Indore: The pitch used for the third Test between India and Australia in Indore is clearly a minefield and reminds one of the very famous video game Minesweeper. The only difference between the game and the pitch at Holkar Stadium being the grid of the pitch is littered with more mines than the squares depicting a number, adjacent mines or a blank tile. In a nutshell more danger area than the safe zone. “Danger area” has been so evenly spread throughout the 22 yards that it is anybody’s guess how the ball would behave upon pitching.
India vs Australia 3rd Test Day 1 Live Score
Most scooted low, plenty turned sharply and some zipped off the surface too. It was a mixed bag and a hunt no batter would like to go on. Surprisingly, the first real threat to the hosts came via pace when Mitchell Starc had Rohit Sharma all at sea in the opening over of the Test. The left-armer almost drew first blood with first delivery of the match when his angled delivery beat Rohit. There was a loud shout for caught-behind, a discussion for DRS but the Aussies didn’t go for it. The replays showed there was a spike. Something similar happened on the fourth delivery when a leg before shout was turned down and another call to not take DRS went against the visitors.
Till that time, or say the first five overs when the seamers were operating, there was movement but the minefields weren’t touched yet. The batters were negotiating well and looked in the safe zone. Scoreboard read 26/0 after five overs and Shubman Gill had already hit a couple of gorgeous drives through the covers region. Smith wouldn’t have wanted to get Starc out of the attack, for he was bowling really well, but the temptation to try spin would have been too big considering how dry the surface was. Lo-and-behold Cameron Green was taken off the attack after bowling just two overs, his only spell of the match.
Kuhnemann!
In came Matthew Kuhnemann and exposed all the mines on the grid. Rohit looked to work the ball for a single around the leg-side when Steve Smith switched to proactive mode and brought the field up, tempting Rohit to go big against the turn. Rohit tried that next ball and his slog sweep didn’t connect as the ball spun very sharply. Nathan Lyon had a big smile on his face when he saw the ball turn and would have been eager to have a go.
The chance presented itself a couple of overs later but Kuhnemann scalped the two Indian openers in just three deliveries to put the hosts on the mat. Rohit jumped out of the crease but was beaten by the flight and turn and failed to make any contact. Kuhnemann picked his first and in the space of three deliveries, he had his second when he found the outside edge of Shubman Gill. The purchase for Kuhnemann tempted Smith for more spin and he fell for it. Starc made way for Nathan Lyon and madness unfolded for the next few overs.
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The period between the sixth and twelfth over of the innings can well be compared to a Bollywood movie coal-mine scene where explosions happen one after another. Both Kuhnemann and Lyon continued to extract something different from the pitch and the Indian batters were dealing with bombshells. The delivery which got Cheteshwar Pujara spun back sharply and never rose, Shreyas Iyer was undone by another low-bounce delivery. One can say the shot selection was suspect but the bounce on both occasions wasn’t “normal” for a Day 1 strip.
The brief resistance
From 27/0, India collapsed to 45/5 and the Virat Kohli-KS Bharat stand did navigate around the safe cells before the explosions began again. Kohli was in the Delhi first-innings zone and hardly put a foot wrong. He had the long strides in and played very late off his back-foot. This not only allowed him to counter the low bounce but opened up more scoring options towards the leg side. He showed how it needs to be done on this pitch when he whipped a Kuhnemann delivery, which didn’t rise above the shin, towards the mid-wicket region. He looked in control, looked confident, was assured with the footwork before Todd Murphy, coming around the stumps, got one to spin just enough from the off stump and trapped the right-hander in front for a 52-ball 22.
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India’s brief resistance ended there and Lyon (3/35) and Kuhnemann (5/16) ran through the lower-order to bundle out India for 109 in just 33.2 overs. One wonders if it was a good toss to lose for Australia because batting first looked much more difficult than what it was when Australia came out to bat in the second innings.
It may be the moisture, freshness and the slight lower temperature in the morning helped Australia. Who knows.
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One thing, however, is certain that pitches like these are not good for the health of the game and this kind of surface came as a surprise given the situation they were in this series. Historically, rank-turners (read Pune in 2017 and Mumbai 2004) have backfired for India and a minefield like Indore was certainly not a wise choice.
After two three-day finishes, India clearly wanted an early finish strip and dished out a Day 3 surface on Day 1 of the Test. It’s absolutely fine to exploit the home advantage but having a minesweeper board littered with mine cells makes very little sense.
In reply, Australia (156/4) looked much more solid and rode on decent contributions from Usman Khawaja (60), Marnus Labuschagne (31) and Steve Smith (26) to take a decent 47-run lead. For India, Ravindra Jadeja was pick of the bowlers with figures of 4/63. The hosts’ spinners were a touch fuller and gave enough scoring opportunities to the likes of Khawaja and Smith and didn’t flirt around the danger zone much.
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