The most likely delivery to be mentioned, described, and discussed from the second day of play at The Oval is Virat Kohli. Not only because Virat Kohli is involved. This post will very certainly be accompanied by a photograph of Kohli’s dismissal. After all, it was a delivery worth replaying. So much so that you could grow tired of looking for superlatives to describe how unplayable it proved to be.
Kohli had appeared to be in good shape up until that point. He’d middled almost every defensive move he’d tried. He’d even done his usual practice of shadow-practicing the front-foot defense right after playing one, which is usually a clue of how sharp he is at the crease. And he’d welcomed back Mitchell Starc with a classic off-drive for four off a full-pitched delivery. Then came the highlight of the day, the headline appearance in the highlight reel. It pitched on off-stump, luring Kohli in before rising up like a threatened and irritated serpent. It then caught the shoulder of Kohli’s bat and some glove as he tried in vain to fend it off.
Ironically, it was the one notable delivery that didn’t completely emphasize or demonstrate how well Australia bowled on Day Two to establish a large lead in the World Test Championship Final. Because it was an aberration, an abnormality. It came out of nowhere, and even Starc couldn’t have predicted how it would play out. The way the Aussies got the best of the Indians with the ball was in the manner they practically course-corrected their line of attack after seeing their Indian opponents fail to consistently make the most of The Oval’s relatively favourable bowling conditions. It also helped that their hitters, led by Travis Head and Steve Smith, had soaked up the greatest batting conditions and put up a relatively huge score, given the surface, giving them massive control of the contest even before they’d bowled a ball.
It’s not often that you come to England and start bowling at the stumps, especially this early in the season. The delivery outside the off-stump is the change-up in this case. But Pat Cummins and company had observed a number of deliveries misbehave in terms of staying low or shooting up throughout their innings and decided it was best to capitalize on it. It was clear from the Australian captain’s first over, even if it did mean giving his opposition an early scoring opportunity to the on-side. Cummins maintained his focus on Rohit’s pads, striking them unsuccessfully a few of times before getting his length correct and trapping the opening in front.
It was a strategy that looked tailor-made for Scott Boland, who was competing in his first competitive red-ball tournament in England. After all, that is what the Victorian does for a living. Being persistently at the batter, forcing him to make difficult judgments ball after ball, hour after hour. And the setup for Shubman Gill’s dismissal was just as good as the delivery. Three-length pitches pitched on off-stump and shaped away from the attacking right-hander, forcing him to play at it. Then came the wobble-seam in-ducker, pitched slightly outside the off-stump and leading Gill to make a mistake in judgement, misreading the length and ending up shouldering arms as the ball crashed into his stumps. The fact that the ball struck the inside of the off-stump was due to Boland’s brilliance rather than Gill’s error.
Few anticipated Cameron Green to score from the far end right after the tea break. On the surface, you would have thought it was an odd decision, especially with all three veteran fast bowlers still in their prime. But it was a calculated risk. While bowling from the Mickey Stewart Pavilion End, there was a large quantity of inconsistent bounce on display. And here was Cummins’ attempt to use Green’s considerable height and skill to move the ball off the seam to his advantage. It took a few deliveries for the tall all-rounder to get his radar just perfect. But he never deviated from the team’s strategy of targeting the stumps. And it required a quick off-cutter in which he slid his fingers under the seam slightly to unsettle Cheteshwar Pujara, who, like Gill, was beaten as much by the late movement as the length. Later in the day, Nathan Lyon was able to get rid of the dangerous Ravindra Jadeja thanks to a line modification and a lot of cleverness.
Not only have the Australian bowlers mastered the conditions for the time being by adapting to them. We will obviously become engrossed in the statistics that demonstrate Steve Smith’s love affair and domination with the bat at The Oval, on a day when he achieved his third century at this legendary ground. His success, however, was due to the changes he made to his game in the lead-up to the match. They had as much to do with the English conditions as they did with the Indian fast bowlers he was about to face, he would later tell. Because both Mohammad Shami and Mohammad Siraj often went straight at Smith, his slightly noticeable back and across trigger movement, a flashback to 2019, ensured that he was always in perfect positions to ensure he wasn’t beaten on either side of his bat.
In a huge final between two evenly matched teams playing on neutral ground, it was always going to come down to who could adjust and adapt faster and better to the foreign surroundings. For the time being, Australia has done so by such a wide margin that it’s no surprise that they appear to be well on their way to securing the mace, unless India finds a way to halt their assault.
