Geoff Lemon's Blog, page 29

Usman Khawaja’s innings wasn’t just good – it was something truly special | Geoff Lemon

Australia opener’s astonishing 10-hour century threatened records and put the tourists on top in Ahmedabad

There are times, on a placid batting pitch, when a good performance can’t win you a match but the lack of one can lose you a match. There are times when a good innings is an achievement that belongs on the standard tier, but continuing it elevates it to the realm of the special.

When Australia lost two wickets relatively quickly in the final session of day one in Ahmedabad, having chosen to bat in the fourth and final Border-Gavaskar Test, a position of 170 for four could easily have become an insufficient total on a surface where the threat level was beige. By the time the next wicket fell about 22 hours later, Usman Khawaja and Cameron Green had made that score 378 for five, wearing down India’s bowlers for the lower order. When the Australian innings was said and done, the team had made 480 and taken two days out of the game.

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Khawaja keeps calm and carries on batting in dramatic turn of fortunes | Geoff Lemon

The Australian opener once averaged 14.62 in Asia but his first Test century in India confirms his status as the team’s most important sub-continent batsman

When Usman Khawaja made a century in India to start off the Ahmedabad Test on Thursday, it didn’t come as a surprise. Just over a year ago the same idea would have been astonishing. At least, it would have been for the outside observer, who would have known that Khawaja had a record of problems batting against spin. The player himself may have had more belief.

Khawaja can be a punchy customer. His dealings with the media have a bit of prickle, taking issue with lines of questioning that he doesn’t agree with. Fair enough, it counters laziness from the other side of the exchange. In a more collaborative interview with Cricbuzz recently, Khawaja explained his relationship with spin to writer Bharat Sundaresan. Perhaps that helped get his thoughts in order, because he voiced things similarly when he spoke to a press conference in Ahmedabad.

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When cricket met Game of Thrones: Modi delivers bizarre pageant to open Ahmedabad Test

Australia’s PM and cricketers had walk-on parts on Indian leader’s big day, although attendance fell short of MCG’s record

Test cricket doesn’t normally require setting an alarm for 5.45am. One of the game’s charms is a leisurely late-morning start. Not in Ahmedabad on Thursday to start the fourth and final match between India and Australia. With the prime ministers of the respective countries due to make a ceremonial appearance, and security ramped up accordingly, working media were told to arrive hours early or risk being cordoned off outside.

What followed was a bizarre display of pageantry that, on reflection, should be no surprise when a leader named Narendra Modi visits a place named Narendra Modi Stadium. It is a short path for a leader to start being treated as a ruler. Ahead of further economic discussions to bolster an existing free trade agreement, Modi and his Australian counterpart, Anthony Albanese, arrived to applause in front of a huge sightscreen featuring both of their likenesses in a Photoshop movie poster pose, Modi’s image naturally slightly larger and further in front.

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Dawn start, pageantry and lap of honour: Modi serves up irregular day of Test cricket

Australia’s PM and cricketers had walk-on parts on Indian leader’s big day, although attendance fell short of MCG’s record

Test cricket doesn’t normally require setting an alarm for 5.45am. One of the game’s charms is a leisurely late-morning start. Not in Ahmedabad on Thursday to start the fourth and final match between India and Australia. With the prime ministers of the respective countries due to make a ceremonial appearance, and security ramped up accordingly, working media were told to arrive hours early or risk being cordoned off outside.

What followed was a bizarre display of pageantry that on reflection should be no surprise when a leader named Narendra Modi visits a place named Narendra Modi Stadium. It is a short path for a leader to start being treated as a ruler. Ahead of further economic discussions to bolster an existing free trade agreement, Modi and his Australian counterpart, Anthony Albanese, arrived to applause in front of a huge sightscreen featuring both of their likenesses in a Photoshop movie poster pose, Modi’s image naturally slightly larger and further in front.

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Australia break with tradition by trusting spinners against India | Geoff Lemon

Steve Smith turns to Nathan Lyon, Matt Kuhnemann and Todd Murphy for fourth Test at the daunting Narendra Modi stadium

In Ahmedabad, everything is about colour. Hot pink and deep purple to celebrate Holi festival the day before Thursday’s fourth Test. The sea of orange planned for morning one, masses of people brought in on buses in a political flex for India’s prime minister. Emerald green for the pitch that India would have used had they won the third Test and locked in a World Test Championship final in England. Pure white covers on the drier pitch they will use instead, with a win still required.

For Australia, the obsolescence of a green seamer means that they can rely on Green and a seamer. That is, all-rounder Cameron Green can be the support for a lone pace specialist in Mitchell Starc, leaving room to pick three spinners.

