Washington Sundar had to wait. Wait till the Axar Patel and Varun Chakaravarthy logged off the miserly shifts, stirring much of their damage, wait till Shivam Dube’s two-over-burst, erratic yet productive, and wait till India could sniff the victory that gives them an unassailable 2-1 lead and that keeps Suryakumar Yadav’s flawless series-losing record intact. Washington ensured the wait was worth it, as he grabbed three wickets, including Marcus Stoinis, Australia’s last flickering hope of surpassing the target of 168, and condemned the hosts to a 48-run hammering.
The plot of India’s convincing victory flowed like a classical ensemble cast movie. There was no single protagonist who stole the show single-handedly, but a win underpinned by the collectivism of a thrillingly modern team, every superstar just another cog in making the machine roll ruthlessly, a group unflinchingly brave in attitude, and supremely talented core of condition-proof performers. Suryakumar’s men have conquered all shores they have set their foot on. On Saturday, they could potentially embellish the list by surmounting Australia in the final fixture in Brisbane, the ideal fuel for their World Cup defence quest.
The closest to a solo show in the game was delivered by Axar Patel. With a four-over burst of immaculate control and two wickets, besides 21 runs off 11 balls, a player of the match cheque, he could call himself the first among the equals. Without his last-over fireworks, which yielded 14 runs, Australia would have not panicked as much as they did in the latter stages of the match. If India stumbled from 121 for 2 in 14 overs to 131 for 6 in the space of 15 balls, Australia stooped from 67 for 1 in 8.4 overs to 103 for 6 in 14.3 overs.
Whenever, Suryakumar has looked vexed, he has turned to Axar, be it with ball or bat. He has batted up the order, in the middle, or lower down the pile. Whenever the captain needed to stem the run flow, or needed a wicket after the new-ball burst, he sought the obliging arms of Axar. So to put handbrakes on the stroll of Mitchell Marsh and Matthew Short, racing to 32 runs off four overs, he turned to Axar. He reciprocated a wicket with his fifth ball, undercutting a ball that hissed past Short’s swipe on the charge.
The under-cut ball, with a near horizontal seam position, is his most destructive weapon. The round-arm, edge of the crease release exaggerates the angle of the ball that often goes straight. Thereafter, he kept mixing his lengths, alternating between good and hard, to keep batsmen confused.
Shubman Gill’s 46 off 39 balls with a strike of 117 is sluggish by modern-day standards but his knock was priceless considering the surface. (BCCI)
As much precision, he has a knack of realising the batsman’s strengths and flaws. He explained his line of thought after the game: “I was thinking – what’s the batsman’s strength? If their strength was to hit down the ground, they were looking to bowl on a 5-6 meter good length. If it was sweeping, I was looking to bowl a full one.” He exploited the dual bounce and slowness of the surface too. Raw numbers–two wickets, an economy of 6.87 and 45 runs in the series–don’t justify his influence in the series.
As it was Shubman Gill’s 46 off 39 balls. A strike of 117 is sluggish by modern-day standards. But on a surface where the ball held up, with uneven bounce and movement with the new ball, his knock was priceless. He cut his recent fixation in this format to muscle the ball, but relied on his old friends, timing and placement. When his partner Abhishek Sharma, dropped on zero, struggled to time the ball, he stroked a few gorgeous fours to keep the run-rate at seven or thereabouts. He, though, would curse the timing of his dismissal, just around the time when he had switched into the fourth gear with a thumping six off Marcus Stoinis over deep mid-wicket.
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In the stability he offered, Suryakumar blazed a 10-ball 20. The twenties added up–Abhishek, Dube and Axar too did–as India posted a challenging, and eventually match-winning total, after suffering the worst conditions of the day. Had India lost the game, the pace of Gill ‘s knock would have come under interrogation. But the landslide nature of the victory would repel the presumptuous accusations. In general, it’s not a series that should be viewed through the conventional metrics of strike rates and averages, but by match situations and conditions. The conditions have differed in all four venues, challenging batsmen more than the bowlers.
Some of the numbers might not be flattering, but those don’t capture the full story. A classic case was Varun Chakaravarthy’s deceptive art. A lethargic Glenn Maxwell was his lone wicket, off his last ball of the night, but most of Australia’s batsmen, even in the fourth game of the series, had little conviction in dealing with him.
The seamers performed their duties too. Arshdeep Singh swung the new ball and dismissed Josh Philippe with his second spell. Jasprit Bumrah, yet again, bowled with sting. Not to discount Shivam Dube, whose two overs were plundered for 20 runs, but nailed Tim David and Mitchell Marsh, the hosts’ two most dangerous batsmen to amplify the notes of collectivism that have rung loud for India this series.
