked at the wicket and then they both looked at each other with the batsman saying, “What was the that?”
In the pre-match press conference, Kohli had spoken about how the Johannesburg wicket was the toughest that he had ever batted on, but Perth might just be shaping up to make a case of its own.
And that is why having runs on board is crucial for the hosts. Australia have gone past 300 just once in their past 13 innings. It is their worst batting run in recent history and one has to go way back to 1984, when a weak Australian team passed 300 just once from 19 innings, to find another sustained period of batting mediocrity.
It’s still early days – just Day 1 – but the odd ball is flying, others are keeping low, some are seaming, some are swinging. Australia have their noses in front but given how unpredictable the pitch has been, who knows whether it will suddenly settle down when India come out to bat.
Cricket fans have been fortunate to witness six fantastic days of Test cricket in this series so far, and Day 1 was another example of good, hard Test cricket.
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