NOT since 1974 have Australia’s bowlers been left as physically and mentally shattered as they were on Sunday in Ranchi.
Steve O’Keefe started the series breaking wicket-taking records, but on Sunday it was he who was left at breaking point after delivering the sixth highest number of overs by an Australian in Test history.
Bruised, battered and without answers on a dead track, O’Keefe was forced to roll out 77 of a mammoth 210 overs for an Australian side put to the sword by Indian marathon men Cheteshwar Pujara and Wriddhiman Saha.
The nearly two-and-a-half days of toil in the field is the worst Australia has experienced in the more than four decades since they went hammer and tong for 212 overs against the West Indies in Bridgetown.
Slugging it for 39 overs on a lifeless pitch was certainly not the plan for comeback kid Pat Cummins playing his first Test match in five-and-a-half years.
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Australia faces a huge call now about whether to push Cummins for the decisive final Test in Dharamsala starting on Saturday, where they will be fighting to retain the trophy.
“When you bowl 210 overs, I don’t think that’s happened too often,” said coach Darren Lehmann.
Australian spinner Steve O’Keefe bowled 77 overs at India in their first innings.Source:AFP
“If anything it heightens our first innings where we needed to bat a little bit longer.
“But the bowlers worked really hard and I thought they were fantastic. They chopped and changed as best as they could in the conditions.
“We’ll see how they pull up and make a decision. But we’ll worry about (day five) first.”
Former captain Michael Clarke was critical of skipper Steve Smith’s decision not to bowl himself or all-rounder Glenn Maxwell as Indian pair Pujara and Saha ground the tourists into the dust.
Jadeja’s sword celebration0:56
Cricket: Ravindra Jadeja celebrates his fifty with a warrior like sword celebration in the third Test against Australia.
“On good batting wickets, if you keep doing the same things then you’re going to keep getting the same results,” Clarke said on Star Sports as Australia went wicketless for two sessions.
Maxwell bowled a total of just four overs, with Cummins and the other three specialist bowlers forced to keep coming back to the well.
“That’s captain’s call obviously,” said Lehmann.
“We did speak about it, chopping and changing a little bit. The game was always on a knife’s edge so you always want your best spinners going.
Comeback kid Pat Cummins got through 39 overs.Source:AFP
“He probably could have bowled a few more overs but I thought the spinners toiled really hard as well so that’s a call the captain makes out there and I’m really happy with that.”
O’Keefe broke new ground for the most balls ever by an Australian in India and the most overs since Shane Warne carved out 70 in Cape Town back in 2002.
Australia were driven to that point by Pujara whose 11-hour double century came from 525 balls – the most faced ever by an Indian batsman. A near world record 215 of them were against O’Keefe.
Meanwhile Saha became the first player to score a century batting at No.8 in Australia v India Test matches.
Cummins declared he is fit enough to withstand the workload. Clarke said Maxwell should have played more of a role than the two overs he got on day four.
“Maxwell should definitely have bowled more than two overs,” said Clarke.
“Maxwell needs to be bowling more than two overs. He needs to be given a chance.
“Australia missed a trick yesterday. They were quite defensive with their fields, a new batsman came out and there were three or four guys on the boundary.
“Keep (Maxwell) involved in the game as much as you can. Because he’s got that Midas touch about him, he just finds a way to get a run-out or a wicket.”
Originally published as Aussie bowlers left at breaking point
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