Sunday evening, just after the midpoint of India’s innings, the full stands at the Chinnaswamy stadium produced a comparatively subdued murmur. The circumstance was out of the ordinary for the partisan audience, who were accustomed to witnessing their team bat in one of India’s most renowned venues—a whirling maelstrom. Those who had anticipated being entertained with sixes were, however, disappointed with the first hour of the game. However, Shreyas Iyer broke the tension at that moment.
Ben Dwarshius bowled a delivery at 130kmph from his full length outside the off-stump, which Iyer deposited over the long-off boundary. Once more, the voice was ecstatic. Once more, Chinnaswamy remained Chinnaswamy, albeit with an asterisk. Iyer was squared up by the left-hander’s trajectory from over the wicket and the ball’s slight deceleration as it flew off the outside edge and into the third man boundary with the very next delivery. These two deliveries provided an insight into an unusually behaving surface at one of the most significant batting allies for India among venues.
Despite Yuzvendra Chahal’s remarkable six-wicket haul in 2017, Chinnaswamy is frequently the site of dismissals for spinners, including those with the most experience. Tanveer Sangha, a 22-year-old who has appeared in six Twenty20 Internationals, devised a foolproof strategy to emerge relatively unscathed on Sunday. As of his introduction in the eighth over, an atmosphere of change had begun to prevail at the venue. At this venue, Australia rode some serendipity, which is precisely what is required, as Yashasvi Jaiswal failed to time a slot delivery pitched up and Ruturaj Gaikwad failed to bring off a back of length ball. Suryakumar Yadav, similarly, encountered difficulties with deliveries of average length and ultimately lost one to backward point early in his innings.
Thus, the spectators were filled with anticipation when Sangha took the field, ready to witness India’s newest sensation make another impression. Rinku Singh has had an outstanding ten days, culminating in concluding games for India, being selected for the squad for the tour of South Africa, and most recently, contributing with a 29-ball 46 from as early as the ninth over. The situation was comparable on Sunday. However, Sangha foresaw the drawbacks of the tacky surface, which made it difficult for batsmen to score within square of the wicket when the appropriate lengths were delivered. Rinku succumbed to Sangha’s second-over duress after he repeatedly went full and wide outside the off-stump, thereby evading the left-hander’s hitting trajectory. Rinku’s drag sweep attempt to clear the long-on fence was unsuccessful, leaving India at 55 for 4.
During the eleventh over, as Iyer enthusiastically accepted the gift from Dwarshius, he was already recalculating a safe total. Sangha’s assurance in deterring the Indian batsmen from targeting him was further bolstered by the ball’s phenomenal spin, which even compelled Iyer, one of India’s preeminent spin players, to temper his lethal intent against them. In actuality, he encountered nine balls from the youthful spinner and managed to secure a mere six singles.
The sporadic downpours preceding the match rendered Chinnaswamy sufficiently unfamiliar for Jason Behrendorff to attempt and escape with the majority of his cutter attempts. Iyer strategically timed his contributions to propel the hosts’ innings ahead, thereby averting an early collapse and facilitating a substantial flourish to which Axar Patel and Jitesh Sharma both made valuable contributions. Iyer, who withstood Nathan Ellis’s alteration in velocity in the dying over, amassed an indispensable 53 runs to help India reach 160/8.
However, Australia had developed a habit of lulling the India supporters into silence as they made a serious attempt at a total that was anticipated to be difficult to achieve on a difficult surface. Dew opted not to appear, which rendered it impracticable to challenge spinners. However, India’s quicks were shuffled about to maintain Australia’s pace with their target. Despite Axar’s impressive spell of 1 for 14, Australia maintained a 57-run lead with 36 deliveries due to Ben McDermott’s skill with the willow.
At a time when the left-armer was having difficulty landing his yorkers, McDermott encountered Arshdeep and capitalized on the situation. Two full-tosses, one each for six and four, significantly diminished the magnitude of the equation and shook the death bowler. Suryakuamar’s leadership prowess under duress and India’s adaptability to these unexpected conditions were both anticipated to be put to the test in Sunday’s match.
As he returned to the peak of the run-up, he consoled Arshdeep with a sympathetic arm around the shoulder. Arshdeep then caught McDermott at long-off to rouse the throng once more. Those who have consistently misused the name of their preferred IPL franchise, even when discussing international matches, abstained from doing so and wholeheartedly supported the national team. Once again, this was a critical juncture during which the atmosphere in the venue shifted in favor of the host team.
Suryakumar utilized a fraction of his astute game-reading ability to impede the progress in the seventeenth over. Following a four-run off the ground by Matthew Short off Mukesh Kumar, the India captain repositioned his deep point fielder to long-off and his short third man fielder to backward point. This appeared to be an invitation to venture outside the boundary riders’ territory and approach the wicket square on the off-side. Although Short was caught, he ultimately delivered a second low full toss to Gaikwad at backward point.
Matthew Wade remained resolute in his pursuit of a 3-2 scoreline, believing it more accurately reflected the performance of his team throughout the entire series. They required ten runs off the final six deliveries from Arshdeep, who was in the midst of an absolutely forgettable match. However, he maintained his composure and bowled a superb final over to help India secure a 4-1 victory.
“Thinking [before the over] was not much really,” Arshdeep would later reveal. “It was a ‘nothing to lose’ kind of situation for me. Surya was saying, we’ll see what happens. I felt I could win it because there wasn’t anything left for me to lose, I’d already conceded a lot.”
The atmosphere was tense for approximately 15 minutes after 10 p.m., but it was overpowered by the crowd’s din of commotion. Thousands in the stands responded to Suryakumar’s signal to raise the roof when India did just enough to deviate from Chinnaswamy’s conditions curveball, signifying the restoration of natural order.
