Pat Cummins realised the chance had been missed on day four of the Brisbane match. (Getty Images: Chris Hyde)
In that silent moment, with the ball hanging in the air between KL Rahul’s bat and second baseman Steve Smith, anything was possible.
- What happened: Hazlewood injured, India trailing
- Scorecard: View all live scores and statistics
The clock had just struck 9.50am and the umpire had just called the match on when Pat Cummins found Rahul’s boundary with the first ball of the fourth over.
Australia knew they needed to take wickets quickly when they arrived on Tuesday morning. With the rain coming down hard, the only way to turn their advantage into victory was to bowl well again.
The ball drifted toward the slider, carrying with it the hope that Australia would accelerate quickly, which was almost too good to be true.
Then Smith put it down.
Just when Australia needed everything to go smoothly, something went wrong.
Only Smith knows how he missed that chance, though the best guess is that it was simply too early in the game and he wasn’t fully focused on the task at hand. It’s hard to come up with any other explanation.
The relegation certainly didn’t cost Australia the game, as some had claimed, but it cost them valuable momentum and made the game less exciting.
Steve Smith was in excellent form in Brisbane until he slipped up on the first ball of the day. (AP Photo/Pat Hoelscher)
Rahul went on to score 51 runs, but more importantly, he helped his team to a further 25. Australia’s 57.5 overs on Tuesday might have been more than predicted in the morning, but Rahul, along with Ravindra Jadeja, ended the home team’s hopes of taking three early runs.
To compound Smith’s blunder, Josh Hazlewood limped off the field with a calf injury after bowling just six balls on the day.
Hazlewood missed the Adelaide Test with a flank strain but was cleared to play in the Brisbane Test after two weeks of intensive training and performed well on day three.
But something went wrong during warm-up on the fourth day, and people started to get wary when he didn’t play in the first round of the day.
Hazlewood tried a round of pitches, wanting to try and endure and watch the game to test what was bothering him, and got his answer after his first very wayward pitch.
It was a slow walk off the pitch for the tall fast bowler, later confirmed to be a calf strain, meaning it was likely to be his final outing of the series.
Josh Hazlewood looks set to miss the rest of the series with a calf strain. (AAP Photo: Jono Searle)
He will almost certainly be replaced in Melbourne by Scott Boland, which is no bad thing considering the big Victorian’s record at his home ground, the MCG.
But there’s a reason why Hazlewood is the go-to guy for the pitching attack. He’s obviously a very consistent and reliable new-ball bowler, but he’s also more adaptable to different batsmen and different phases of the game.
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While Rishabh Pant launched his attack and Jadeja fought hard, Hazlewood was better equipped than Boland to answer those specific questions. It wasn’t a complete disaster for Australia, but it was a blow.
But as it stands, Hazlewood’s absence is a fatal blow to Brisbane. Cummings and Mitchell Starc are suddenly being given a much heavier workload when they need to take 15 wickets to win.
When Australia picked Nathan Lyon they were not shocked by the result.
Lyon’s bowling was not bad by any standards but was comfortably beaten by the Indian middle-order, except for the wicket where he lost Rahul – largely thanks to a brilliant catch by Smith at first slip.
Cummings bowled brilliantly throughout the day and Starc bowled some dangerous deliveries, but from an Australian perspective the day was lacking in verve due to India’s stubborn batting and incessant rain.
The chance came again when Australia finally had a chance to end India’s first innings, but the hosts once again missed the opportunity.
Australia tries to kick India’s tail. (AP: Pat Hoelscher)
Jasprit Bumrah and Akash Deep combined for 39 runs for the 10th wicket to get Australia out of trouble and carry the team forward, with the Indian fans in the stands ecstatic and celebrating as if it was a victory.
The test is not over yet, but it is about to fail.
Australia now needed to come back on day five, take the final wicket, then score 150-plus runs at top speed before finding time to take another 10 wickets.
From the first pitch of this game, the problem has been the weather forecast.
Further localized rainfall is expected during the morning and afternoon, with the possibility of another severe thunderstorm.
Until the two teams shake hands, Australia will continue to believe that they can win at the Gabba through sheer force of will. They had to overcome bad weather and opponents to get here, and while there is still a long way to go, victory is within reach.
The worst-case scenario for Australia is a draw before Christmas. Looking back at what happened in Perth in late November, not many Australians would pass up that opportunity.
However, Australia’s result could have been even better had the weather been slightly better and had a series of unfortunate events not occurred on the fourth day.
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