‘Jaddu’ Kuhnemann rips out India before a Khawaja special
Coined by Queensland teammates some years ago, the nickname “Jaddu” always seemed a touch optimistic for Matt Kuhnemann when lined up against the Indian spin bowling exploits of Ravindra Jadeja himself. Not anymore.
On a bone dry and treacherous Indore pitch, Kuhnemann did a day one job on India that Jadeja could only have applauded, before Usman Khawaja made sure the breach was exploited by Australia with one of his finest Test innings.
Kuhnemann (5-16) had been behind Ashton Agar in considerations for this tour, but his accuracy and at times vicious spin out of a bone dry Indore surface was exactly the formula needed to crack open India’s top order.
Matthew Kuhnemann after snaring one of his five wickets.Credit:Getty Images
Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne and locum captain Steve Smith then made priceless contributions that took the Australians to 4-156 at stumps, a position from where they now have a chance to seal their place in June’s World Test Championship final at the Oval by winning here.
Asked how much confidence he derived from watching Australia spun out in the first two Tests, India’s captain Rohit Sharma had offered a succinct reply by way of staying vigilant: “What has happened to them can happen to us.” And so it did.
A tally of 109 was India’s lowest at home since they cobbled 105 and 107 against Australia in Pune in 2017. Before that, a total of 104 was cobbled against the Australians in Mumbai in 2004, in a match India won on a similarly exotic pitch.
Sharply spinning surfaces had clearly been India’s chosen remedy to make certain of their place in that June final. But the Australians have now been here for a month, and there were few subtleties needing to be learned about how this track behaved – offering twice as many degrees of spin as Nagpur did.
After Travis Head missed a straight delivery from Jadeja in the second over, chaos threatened when Labuschagne was bowled playing a remarkably similar shot to the second innings in Delhi, only for Joel Wilson to stretch out his arm for a no-ball, the third such instance in the series.
Under pressure, India found themselves with the sort of DRS troubles common to Australia. Two referrals were used up searching for lbw verdicts, and with only one left, Rohit declined to go to the third umpire for a Ravichandran Ashwin shout against Labuschagne that lit three reds.
Usman Khawaja hits out through the on side.Credit:Getty Images
Khawaja’s innings was as assured as it was possible to be when there was the chance of the odd delivery jumping up past your right shoulder, as one Jadeja viper did before tea.
Eventually the pair were separated with the stand worth 98, when Jadeja followed a sharply spinning delivery with a slightly quicker, flatter ball to which Labuschagne played fatally back.
After Khawaja picked out deep square leg on the slog sweep, India lost their last review when Smith was struck on the pads by a Jadeja grubber that was comfortably missing leg stump. Jadeja responded with a ripper to take Smith’s outside edge as stumps neared, but Australia’s lead was growing all the time.
It had been a hectic morning. Mitchell Starc dismissed Rohit twice in his opening four balls of the match, caught behind then lbw. But umpire Nitin Menon’s finger did not go up and nor did the Australians, perhaps thinking of their burned reviews in Delhi, deign to refer.
Smith sent for Kuhnemann for the day’s sixth over, and the left-armer duly tempted Rohit to advance to the last ball of the over and be beaten by lavish bite and bounce – Alex Carey stretched to take the ball in his right glove before completing the stumping.
Shubman Gill, recalled for KL Rahul, stretched watchfully forward, but quick turn and popping bounce drew an edge to slip, where Smith stayed low and steady for the catch.
Cheteshwar Pujara was rendered bereft by a Nathan Lyon off-break from hell that turned almost square and skidded through low to hit the stumps halfway up. Jadeja narrowly escaped lbw via the thinnest of edges, but succumbed by slapping his next ball to Kuhnemann at short cover.
Todd Murphy used canny variations in angle, line, pace and turn from around the wicket. He beat Virat Kohli a couple of times on both outside and inside edge before shifting a fraction further towards off stump for a clear lbw – the third time Murphy has defeated India’s former captain.
Only a couple of sixes by Umesh Yadav, recalled for a resting Mohammed Shami, delivered three figures for India.
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