After the baking weather of yesterday the pitch had notably faded from celery to parsley, and getting people out was going to be harder. Smith had a point to prove, and so did the captain. So well did they play that their partnership blossomed. Cummins of late he has recovered some of his early form as a batsman. When he lunged forward, he drove. When they dropped short he scythed them through the off-side. He did not let up until Jadeja held one back a trifle and he holed out to deep mid-off for a superb 49. The seventh wicket stand produced 112 priceless runs.
But the story of the morning was Smith. As hyperactive as ever, he appears to have concluded that back-and-across does not work for him. Sideways and across having likewise failed him, he now moves forward and across. His pads are outside off. If the ball travels stumpward, he plays French cricket with both pads, bat, body and kitchen sink behind it. If it’s outside leg he might hook in the air and carry the boundary. And outside off he will drive, glide, or leave. It must drive bowlers mad, but it works. Especially at the MCG. He averages eighty-something here.
By lunch Australia had reached 7/454. That’s 143 runs in a two-hour session. Some of the blame must be levelled at Siraj, who gave as acephalous an exhibition of fast bowling as we have seen in a long time. Some of the blame must also go to the aimless captaincy of Sharma, of whom a charitable depiction would be likened to a palaeontologist confronted for the first time with a Rubik’s cube. But the bulk of the runs were down to sensible, adventurous batting on an easy-paced pitch. Smith now has back-to-back hundreds, and may write his own ticket for another season or two.
After lunch India finally got their act together and polished off the tail. The hard-working Deep finally bowled Smith under absurd circumstances (played on after advancing halfway to the grandstand for a wild swipe) for 140, and the end came soon after. A late minor highlight was Mitchell Starc off-driving Bumrah for six using his wife’s bat. Apparently he feels his levers are long enough already and he prefers Alyssa’s short-handled weapon. Bumrah, as ever, smiled. At least he’d pitched the ball up. India were too short yesterday afternoon, and Siraj persisted with hairy-chested folly even today. 23/3/122/0 was his final less than flattering analysis.
Chasing 474 was an unappetising prospect, and when Cummins removed Sharma (who promoted himself to opener) for 3 things got worse. Jaiswal however dug in with Rahul, and raised the fifty. Starc could make nothing of the surface; Boland kept them pinned down, and Cummins was, as ever, a constant menace. On the stroke of tea he bowled Rahul with another trademark leg-cutter into the off-bail and India were two down. No blame attaches to Rahul, unlike his captain, whose hesitant half-pull was the stroke of a man wondering what numbers he should choose for weekend Tattslotto.
At 2/51 India were in dire straits. But Kohli and Jaiswal put their heads down and put on over a hundred. Jaiswal was superb, showing all the class he had demonstrated in Perth. Kohli meanwhile batted like a man truly in peril of his place, and showed the broad bat so greatly feared during his long career. Disaster struck in the 41st over when a grotesque mixup sent Jaiswal back to the pavilion, run out for 82.
He played the ball to a deepish mid-on and called for a single. He was running to the danger end. Inexplicably, Kohli turned back, and left his young comrade high and dry. So distressed must he have been that soon afterwards he forgot all his earlier caution and got himself out in his usual fashion, hanging his bat well outside off as if inserting a stake in his front garden. Boland gave a wry smile. He is a caution on this pitch with his accurate, consistent length. He knows the pitch well enough that the stumps are always in play when he’s bowling. Then Deep the nightwatchman failed to survive, edging him to Lyon at leg-gully. India will resume at 5/164 with a mountain ahead of them.