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India should put anomaly behind them and resume normal service in fourth Test | Geoff Lemon

Despite some gloom at home the only thing that could hamper the hosts in Ahmedabad would be if they psych themselves out against Australia

If you believed some Indian media coverage or supporters online, you would think that the home team is on the brink of disaster. After losing the third Border-Gavaskar Trophy match in Indore, criticisms have flowed: that the batting is broken, that no one can play spin any more, that the lower order papers over the cracks, that India’s spinners are no good after failing to bowl out Australia for 70, and especially that the preparation of turning pitches was a disaster waiting to happen, a tiger pit that India dug and then fell into themselves.

That’s an extensive list of diagnoses for a team that is leading the series 2-1, and has now lost a total of three home Tests in the last decade. A team that came back to win both series after the first two of those losses, and will most likely go on to win the current one. There is consternation about how India might fare in the fourth Test in Ahmedabad, and scolding about the dangers of shootout pitches – that is, surfaces where batting is so difficult that luck plays a greater part than skill. But the weight of statistical probability says that with the scales so sharply tilted by home advantage, home concern is unwarranted.

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How Australia’s Travis Head broke batting spell – and India hearts | Geoff Lemon

When Australia lost their first wicket to the second ball of the day, things looked grim. Then Travis Head slammed the door

When you read back over the scorecard in years to come, it will look easy. A run chase of 76 is a formality. Done in little more than an hour, purring along at 4.14 runs per over? Standard. Except it wasn’t. Not when the first ball of the third morning exploded in a dust cloud like a Dakar rally jeep jumping a dune. Not when Ravichandran Ashwin dialled back the turn on the next delivery, just enough of it to flick the bat so softly that even Usman Khawaja didn’t know he was out.

For the next 10 overs, Ashwin laid siege. Spin partner Ravindra Jadeja was his support. There was one Marnus Labuschagne boundary from a short ball, nine singles that were varyingly unconvincing, and a parade of deliveries that beat edges, leapt sharply, kept low, ragged on sharp angles, skidded straight, evaded gloves, drew appeals and reviews for leg before or for close catches. Australia were 13 for 1 and ripe to raise that second number.

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‘Batting on another plane’: how Travis Head broke the spell – and India hearts

When Australia lost their first wicket to the second ball of the day, things looked grim. Then Travis Head slammed the door

When you read back over the scorecard in years to come, it will look easy. A run chase of 76 is a formality. Done in little more than an hour, purring along at 4.14 runs per over? Standard. Except it wasn’t. Not when the first ball of the third morning exploded in a dust cloud like a Dakar rally jeep jumping a dune. Not when Ravichandran Ashwin dialled back the turn on the next delivery, just enough of it to flick the bat so softly that even Usman Khawaja didn’t know he was out.

For the next 10 overs, Ashwin laid siege. Spin partner Ravindra Jadeja was his support. There was one Marnus Labuschagne boundary from a short ball, nine singles that were varyingly unconvincing, and a parade of deliveries that beat edges, leapt sharply, kept low, ragged on sharp angles, skidded straight, evaded gloves, drew appeals and reviews for leg before or for close catches. Australia were 13 for 1 and ripe to raise that second number.

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Nathan Lyon proving to be Australia’s unglamorous linchpin in India | Geoff Lemon

Spinner has gradually become a formidable operator in Asia, where he has more Test wickets than any other visiting player

In Bengaluru in 2017, Nathan Lyon took eight for 50; his best figures in a Test innings. He dismissed India’s key players at their peaks: Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane. He toiled for more than 22 overs, and later a further 33. He put his teammates into a dominant position with a modest target to chase. Then he watched them lose.

In Indore in 2023, Nathan Lyon took eight wickets for the second time. After a long day of off-spin bowling, the figures were a similar eight for 64. This time he took them in the third innings of the match, not the first. Even so, like a fold in the fabric of space-time, echoes of 2017 kept coming through.

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India get taste of their own medicine as Australia spin into modest lead | Geoff Lemon

Australia did what was required to stay in the series with a devastating display of spin bowling, but normal service could yet resume at Indore

For a day, at least, the tables turned. To this point Australia’s tour of India had been marked for the visitors by two batting collapses under the scrutiny of spin: one when the first Test was almost gone, the next when the second Test was very much in their keeping. To begin the third match in Indore, though, with one last chance to stay in the series, the Australians found themselves able to out-India India.

A couple of early wickets, a pitch as even-tempered as post-midnight Gary Busey, and suddenly there were shivers running through the home side instead of their unfortunate guests. The first nine wickets fell to spin until a mad run-out on 109. The Australian reply also met difficulty, but reached stumps with six wickets in hand and a lead of 47 that could be worth far more than it sounds.

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