‘Batting on another plane’: how Travis Head’s hitting broke the spell – and India’s heart

When you read back over the scorecard in years to come, it will look easy. A run chase of 76 is a formality. Done in little more than an hour, purring along at 4.14 runs per over? Standard. Except it wasn’t. Not when the first ball of the third morning exploded in a dust cloud like a Dakar rally jeep jumping a dune. Not when Ravichandran Ashwin dialled back the turn on the next delivery, just enough of it to flick the bat so softly that even Usman Khawaja didn’t know he was out.For the next 10 overs, Ashwin laid siege. Spin partner Ravindra Jadeja was his support. There was one Marnus Labuschagne boundary from a short ball, nine singles that were varyingly unconvincing, and a parade of deliveries that beat edges, leapt sharply, kept low, ragged on sharp angles, skidded straight, evaded gloves, drew appeals and reviews for leg before or for close catches. Australia were 13 for 1 and ripe to raise that second number.

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All out in Nagpur for 91, all out in Delhi for 113, and having bowled out India here in Indore for 109 on a pitch that was falling apart, you had better believe that the danger was on some Australian minds. Sitting near the boundary line, as stand-in captain and next in to bat, Steve Smith was nervous. You could tell as much after the game from the grin and the exhale of breath as he recalled it. “Nice to finish off the way we did today, just the the one wicket down, [but] happening in the first over, we thought gee, it could go any way here.”One person, though, did not seem to be nervous at all. You could read that from his work in the middle, or