A Thunderous Day At Perth

The first day of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series at the Optus Stadium in Perth featured 17 wickets and 217 runs in 76.4 overs. Apart from five overs of off spin and five overs of effective medium pace from Mitchell Marsh, it was fast bowling all the time.

The curator promised a spicy pitch. 10mm of grass was to left on the pitch because “Live grass on the pitch is speed.”. The grass also offered the bowlers seam movement. That is catnip for the four world class fast bowlers who faced off today. The Australian trio of Pat Cummins (271 wickets at 22.6), Mitchell Starc (360 wickets at 27.6) and Josh Hazlewood (277 wickets at 24.6) are a cut above even the average Test quality fast bowler. Jasprit Bumrah (177 wickets at 20.2) is currently, whisper it, perhaps a cut above even that trio. Mohammad Siraj, by comparison is a journeyman. But only by comparison to the four named above him. He is a tremendous trier and when everything falls into place and his action comes together perfectly, he seems to generate an extra yard of pace and more movement. The debutant Harshit Rana is still finding his feet. His raw material is evident, but his relative lack of control will prove expensive in less forgiving conditions.

The bowling conditions were quite forgiving. The ball seamed as the pitch curator intended. The conditions were perhaps not as severe 217/17 suggests. But then, the bowlers were quite exceptional. These bowlers do not require these conditions to bowl teams out. Bumrah bowled England out on a very good batting pitch at Vizag earlier this year. Cummins and Starc bowled Pakistan out in Lahore in 2022. Its hard to take as many wickets as these bowlers have if they can only take wickets on the spicier surfaces. This score line at the end of Day One in India would invite endless commentary about pitch “doctoring”. This Perth pitch was palpably doctored in the sense the term is used. But pitch doctoring does not make a home win more likely. It only makes a result more likely (unless the pitch is doctored in the other direction to favor the bat excessively). Australia could not prevent India from picking Jasprit Bumrah and the rest of their bowler.

When India bowled, Bumrah found a devastating length nearly from the word go. He was unplayable in his first spell. The ball was moving off the pitch and Bumrah was making it sing. He collected 3 wickets and had Marnus Labuschagne dropped second ball. Labuschagne would make 2 in 52 balls. He was hit on the body more often than he scored. Steven Smith was dismissed first ball to an unplayable in-ducker. It moved off the pitch and no matter what technique Smith used, the movement off the pitch would have beaten even the straightest of bats. Usman Khawaja, a theory goes, does not like the right-arm round the wicket angle. Most left handers don’t like it. The angle forces them to defend their stumps. Bumrah is a master of posing these uncomfortable questions. The edge was caught waist high at second slip.

Travis Head, like Rishabh Pant in the Indian line up, might have done a lot of damage in a short time. But he was done in by an utter pearler on a perfect length. Rana didn’t hit that length too often. But this pitch which is likely to reward a good length with some spectacular seam movement. 1.36 degrees from 5.5m length. Impossible to adjust to. If you do the math, that’s 10 cm deviation over the 4.3m the ball has to travel until it reaches the batting crease after pitching. It take 0.12 seconds for the ball to travel those 4.3ms at ~130kph. The ball beat Head’s outside edge and clipped the off-bail.

At the end of the first day, both teams are still in it. The Australian attack can’t be counted out. The extra grass on the pitch may delay the development of cracks and make batting fourth a bit easier than it has traditionally been at Perth. Pakistan were bowled out for 89 last year. This pitch could yet ease out as the match progresses. The bowlers will look less lethal. And the inexperience of the Indian attack beyond Bumrah may yet tell. Australia will have to survive Bumrah first. But if the series lives up to the promise of the day, we could be in for a classic…