On a Sunday afternoon, Chepauk was so hot that it
almost felt like 45 degrees inside a press box. In the open stands, the fans
covered their heads with towels. The Australian hitters took unplanned drink
breaks, hiding out under umbrellas, and wearing ice cloths around their necks.
David Warner and Steven Smith exchanged their helmets
for caps shortly after the powerplay. They were becoming ill from the
oppressive heat and humidity of Chennai. Then, they were further smothered by
India’s spin combination of Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, and R Ashwin.
In their combined 30 overs, India’s spinners bowled
16.5 overs worth of dot balls. They each took home six wickets for just 104
runs. They continued to smash Test-match distances on a turner made of black
earth with varying bounce. The batsmen from Australia simply weren’t able to
get the spinners off those lengths. Following the afternoon dew, their lone
specialist spinner had trouble, allowing 53 runs in eight overs while going
wicketless.
After Mitchell Marsh was down for a duck, Warner and
Smith put on a 69-run partnership for the second wicket, giving Australia some
little breathing room. Both hitters were given drive balls by Hardik Pandya,
but the spinners from India applied constant pressure. Jadeja was a popgun,
slinging darts off-stump on a nice length. Kuldeep also used his stock balls
and wrong’uns to target the stumps. When Ashwin unleashed his carrom ball and
reverse carrom ball, the ground was covered in dust.
The batters from Australia kept looking for the loose
ball, but it never appeared. They were at a loss for alternative strategies to
deal with the spinners. They managed only 11 runs off just nine balls against
the spinners and tried just 13 sweeps for seven runs.
According to their captain Pat Cummins, Australia’s
final score of 199 fell roughly 50 runs shy of a par total. In Lucknow, where
they will play back-to-back games next week against South Africa and Sri Lanka,
their batsmen now have the onerous challenge of contending with a comparable
black-soil turner. Additionally, South Africa will have three spinners
available: offspin bowling all-rounder Aiden Markram, left-arm wristspinner
Tabraiz Shamsi, and left-arm fingerspinner Keshav Maharaj. Despite the injuries
to Wanindu Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana, Sri Lanka still has the services
of offspin bowler Dhananjaya de Silva, legspinner Dushan Hemantha, and left-arm
fingerspinner Dunith Wellalage.
Australia need to come up with new plans against
spin-heavy attacks, Josh Hazlewood has said. “Yeah, I think in particular
batting in that first innings, that was probably as extreme as the conditions
are going to get, I think, in terms of spin and playing spin throughout the
middle and trying to find ways to score, keep that run rate ticking over
without losing wickets,” he said at his post-match press conference.
“So, there’s probably a good sort of examination on our batters to get
that up first, probably against the best spinners in the tournament, arguably.
Hopefully it gets a little bit easier from here on in and they’ll come up with
some new plans and go from there.”
Australia may or may not have sufficient spin-bowling
resources for the World Cup, but if their batting order performs to its full
capacity, they have the ability to misdirect the spinners’ lengths. The sweeps
that Warner, Maxwell, and Alex Carey can perform are varied. Cameron Green’s
long reach may create scoring opportunities while Smith and Labuschagne can
manoeuvre spinners into the gaps. Can they make a difference in Australia’s
effort in Lucknow?