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‘That cost India the match’: Sunil Gavaskar pinpoints 'turning point' of 3rd Test vs Australia, blames Jadeja's no-ball
Looking back at the Test match, Gavaskar pointed out the Ravindra Jadeja no-ball in the second session of Day 1 that gave a life to Marnus Labuschagne as the turning point of the match. Labuschagne was on zero when he was cleaned up by Jadeja but the Indian all-rounder had overstepped.
India got a taste of their own medicine in the third Test against Australia in Indore. In their quest to strangle Australia in the spin trap, India's batters came a cropper against Nathan Lyon, Matthew Kuhnemann and Toddd Murphy as Australia won the match by 9 wickets in a session and two days. India still lead the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2-1 but by winning the Indore Test in the toughest conditions, Australia, under new captain Steve Smith - Pat Cummins has stayed back home to support his ailing mother - have not only quashed the whitewash talks but have also risen hope of squaring the series.
There were many important moments in the game. To start off, India's first innings. It lasted only 33.2 overs. Kuhnemann registered his maiden five-wicket haul while Lyon picked up three as India were bowled out for 109. Then, there was the 96-run partnership between Marnus Labuschagne and Usman Khawaja - the highest by far in the match - that gave Australia the advantage and made sure they took an 88-run lead despite a late collapse, which saw them losing six wickets for just 11 runs in the first session of Day 2.
In India's second innings, there were two crucial moments - the first one was the Usman Khawaja catch to dismiss a rampaging Shreyas Iyer off Mitchell Starc. The other one was a moment of brilliance from Steve Smith off Nathan Lyon's bowling to send back Cheteshwar Pujara for 59. Lyon picked up 8 wickets as India were bowled out for 163.
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Australia, despite losing first-innings hero Khawaja for a duck, chased down the 76-run target easily with nine wickets in the bank.
Looking back at the Test match, Gavaskar pointed out the Ravindra Jadeja no-ball in the second session of Day 1 that gave a life to Marnus Labuschagne as the ‘turning point’ of the match. Labuschagne was on zero when he was cleaned up by Jadeja but the Indian all-rounder had overstepped.
"If you look back, you will say that is probably what cost India the match because after that they (Labuschagne and Usman Khawaja) stitched a partnership of 96 when India were dismissed for 109. So I think that was probably the turning point. That no ball cost India the match," Gavaskar said on Star Sports.
The legendary cricketer pointed fingers at the shot selection of the Indian batters.
"Batters actually didn't do justice to their talent. If you look at the Indian wickets, you will find it is the Indian batters who got themselves out, playing some shots anticipating that this is what the pitch is going to do," Gavaskar added.
"If you look there is a lack of confidence because in the first two matches, they did not get runs, apart from Rohit Sharma, who got a lovely hundred in Nagpur. When you are short of runs, there is just that little tentativeness in their batting. And you can sense that they were feeling for the deliveries.
"They were not able to go down the pitch as much as they should have. They let the pitch overtake them. It was the pitch that actually started to play on their minds, even in the first innings but more so in the second innings," he said.
Gavaskar said India were 60-70 runs short in the first innings, after opting to bat first.
"The pitch started to talk in the first hour itself, so it wasn't going to be easy but still if we had made 160-170 in the first innings that could have made the difference," the batting great said.
