Do not make a dry, spinner's heaven pitch – because all that it does is even the game up, make a regular, OK spinner look like a world-class one. The Pune pitch turned out to be a, well, turner, a raging one too, and as a result Steve O'Keefe, pounced on the India batsmen to leave the hosts starting at a big defeat.
India vs Australia Day 1 highlights
In the morning, five balls were all it took for India to finish off the Aussie innings, with Mitchell Starc holing out in the deep, but from there it was all Australia as the visiting team put on a bowling masterclass on the dry surface at the MCA Stadium.
Day two was supposed to be India's batting day, but it turned out to be an absolute nightmare, as, first, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc, the pace bowlers, did the early damage, before O'Keefe and Nathan Lyon took over, running through the India batting lineup like a hot knife through butter – the hosts losing their last seven wickets for just 11 runs.
In the first session, the Australia pace bowlers sent back three of India's in-form batsmen, including their two best – Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara.
Both of those wickets fell in the same over, to the excellence of Starc. After bowling three relatively fruitless overs with the new ball, Steve Smith brought the left-arm fast bowler back in for a second spell and the pacer answered with a double strike of epic proportions.
First to go was Pujara (6, 23b, 1x4), who could do nothing as the ball lifted off the surface, at pace, took a bit of his glove and went into the gloves of wicketkeeper Matthew Wade.
Two balls later, Kohli (0, 2b), the man who has been in ridiculous form in this Test match home season, was walking back, scarcely believing what he had just done. While there was very little Pujara could do about the ball he received from Starc, Kohli's dismissal was all his own making.
It was the carrot delivery from Starc – full and well outside off – Kohli took the bait, threw his bat at it – just the second ball that he was facing, don't forget – and an outside edge was gleefully taken by Smith at first slip.
The Aussies roared as their hunt for a win in this Test gathered momentum, with the decent crowd at the MCA Stadium looking on in stunned silence.
That momentum had initially been created by Hazlewood, who bowled a brilliant first spell – tight, on the money and on a perfect length, with the figures reading 4-2-5-1. Thanks to that accuracy, Hazlewood dismissed Murali Vijay, with the right-hander the first of the three Indian batsmen to be caught behind the wickets.
Australia kept a spinner on at one end throughout the session, but the fast bowlers were the ones to do all the damage.
KL Rahul, who seems to be carrying a shoulder injury, and Ajinkya Rahane, already troubled a couple of times by the off-spinner Nathan Lyon, took India to Lunch, but not too long after that, the crumble began.
Almost every over, Australia looked like taking wickets, with edges not quite carrying, or going over the top or just evading the fielders, and with both Rahul and Rahane living such charmed lives it was only a matter of time when they lost their wickets.
Rahul (64, 97b, 10x4, 1x6) gave away his, holing out to David Warner in the deep after mistiming a shot off Steve O'Keefe, with the left-arm spinner then, in the same over, picking up two more wicket.
Rahane (13, 55b, 1x4), who looked all at sea against the spinners – he really needs to work on his technique against the slower bowlers, because it just isn't good enough for Test match level – was caught quite brilliantly by Peter Handscomb at second slip and then Wriddhiman Saha (0, 2b) tamely gave away his wicket, hanging his bat out, getting the edge, which was taken by Smith at first slip after a deflection off the wicketkeeper.
India's luck was well and truly out by now as an over later, R Ashwin (1, 4b) was walking back, after the ball went off his bat, onto his boot and into the right hand of the diving Handscomb at short leg.
Chances were being created every over and the India batsmen just could not handle the pressure. After surviving, just about, on a couple of occasions, Jayant Yadav became Steve O'Keefe's fourth victim when he dragged his foot out just enough to allow Wade to whip off the bails.
Eight down with not even a 100 runs on the board, India were staring into the abyss of defeat, something they had not even come close to suffering in the home series so far, and that abyss looked scarier when Jadeja gave his wicket away and O'Keefe his five-for by attempting a big shot – Jadeja did not have much of a choice really, with only the two fast bowlers for company at the other end.
The final wicket fell soon after and that was all she wrote for India in this first innings, with Australia taking a massive lead in the context of the Test match.
Earlier, the Australian innings on day two did not even last one over, with Starc falling to R Ashwin. After banging Ashwin for a boundary in the second ball of the over, Starc (61, 63b, 6x4, 3x6) went for a big slog sweep off the fifth, but could only find Ravindra Jadeja at deep midwicket.
Scores:
First innings: Australia: 260 all out in 94.5 overs.
Overnight score: 256/9 in 94 overs.
India: 105 all out in 40.1 overs.
Australia's first innings lead: 155 runs.
Bowling: First innings: India: Ishant Sharma 11-0-27-0; R Ashwin 34.5-10-63-3; Jayant Yadav 13-1-58-1; Ravindra Jadeja 24-4-74-2; Umesh Yadav 12-3-32-4.
Australia: Mitchell Starc 9-2-38-2; Steve O'Keefe 13.1-2-35-6; Josh Hazlewood 7-3-11-1; Nathan Lyon 11-2-21-1.
Fall of wickets: First innings: Australia: 82/1, David Warner (27.2 overs); 119/2, Shaun Marsh (46.4 overs); 149/3, Peter Handscomb (59.2 overs); 149/4, Steve Smith (60.1 overs); 166/5, Mitchell Marsh (67.4 overs); 190/6, Matthew Wade (75.4 overs); 196/7, Matt Renshaw (78.3 overs); 205/8, Steve O'Keefe (81.4 overs); 205/9, Nathan Lyon (81.5 overs); 160/10, Mitchell Starc (94.5 overs).
India: 26/1, Murali Vijay (6.5 overs); 44/2, Cheteshwar Pujara (14.2 overs); 44/3, Virat Kohli (14.4 overs); 94/4, KL Rahul (32.2 overs); 95/5, Ajinkya Rahane (32.4 overs); 95/6, Wriddhiman Saha (33 overs); 95/7, R Ashwin (33.3 overs); 98/8, Jayant Yadav (36.3 overs); 101/9, Ravindra Jadeja (38.2 overs); 105/10, Umesh Yadav (40.1 overs).
