Dot balls, Jadeja’s spell keep Aussies on the defensive

HYDERABAD: India couldn’t snare all 10 wickets on a good batting track in the first ODI but accomplished the next best thing by bowling a high percentage of dot balls to limit Australia to a modest total. At the end of their quota of 50 overs, India had bowled 169 dot balls — equivalent to 28.1 overs — meaning the visitors were left with just 131 deliveries to score from.

Mohammed Shami topped the list with 38 dots, followed by Jasprit Bumrah (35), Ravindra Jadeja (34), Kuldeep Yadav (31), Kedar Jadhav (21) and Vijay Shankar (10) who got just three overs on Saturday. In the context of a low scoring match that the first ODI turned out to be, these numbers have massive significance.

Shami and Bumrah expectedly topped the dot balls list since Australia turned cautious after losing the wicket of captain Aaron Finch without opening their account. By the time they were done bowling their first spells, Shami had squeezed out two maidens and conceded just six while Bumrah gave away 17 runs and had Finch’s scalp to his name.

Shami and Bumrah going off the attack was a cue for Australia to score more freely. They did just that, scoring nine, 10 and 11 runs in the next three overs bowled by Vijay Shankar and Kuldeep Yadav.

But when Shankar got hammered for two boundaries in his third and last over, Kohli knew he had to stem the run flow. In came Jadeja and the move worked like a charm.

The scoreboard will show Jadeja returned figures of 10-033-0. Apart from Shankar, he is the only bowler to have not got a wicket but Jadeja’s contribution was beyond mere wickets. Not only did he concede the least, Jadeja also gave away just two boundaries in his entire quota — a reverse-swept boundary by Usman Khawaja in the 14th over and debutant Ashton Turner pulling him for four in the 35th — again the least among the bowlers.

To make such an impact across two spells — 5-0-15-0 and 5-0-18-0 — when the field was largely spread out is testament to Jadeja’s unfailing accuracy and ability to bowl to a particular field.

Not only was he miserly, Jadeja also gave the Australians hardly any time to collect their thoughts by rushing through his overs. That probably drove them up the wall most.

Ask Turner and Glenn Maxwell who were scalped by Shami when Jadeja was finishing his miserly quota from the other end. That small phase probably swung the match in India’s favour.