A run-out ruins India’s game plan on the second day of the Boxing Day Test

Melbourne: By 5:34 pm in Melbourne, India had got their defense right. Australia had India cornered by 474 in the first innings. With the series on the line, the response of Rohit Sharma’s team was important and although the skipper failed to get going, Yashasvi Jaiswal – first accompanied by KL Rahul and then Virat Kohli – made the run-scoring easy to appear.

At 5:35 p.m. sharp, the left-hander hit the ball toward center and launched a quick single. Kohli, who was on the non-striker’s side, responded to the call by taking a few steps but his eyes were on the ball. He didn’t look at his partner and hesitated when he saw the fielder (Pat Cummins) quickly approaching the ball. In those milliseconds, India lost its way. Both batters ended up at virtually the same end and Jaiswal’s brilliant innings of 82 was over. As he walked away, Jaiswal pointed at Kohli as if to say, “My call,” while Kohli seemed to say that the run was a bad idea.

A few minutes later, at 5:42 p.m., Kohli followed Jaiswal back to the dressing room. The former Indian captain had promised to be more disciplined and he did. According to CricViz, at the start of his innings, he scored 1 in 25 balls on deliveries outside off-stump, leaving almost half the balls to spare (full balls were ignored). Then, as his confidence grew, he started playing on that line too. Of the last 8 balls in this region, he bowled 7 of them and scored 1 run before setting the edge. He had fallen for the same old trick.

At 5:55 p.m., Akash Deep, who had given the order as a night watchman, was also dismissed. In about 20 minutes, India improved from a relatively comfortable 153/2 to 159/5. That’s how the game goes sometimes. And when you’re unlucky, things always seem to work out that way. At the end of the game, India were 164/5 and still trailing by 310 runs.

The day had started with Australia at 311/6 and India had a real chance to end the innings quickly before the runs came. But they got their tactics terribly wrong as Cummins and Steve Smith produced some quick runs to take the hosts past 400.

The lack of a clear plan or perhaps its implementation has hurt India. Cummins and Smith undoubtedly fought well but Rohit never quite managed to put them under pressure. And as the runs started flowing, the bowlers also seemed to fade. They ran in anyway, but to what end?

Cummins’ punch was particularly brutal. He should have been the weaker link, but he scored faster than Smith in the first hour and by the time India realized what was happening the horse had already bolted. The Australian captain managed 49 off just 63 balls before he was eventually dismissed by Ravindra Jadeja.

The more dangerous presence for India was always Smith and he showed he was back to his best with a brilliant 140 – his 34th Test ton. He was just shifting gears when he made extraordinary progress. He had stormed across the wicket and tried to score through the off side. The ball bounced off his pads and slowly made its way to the stumps as he watched helplessly.

A further 19 runs were added to the total of 474, which would have been closer to the best-case scenario for the hosts at the start of the day.

In response, Rohit’s move to the opening position failed as Cummins sent him back cheaply. Rahul (24) was quick to join in and helped stabilize the innings along with Jaiswal. The two have a relaxed vibe in the middle and that was clear straight away, but a brutal delivery from Cummins finished off Rahul on the last ball before tea.

The build wasn’t just about a few balls. The pacers put the idea in his head that he was trying to catch the batsman with his left hand, but the ball that actually caught Rahul was one that landed on middle and flew away. Given his form and the ease with which he batted, this was a crucial wicket.

But Kohli showed that he was not influenced by anything. The 102-run stand he shared with Jaiswal would have worried the Aussies. They initially fought with great restraint and slowly began to pick up the pace.

“He’s a first-class player, we know that,” Smith said after the game. “Obviously he played really well in Perth in that 100th game. And he looked really good today, I thought. ‘Jeez, he’s got a good chance here’.”

And it stayed that way until the unfortunate end. Things went haywire after that, but with Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Reddy and Washington Sundar still in contention, India will hope to make the most of the fairly good batting conditions. One or two balls do something, but there are no demons yet.