#INDvAUS: India turn, Australia learn

It was an intriguing — or baffling, whichever way you want to look at it — case study of spin bowling.

Here were four spinners from both teams, similar in two sets each. Ravichandran Ashwin and Nathan Lyon were two tall, classical and old-school off-spinners. Ravindra Jadeja and Steve O'Keefe were two shorter, quicker and more modern-day left-arm tweakers.

The bowling styles were all similar, as well as the minefield of a pitch on offer for the quartet. Yet, two of them collected wickets in heap without turning the ball much, while two of them ripped the ball a mile without the returns of as many wickets.       

Australia's spin duo of O'Keefe and Lyon picked up 17 of the 20 Indian wickets in the first Test of the four-match India-Australia series, which the visitors won by 333 runs.

In contrast, Ashwin and Jadeja scalped only 12 of the 20 Aussie batsmen in the match.

The reason?

The Indian spinners were putting in a lot more revs on the ball and extracting more turn off the rough surface. In doing so, they managed to beat the outside edges of the Australian's bat on numerous occasions, but without actually getting the edge due to the surplus turn.

In both the innings, Jadeja was troubling the Aussie right-handers no end, getting them beaten at least once every over on an average. However, those balls were all either too full or short of length, which allowed the excessive turning ball to pass the edges of the bat.

Ashwin, too, was getting the ball to turn square from outside off to almost leg slip of a right-handed batsmen, but those were of little value in terms of the ultimate objective: wickets.       

"I think our bowlers were spinning the ball too much, so we didn't get the edge," India captain Virat Kohli said after the game. "I can't understand how I can judge that, because the ball that spun less took wickets, and the ones that did, didn't get any wickets. Cricket is like that," he added.

The Aussies, in contrast, were a touch smarter. They saw how the Indian spinners were turning the ball in the first innings, and realised the better trick could be in another bag. And they found that bag.

O'Keefe, the destroyer-in-chief of the Indian batting unit, bowled between that good length and full area. It neither gave the ball too much time to turn, nor the batsman the relief to play half volleys. It was just about the perfect length on that pitch, one that enabled the ball to hit the pads and find the edges more often.

Ditto with Lyon, who was bowling a touch fuller than Ashwin, especially in the second innings.

"I think both and Nathan and Steve bowled a really good length, and just hit that length consistently," Australia captain Steve Smith said about the difference in the two spin attacks.

"If you're challenging the defence (of the batsmen) and if you're able to beat the bat on both sides, you have a real good chance to take wickets on that wicket. Sock (O'Keefe) was able to beat the bat on both sides and find the edge and hit the pad consistently. If you're attacking the stumps enough like that, then you're going to get rewards" he added.

And once they zeroed in on that ideal length, the line was the lesser complicated issue. O'Keefe bowled consistently on that middle and off stump, much like Jadeja did as well. But while the former's length didn't allow the ball to turn enough and thus hit the pad or outside edge of the bat, the latter's big turners spun past the pads and edges.

"A lot of our right-handers and left-handers got beaten a lot on the outside edge of the bat," Smith said. "Those guys are big spinners of the ball and generally, it's the one that goes straight that gets you in a bit of trouble."

For all that talk of handling the the turning ball.