What was the thought running in his head when Shubman Gill ran down the pitch off the last ball before lunch? What was the thought when he stuttered to a halt and stabbed at the ball? There were a few verbals from behind the stumps about possibly time wasting. A similar chat, but with more dramatic visuals would play out near the end between Bumrah, who seemed worked-up far more than possibly ever, and the lippy Sam Konstas. Gill turned and said something back, but then had a brain-fade.

The opener KL Rahul, back at his original place after Rohit Sharma had opted out of the Test as reported by this newspaper, was left shaking his head at the softest dismissal. He fell, flicking a ball on the legs to square-leg. Yashasvi Jaiswal had been opened up like a can by Scott Boland, who ended up with 4-31.

Virat Kohli had survived a rather fine first ball from Scott Boland that shot up on him outside off, and though a diving Steve Smith at second slip scooped up the ball from low to the ground for the third slipper Marnus to gobble up, the replays showed that the ball had brushed some grass. He did fight for another 68 balls, and considering the movement, it was perhaps his best knock of the tour. He made Australia go through a mini-roulette of plans at him.

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At one point, Pat Cummins had a deep square-leg, but Kohli showed no signs of taking the bait that the fielder was withdrawn. He chased a ball well outside the off stump off the fourth delivery he faced, but tightened up on that front. For a while, Boland and Cummins tried the nip-backers but his forward defence was tight. The conditions being what it were, there were deliveries that fizzed past the edge or rammed into his thigh, but he hung around. While at the non-striker’s end, he took mini strolls with the bat rested on his right shoulder before he returned to his spot, kept the bat in front, rested it on his thigh, as he fiddled with his gloves.

Unripe moment

But just when it seemed the knock would blossom into something meaningful, he fell. That Scott Boland delivery had landed outside off stump and straightened, and Kohli dabbed for the debutant Beau Webster, who was given his Baggy Green cap by that stylish batsman and a great catcher Mark Waugh, lunged to his left to close his big hands around the ball. Kohli had been shuffling a touch across to counter the movement—not pressing furiously back or forward, and he was already on the off stump line almost when the straightening ball from back of length betrayed his hands.

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More than ever, literally that is, Pant put his body in the line of fire. “I think this is the first time I’ve gotten hit so much but you know in cricket you can’t plan anything,” said Pant.

Biceps, helmet, shoulder, back, groin, and the thigh were all left bruised and he writhed in pain whenever the physio came out to treat him. There was a big bruise-mark on his left arm, a memory of a wound from the last game, but several others popped up on Friday. Just two were from bouncers, rest came as the ball shot up and moved about from back of length. He did charge out a couple of times to counterattack, but by and large, he tried to carefully negotiate the stormy phase. “I felt playing a little bit of defensive cricket. Yes, there is a time to attack, but you have to feel that from inside, I can’t just premeditate that I’m going to play this way. Because the wicket was doing too much and the kind of situation we were in, if a wicket had fallen, we could have two-three in quick succession.”

So Pant and Jadeja dead-batted, left, played and missed as the ball kept moving too much to take the edge and hit the body. But they carried on for 25.2 overs, adding 48 runs before Pant fell, trying to pull Boland finally after taking a lot of blows, and spooning it up to mid-on. Nitish Reddy fell first ball, late in withdrawing his bat and edging to slips. From 120 for 5 at Pant’s exit India slipped to 148 for 8, but Bumrah swung his bat courageously and skilfully for 22 valuable runs that pushed India to 185.

Raging Bumrah

Bumrah would inflict one more blow on the Australian camp in what turned out to be the last over of the day. Seemingly losing patience at what he perceived as time-wasting tactics by Khawaja, who pulled out of facing a ball, Bumrah threw his arms in despair. Konstas walked towards him from non-striker’s to say something that had Bumrah livid. He started to walk towards Konstas before the umpire stepped in. Next ball, Bumrah took out Khawaja with a beaut that seamed across the left-hander and perhaps kept a touch low but still had enough carry through to the second slipper Rahul.

A pumped-up Bumrah immediately turned, took a couple of steps in front of Konstas and stopped. Luckily, even as Konstas kept walking, Bumrah turned around, away from the departing batsmen, to celebrate with a scream. Prasidh Krishna was quick to get in there to show his face to Konstas and in a blink, almost all Indians, including Kohli had congregated to celebrate. But they didn’t get in the face of Konstas. On Saturday, Indians will have to whip up more magic with the ball and field passionately if the “below-par 185” can be made to look a lot more than what it is. Else, their minds would go back to the easy New Year gifts of their top order.