Australia’s reply started with just 15 minutes of the day remaining, and first ball Konstas walked down the crease at Bumrah and whipped him through midwicket. Konstas then exchanged words with Bumrah before what became the penultimate ball of the day after Usman Khawaja had pulled away from the strike, seemingly to try and eat up time to ensure there wouldn’t be another over.
Konstas turned to Bumrah and appeared to say something, which prompted umpire Sharfuddoula to step in. The next delivery passed through outside off stump. Then, with the final ball of the day, Bumrah had Khawaja edging to second slip, and immediately turned and locked eyes with Konstas at the non-striker’s end and took a couple of steps towards him, before being joined by several team-mates in exuberant celebration.
The India players were animated as they left the field, having a few minutes earlier been bowled out for 185, while Konstas walked off a few metres behind Khawaja, with Australia 9 for 1.
“Sammy’s a very confident young man, it’s what they do these days, those youngsters, they get after it and put themselves out there. He’s got all the skills and all the talent to back it up so hopefully he has a really good day tomorrow and puts a few runs on the board.”
Konstas’ selection in the latter part of the series has had a dramatic impact. He struck 60 off 65 balls in his debut innings at the MCG, where he scooped Bumrah on a regular basis, and in the process of his stay was shoulder-barged by Virat Kohli between overs. Bumrah struck back against Konstas in the second innings by removing him for 8.
In the field, Konstas was heavily engaged with the packed MCG crowd and in the final innings, as Australia pushed for victory, was a vocal presence around the bat.
“My experience of dealing and working with Sam has been a very quiet, reserved personality,” he said. “[He’s] a very deep thinker and certainly not an extrovert. But obviously what we saw in the Test match is that he absolutely is a showman.”
Bumrah’s late strike will raise India’s hopes that he has one more huge performance in him to cap an outstanding series with the visitors needing to win to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
“Think there’s definitely a method to go about batting on this wicket, but Jasprit is a world-class bowler and no doubt he’s going to challenge our whole batting group,” Webster said. “He’s phenomenal with his lengths and lines, it is going to be tough on a wicket that will offer a fair bit for him.”
Pant acknowledged India would have liked a few more runs but was confident in India being able to stay competitive in the match.
“I think I wouldn’t say it’s a par score, I think anything over 220 to 250 would be a par score,” he said. “But still a very competitive score because the way ball is moving now I think there’s a lot of help for the bowler and hopefully we can capitalise on that.”
Andrew McGlashan is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo
