There were two games going on in Bangalore, but only one of them was cricket.
One game, which will inevitably attract the chatter and the colour, consisted of things like Australia's alleged cheating, Virat Kohli's imitation of an overspiced pork chop, Ishant Sharma's face-pulling, both teams' aggressive demeanour, the latest tortures of the Decision Review System, and the demonstration, if one were needed, that no technology is proof against poor umpiring.
More Sports HQ Videos
Kohli's men win second Test in Bangalore
Australia's batting nightmares on the subcontinent came back to haunt them amid a sea of umpiring mistakes and technical blunders to spin as India dragged itself off the canvas to level the series 1-1 with two Tests left to play.
If match referee Chris Broad was watching (there was some good golf on TV over the weekend), he might be busy over the coming days. Did Australia break the rules on DRS by seeking help from the changing room? It certainly looked like they did after Steve Smith's fourth-innings dismissal, and the Australian captain virtually admitted it.
One of the first principles of the law is brainus fadus legis neminem excusat, or "a brain fade is no excuse", so whether or not Smith cheated inadvertently or systematically doesn't matter.
Kohli discovered a newfound respect for politeness when declining to use the C-word. But he said as much when alleging that Australia used changing room support twice while he was batting: which is some accusation, given the brevity of Kohli's innings.
Teams have slyly tried to manipulate DRS ever since it was introduced, and the Indians' outrage is merely a product of their recent exposure to the system. England have done it, Australia have done it, and to say it's just not cricket is to forget what Test teams have been up to since 1877.
The comedy is that someone somewhere believed DRS could eliminate the human factor, when all it does is amplify it. And even machines have brain fades: hence the mystifying lbw decision against David Warner. In a match-turning moment, Warner found himself given out incorrectly twice – once by man, once by machine – and then Australia were punished by losing one of their two precious referrals, which led in turn to the non-referral of Shaun Marsh's lbw decision and the bungled, incompetent and unethical referral of Smith's.
All this made for a spectacular cascade, but its relation to the real story was like surface chop over a sea under which the current had changed direction. The face-pulling and accusations and allegations were a diversion from what really happened in Bangalore, which was that India stopped and reversed the flow of Australian domination that lasted through the entire match in Pune and the first day in Bangalore.
![The real issue: For Australia's batsmen to fail to get anywhere near a target of 188 is going to be the legacy of the ...](/web/20170308085956im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/l/9/w/n/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gut4cw.png/1488935311527.jpg)
That deep wrestle for advantage, not the surface shenanigans, was what made this one of the great Test matches. India, crushed by 333 runs in Pune, dismissed for 189 in Bangalore and letting Warner and Matthew Renshaw skip out to 40 runs without loss, were, at the end of day one, facing the likelihood of losing any hope of regaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
How they stopped Australia on days two and three was a masterclass in resilience. Umesh Yadav's first-innings bowling to Smith, one of the epic wicketless spells, gummed up the works of the Australian machine. When the series was there for the taking, Australia were stalled. Ravindra Jadeja and R. Ashwin stepped in to take the wickets that Yadav's bowling had set them up for. Australia had their big chance right there on Sunday morning, but India stopped them from taking it.
The second pivot around which the match swung was the partnership between Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane. Compensating for the absence of Murali Vijay and another failure by Kohli, the Indian pair put on 118 runs at the very heart of the drama. Pujara and Rahane were comparatively fortunate, in that the grubbers they faced tended to be off the stumps, but they also capitalised on their luck with staunch defence and opportunistic strokeplay. Josh Hazlewood's heroics gave Australia one last chance, but over those two middle days the tide had already turned.
For Australia's batsmen to fail to get anywhere near a target of 188, losing their last eight wickets for 45, is going to be the legacy of this match going into the next. The demons have escaped from their dark places. Warner's continued inability to master Indian conditions remains a torn-out page from the Australian plan.
He did get a bad decision, but he played a bad shot to make himself vulnerable. Renshaw has suddenly become Australia's cornerstone, and his dismissal was unexpectedly crucial. Smith, Shaun Marsh and Peter Handscomb battled away without looking like they could take charge in the way Pujara and Rahane had done, or as KLÂ Rahul has done whenever he has batted in the series. Mitchell Marsh played a sumptuous on-drive that evoked Shane Watson at his best, and then failed again. Whether they replace him with a batsman (Usman Khawaja) or another all-rounder (Glenn Maxwell), replace him Australia must, as their batting is under siege now and can no longer afford a blank space at No.6.
So this was the real game: India, as in their recent series against England, took one Test match before waking up. Australia poked a bear that was very pokable and, in their captain Kohli, willing to contrive any excuse to be poked.
Did the Australians cheat on DRS? Yes, but it's a sideshow. Did Kohli overstep the boundaries of on-field aggression? Yes, but it's a sideshow. Did the officiating malfunction?
Yes, and all these sideshows make for cricket's endless capacity to provoke discussion. The real game is between bat and ball, and it is on in earnest now.
0 comments
New User? Sign up