Australia are motoring towards a crucial win in the fourth Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test at the MCG after Steve Smith’s ton and Pat Cummins’ brilliance with the ball knocked the stuffing out of India.
A disastrous run-out late in the day denied Yashasvi Jaiswal a century before public enemy No.1 Virat Kohli also fell in the shadows of stumps.
India finished day two on 5-164 in reply to Australia’s Smith-powered 474 with Scott Boland adding to his MCG cult hero status with two late wickets.
The Aussies are odds-on favourites to go 2-1 up in the series which would mean they would only need to avoid defeat in the finale in Sydney next week to regain the trophy after four straight series defeats to India.
Late run-out burns Jaiswal before Kohli nicks off
Yashasvi Jaiswal managed to repel Cummins and everything else Australia could throw at him for 117 deliveries in a superb counter-attacking 82.
The young opener strokes 11 boundaries and a majestic six down the ground off Mitch Marsh in a
But he made a late exit after a 102-run partnership with Virat Kohli when he called his veteran teammate for a tight single to mid-on.
Unfortunately for him, Kohli turned his back on him to go back to his crease and Jaiswal was left stranded at the wrong end of the pitch as Cummins whipped the return back to Alex Carey.
“It’s a huge moment for the context of the game,” Kerry O’Keeffe mused on Fox Cricket.
Another major turning point followed a few overs later when Kohli nicked off to Scott Boland for 36.
Jeered when he made his way to the wicket, he was roundly booed as he went off after his shoulder charge to Sam Konstas on day one.
Konstas took great delight in revving up the MCG faithful as Kohli sulked off to the sheds.
Boland did away with nightwatcher Akash Deep via a diving Nathan Lyon at leg gully to bring the MCG crowd to their feet and the Indian team to their knees.
Cummins the Jaffa King
Cummins already has plenty of endorsement deals but the good folk at Nestlé should be signing him up because he keeps rolling out Jaffas.
His perfectly placed leg-cutter which took the top of KL Rahul’s off stump was another in his long line of unplayable deliveries.
Rahul looked bemused, a la Mike Gatting after facing Shane Warne in the 1993 Ashes, after playing what looked to be a textbook forward defensive shot to the final ball before tea only to hear the death rattle followed by a huge roar from the crowd of more than 80,000 at the MCG.
Fox Cricket commentator Mark Waugh said he’d never seen a bowler who has been so consistently able to hit the top of off stump and he was a long-time teammate of Glenn McGrath, who made that mission his mantra.
What makes Cummins so great is that he’s not an erratic bowler who sprays them all over the place and occasionally he unveils one like the Rahul removal.
The rest of the time he is sending down high-pace deliveries with precision to be the only real rival to Jasprit Bumrah’s status as the best fast bowler on the planet.
Smith breaking records as he nears major milestone
Smith’s 34th Test century was much smoother than his grinding knock in the previous match at the Gabba.
Resuming on 68, the stage was set for him to become the first player to reach triple figures 11 times against India but he needed the tail to wag with him with the Aussies 6-311.
He found that ally in Cummins who dominated the scoring for large parts of what turned out to be a 112-run partnership.
Smith tinkers with his technique and tactics between matches like no other Test cricketer.
For this match he took guard outside his crease against India’s seamers with his reception points noticeably closer to the bowler.
The ploy can negate the bowler’s movement in the air or off the pitch but it only works if footwork and reflexes are razor sharp.
Steve Smith celebrates after scoring a century at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. (Photo by Santanu Banik/Speed Media/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
And it was the Smith of old, crisply getting into position to work the ball to leg or middle the ball to the boundary.
A hook for six off Jasprit Bumrah took him into the 90s and a superb drive to the cover boundary off Nitish Kumar Reddy brought up his ton.
Unlike his 18-month drought-breaking knock in Brisbane when Smith looked relieved to ton up and was out soon afterwards, this time around he continued to put his foot on the throat of the tiring Indian attack.
“There’s no better problem solver in the game. Ultimately that’s the art of batting. Every single ball you’ve got to work out what to do with the next one,” former Australia coach Justin Langer said on Seven commentary.
“It’s not a fluke that he’s a great player. No one does more work at training.
“You might as well be throwing at a wall because the ball keeps bouncing back,” he added in describing what it’s like to hurl balls at Smith in the hope of exposing a weakness.
Smith is now up to 9949 runs in his 113th Test with his average back up to 56.52 after a slight lull over the past 12 months and looks certain to become just the fourth Australian after Allan Border, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting to reach 10,000 before this series is over.
Cummins bashed seven boundaries in his 49 before he was caught in the deep trying to bring up his half-century with an eighth four.
Mitchell Starc kept Smith company with his 15 in a 44-run stand before he was bowled by Ravindra Jadeja and the vice-captain’s 197-ball masterclass ended when he was bowled in comical fashion off an inside edge while trying to tonk Akash Deep.
Smith inside-edged the ball onto his thigh after charging down the pitch and could only watch on helplessly as it trickled onto the stump to just dislodge the leg bail.
Lyon makes mockery of DRS farce
Nathan Lyon was the last Aussie out when he was trapped in front by Bumrah.
He didn’t like his chances but with reviews up the sleeve he signalled for a second look from the third umpire as he and Scott Boland left the centre square.
Boland had already had two lbw decisions overturned and Lyon’s review came back to show the ball was only just clipping the bails so the umpire’s call stood.
The on-field umpire was also the only person standing on the pitch because the Aussie batters were halfway off the field, along with the Indian fielders.
Surely you can’t walk and appeal a decision.
This all goes back to the ridiculous situation where teams are given three reviews and they can afford to burn them on a whim.
Apart from Jadeja, none of the Indian bowlers had any venom and Bumrah had to be brought back for yet another spell to clean up Lyon.
His figures of 4-99 from 28.4 overs are his most expensive in his 44-match career, mainly due to the opening onslaught he copped on day one from teenage debutant Sam Konstas.
‘Gone in an instant’ Sharma
Rohit Sharma elevated himself up the order to opener after three failures at No.6.
He looked like a tailender as he departed for three after skying a pathetic push at a Cummins delivery outside off stump to Scott Boland at mid-on.
With scores of three, six and 10 in his other Test outings as well as another three in the PM’s XI game, the 37-year-old is a liability in his team.
His past 14 Test innings have yielded just 155 runs at a woeful average of 11.07.
India’s batting had let them down in their loss at Adelaide and fortunate draw in rainy Brisbane so they made the befuddling decision to go into this Test with one less specialist batter and bring in a third all-rounder in Washington Sundar.
Shubman Gill was the player controversially left out but it should have been the skipper.