“We know exactly what happened, the mistakes that we made,” a chastened Virat Kohli said after Australia ended India’s 19-Test unbeaten run with an emphatic 333-run victory on Saturday in the first match of the series in Pune.
“External perceptions don’t matter to us. They have never mattered to us. We played bad cricket, and that’s why we lost.”
They played terrible cricket, especially the batsmen. India were bowled out for 105 and 107, lasting a total of 74 overs. Their second innings lasted 125 minutes, briefer than a Bollywood movie.
For Australia, all sorts of records were shattered. As Steve Smith, the Australia captain who had clearly been well prepped, pointed out at the news conference, this was their first Test win in India in 4,502 days. They had lost their last nine matches in Asia.
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More India v Australia
■ Day 3: Australia break records and India's streak
■ Day 2: Pair of Steves put Australia on top
■ More info: Test fixtures, squad list, and everything you need to know
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The man who slashed through both Indian innings was a 32-year-old playing only his fifth Test. Steve O’Keefe picked up six wickets in 24 balls in the first innings, and returned identical figures of six for 35 in both. No visiting spinner, not Richie Benaud, not Hedley Verity, not Shane Warne, has ever had better numbers in a Test in India.
“It’s right up there,” said Smith, when asked how this compared with other Australian wins he had been part of. “Everyone wrote us off and expected India to win 4-0. That can’t happen anymore,” he said with a broad smile.
A seething Kohli called it “no big deal”, and he stressed the need for equanimity in both success and failure.
“The last time we had a performance like this [in Galle, 2015], we had the most outstanding run after that,” he said.
“I would say that we needed something like this for us to get a reality check and understand what are the things we need to work on, and keep persisting with it, not take anything for granted at any stage, especially at Test match level.”
India lost this match on the second morning. In the space of three balls, Mitchell Starc, who had lifted Australian spirits with a thrilling 63-ball 61, dismissed Cheteshwar Pujara and Kohli, the two men who had been in such prolific form for India all season. O’Keefe’s relentlessly accurate left-arm spin did the rest, with an awful stroke from Lokesh Rahul starting the slide.
Rahul doubled up in pain after injuring his shoulder, but there was not a whole lot of sympathy from Anil Kumble, the coach, who said later: “I think the shot created the injury, not just to him but even to the team.”
From 94 for three, India lost seven wickets for 11 in the space of 38 minutes. Kohli was to say later that conceding a 155-run lead on a pitch where the ball turned prodigiously was “criminal”.
India are unlikely to push any panic buttons though. They have not suddenly become a bad side, though there are certainly a couple of problems areas to look at.
It starts at the top, where Murali Vijay and Rahul have not gone past 52 in 14 innings together.
Ajinkya Rahane, who managed just 63 in five innings against England, made 13 and 18 in this match.
Karun Nair, who scored a triple century against England before being dropped, waits in the wings.
With the ball, Jayant Yadav, so outstanding in his three outings against England before getting injured, looked quite rusty, bowling far too many loose balls at crucial times. But neither he nor Rahane is likely to get the push.
On now to Bangalore, where Australia have won two of the five matches they’ve played — losing only one — and a series that was written off by some as a formality is suddenly beautifully poised.
“We know India are going to come back incredibly hard,” said Smith, wary of putting the boot in.
“They’re an amazing team, particularly in their own backyard.”
Bungling Bengaluru
At least, they’re not Leicester City, not yet anyway. That’s what the fans of Bengaluru FC must be thinking after a month in which their defence of the I-League title has gone completely pear-shaped. After getting off to a flyer with three straight wins, they hit the skids in spectacular fashion, losing two and drawing four. Going into the Saturday evening kick-off against East Bengal, one of India’s historic clubs, there was no margin for error.
Their visitors were eight points ahead in the table, with Mohun Bagan, their Kolkata rivals who had played a game less, also on 21 points. Albert Roca and his Bengaluru team knew what they had to do, but a team that had forgotten how to score — just six in that six-game winless streak — could find no answers against a side whose 2-1 victory in Kolkata on January 22 had started Bengaluru’s slide down the table.
Bengaluru tried everything — the short-passing game favoured by Roca, who assisted Frank Rijkaard at Barcelona, and the long punts upfield that were rightly or wrongly associated with Ashley Westwood, the Englishman who won them two I-League titles.
But while they couldn’t take their chances, East Bengal did. Wedson Anselme, the Haitian striker who previously starred in Bangladesh, scored with a 30-yard rocket in the first half, before Robin Singh, who spent two seasons with Bengaluru, added two more in the second, pointedly refusing to celebrate. CK Vineeth’s 84th minute goal was scant consolation for Bengaluru, whose bench then became involved in a huge brawl with the visitors after the final whistle.
East Bengal’s win took them to the top of the table, but it’s in second place that the Leicester 2015/16-like fairy tale is to be found. Aizawl FC were founded in the tiny northeastern state of Mizoram on Valentine’s Day in 1984. They didn’t even make it into the I-League second division till 2012. Last year, their first in the I-League’s top tier, they finished eighth (out of nine) and were relegated.
But last September, in one of those ad hoc decisions that the comically inept All India Football Federation is famous for, they were reinstated. They have made full use of that, winning seven and drawing two of their 11 games so far. With Shillong Lajong, another club from the north-east, seven points adrift in fourth place, Aizawl are now the only realistic challengers to the two historic powerhouses of Indian football.
In the week that the hugely popular Claudio Ranieri was sacked, it remains to be seen if Khalid Jamil, Aizawl’s Kuwait-born coach who played seven times for India, can emulate his most momentous achievement.
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