After the umpires suspended the fourth day’s play in near-darkness, India’s cricketers wandered near the boundary ropes, waiting for the light to return and the match to resume. But the sight of groundsmen running hurriedly to cover the square ascertained them the day was over, and they trudged off. A few seconds later, the heavens opened up in titanic fury, piling another layer of intrigue into the game that has already seen hysteric swings of fortune.
Until a few overs before tea, India’s domination was absolute, the comeback on the brink of entering the folklore of sporting epics. Sarfaraz Khan and Rishabh Pant had revived them with a stand for ages. Sarfaraz fell, but there was still Pant and six wickets. Pant departed, but there were five more wickets and two of the greatest spinning all-rounders of all time. In the end, there was only a creaky cushion of 107 runs between an epic-scale fightback and an inevitable defeat after the 46 shutdown. But the game has survived many an ebb and flow, and there could be one last twist of fate, the twist in the climax, either by humans or from the elements.
There is a symmetry to it—rain that washed the first and final days, compressing a thrilling game in between, nature flexing its clout on human endeavours. A win for either team, a draw, a tie, the fifth day is replete with all possibilities, even though an Indian victory looks distant. Unless the moisture makes the ball trace untoward paths, the pitch is reasonably placid to bat. The cracks have not widened enough to spook batsmen. The ball took turn from a footmark rarely, but most sailed blithely. The rain would ensure that it doesn’t disintegrate alarmingly on the last day.
But it has been a game of comebacks, albeit incomplete ones. First, India valiantly retaliated. Sarfaraz and Pant, one shot after the other, dizzied New Zealand; from winning the game, they were staring at a monumental defeat. Only once has a team ever won after being shot out for a lower score than 46; no team ever had triumphed after conceding a lead of 346. For a while New Zealand seemed like a ghost-ship on the verge of a shipwreck. Fielders fumbled and bowlers stuttered, as Sarfaraz and Pant put on 177 runs in little time. It seemed the game had exhausted itself of all its turns.
It was not to be. As New Zealand were rewarded for hanging in there. Sarfaraz floundered and soon did Pant, both to the new ball. The modicum of outward movement Tim Southee generated with the new ball caused Sarfaraz’s downfall; the extra bounce from O’Rourke manifested in the Pant chop-on. The lead then was 84, healthy enough considering that Ravi Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, between them nine hundreds, form and numerous comeback tales.
Bengaluru: New Zealand’s bowler William O’Rourke during the fourth day of the first Test cricket match between India and New Zealand, at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, in Bengaluru, Karnataka, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (PTI Photo/Shailendra Bhojak)
But the shaken New Zealanders suddenly stirred. Belief surged and they transformed into a ruthless machine. William O’Rourke conjured a ripper. He made one shape in, kicked off the good length and left Rahul. The latter seemed to have covered the initial line, but the late and decisive movement grazed his outside edge. The tourists broke for tea in high spirits. “The second new ball came and it was doing something for us. And then Timmy got that breakthrough (Sarfaraz) and then we were lucky enough to get that chop-on (Pant). It got the momentum going for us,” O’Rourke said.
The stage was set for an Ashwin-Jadeja duet. Even a 40-50-run stand would have sufficed. But 13 balls into the third session, Jadeja pulled a short ball into the hands of the square-leg fielder. A while ago, nothing was going in New Zealand’s favour. Now, everything was. Never mind, Ashwin was still batting, just two innings after a splendid hundred. He crunched a gorgeous four over O’Rourke’s head to take India past 450. But a Matt Henry nip-backer that kept a trifle low shut India’s last ray of hope. Henry did the mopping up and New Zealand had completed a rousing comeback.
But Sarfaraz warned. “It ain’t an easy wicket to bat on, and I don’t think the game is out of our hands yet. The ball is still cutting in and out. So, if we manage to get two to three wickets of theirs (NZ’s) early on, even they could be in a similar situation.” New Zealand would not take the chase casually either. “Obviously, we’ve got a world-class team going up against us. But we’ve got to be confident going out there tomorrow. Hopefully, for our sake, the rain stays away and we get a chance to have a crack at the target,” O’Rourke said. Given how the game has unfolded, both teams would be wary of the twists that lurk in the shadows of Bengaluru clouds, waiting to pounce on Sunday.
