Perth Test: India’s winning (in Australia) habit continues

Aptly, a debutant helped apply the final seal of victory. Harshit Rana, who had sparkled in the first innings too, produced a crafty slower ball to castle the stumps of Alex Carey to trigger celebrations. By the time the stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah could get to the stumps at the non-striker’s end, KL Rahul, whose partnership with Yashasvi Jaiswal in the second innings had set-up a huge target, had plucked out two stumps, and he gave one to his skipper. Rana had by then gone on to hug Virat Kohli, who later walked away with Bumrah with their hands over each other’s shoulders. It was a job well accomplished.

Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne, right, leaves the field after losing his wicket as India’s captain Jasprit Bumrah celebrates with teammates on the third day of the first cricket test between Australia and India in Perth, Australia, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Trevor Collens)

On the fourth day, only Travis Head offered resistance with a fine 89, even as India rammed through the rest to seal a special win. Last time around in 2021, they had taken the first-innings lead in the opening Test at Adelaide but collapsed for 36 in the second innings to lose that game. No such mistakes this time around.

It’s one thing to hang in there, slowly claw back, grit out a bruising fight-back after being down by tea on opening day, but India decided against that old romantic sporting cliche; instead they chose to boss and own Australia. Time will tell how the rest of the series goes, but this performance has now cancelled out all pre-series fears of a one-sided contest.

Josh Hazlewood had given up the ghost on third evening itself when instead of any brave talk of fightback, he said he hoped a couple of batsmen would get to 80 or 100, and tire down the Indian bowlers a bit. One of those batsmen, and a very important one for Australia if they are to bounce back in the series, was Steve Smith. Especially after Usman Khawaja went early, trying to pull a Siraj short delivery from outside off, top-edging it to Rishabh Pant.

India’s captain Jasprit Bumrah, center, celebrates with teammate Dhruv Jurel the wicket of Australia’s Travis Head on the fourth day of the first cricket test between Australia and India in Perth, Australia, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Trevor Collens)

Smith was sorted out by Jasprit Bumrah for a first-ball duck when he had pressed back far too early, and couldn’t get his wrists to effect the jail-break for him. On Monday, on a track that was playing up-and-down, his task was that much more arduous. He did try gamely, trying to play straight and get some wood on the ball. As his innings progressed though, he began to get stuck at the crease, and his hands were doing all the contortions to keep him out there. But then came one length ball from Mohammad Siraj in the off-stump channel and Smith, not only stuck at crease but on his toes almost jammed together, and pushed out his bat to snick it behind.

Head did what he usually does to India: slash, carve, smash, swat. And Bumrah brought himself back to terminate his stay with a straightener outside off that caught the outside edge of an attempted forcing punch shot and flew through to Rishabh Pant. With it, the Australian fight faded out of the arena rather quickly but not before Dhruv Jurel produced the catch of the game, plucking one out of thin air at short-leg to get rid of Mitch Starc. And a little later, when the victory was sealed, a digital advertisement flashed around on the first tier of the stadium: ‘Do Great Things’ . They could have added ‘like India’ to make it more apt.