India vs Australia 4th test: Ashwin a class act

Shoulders sagged, fielders oohed and aahed, bowlers poured in sweat at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Australia had batted nearly two days in their first innings, in itself an incredible feat, considering that the first three Tests barely lasted three days each. Usman Khawaja was the model Test batter, soaking up pressure, minimising risk and winning the mental game, batting 611 minutes to score 180 off a whopping 422 balls. Cameron Green gave notice of just why Australians are so excited about the giant allrounder, putting his head down and focussing hard on every delivery to score 114, his first Test century.

Australia had 480 on the board, but if there was a reason to believe that India were still in the game, it was provided by R Ashwin. In very good conditions for batting, the offie was a class act, bowling nearly 48 overs, 15 of which were maidens to pick up 6 for 91. This was his 26th five-wicket bag at home, one more than the great Anil Kumble, and it’s an effort he’ll cherish for a long time.

In these conditions, it wasn’t simply a matter of rolling the arm over, landing the ball on a spot and hoping the pitch would do the rest. These were conditions in which the bowler had to plan and execute every single dismissal, with the various facets of spin bowling coming together.

There are few better slow bowlers in the world for such a challenge than Ashwin. When the Khawaja-Green partnership stretched to 208, and the pair had batted through two complete sessions, Ashwin had to do something different.

He packed the leg side field to Green, and came around the stumps, cramping the batter. The delivery that got the wicket was not the finest, slipping down leg and kissing the glove off the attempted sweep for K S Bharat to catch well, but the thought process showed that Ashwin wasn’t giving up.

Alex Carey’s airy waft, trying to launch Ashwin over the off side was perhaps the one instance of the batter giving away his wicket, but even here Ashwin had slowed the ball down nicely, allowing it to grip and take the edge.

Mitchell Starc was a set-up of a different kind. After firing a succession of quick, flat deliveries, into the left-hander, Ashwin floated in the drifter, drawing the bat forward and catching the inside edge with precision. Todd Murphy, who was proving a proper thorn in the flesh with 41, was done in by the ball that went on with the arm and Nathan Lyon got a loopy ball that clipped the outside edge and went to slip via the keeper’s pad. Ashwin, who is a cricket tragic and has a head for numbers, will be telling his teammates that Australia are far from safe yet.Since 2000 there have been nine instances of visiting teams scoring 400 or more against India. Oddly, only one of those has resulted in a win, with four games being lost and three drawn.

India were already well on their way, Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill heading to stumps at 36 without loss. While there was a hint of turn for Ashwin towards the very end of the second day, most of his bowling had happened on a placid pitch. With that being the case, the manner in which he controlled the game — going for just 1.92 runs an over — could well be the difference between the two teams.

“You can go to bed feeling a lot better instead of having just three wickets in your kitty. It does feel good as you end up with good bag of wickets,” said Ashwin. Thanks to Ashwin, the entire Indian team will sleep a little easier tonight.