India sway away from a Chinnaswamy curveball

Just past halfway through India's innings on Sunday night, there was a relatively low hum from the packed stands at the Chinnaswamy stadium. The situation was uncommon for the partisan crowd, who are used to turning one of India's iconic venues into a throbbing cauldron while their team bats. Yet, the first hour of the game had gone pear-shaped for those who came expecting to be entertained with sixes. But just then, Shreyas Iyer gave them a break.

Ben Dwarshius pushed his luck with his full length outside the off-stump and bowled one at 130kmph that Iyer deposited over the long-off fence. The voice was rapturous again. Chinnaswamy was Chinnaswamy again, and yet came with an asterisk. On just the next ball, Iyer was squared up by the left-hander's angle from over the wicket as well as the ball stopping on him a little as it flew off the outside edge to the third man fence. Those two deliveries gave a peek into what was transpiring to be an oddly-behaving surface in one of India's biggest batting allies among venues.

Despite Yuzvendra Chahal's exceptional six-wicket haul back in 2017, Chinnaswamy has often been a venue where spinners - even the most experienced ones - come in for a humbling. But on Sunday, Tanveer Sangha - the 22-year-old with six T20Is - came with a fool-proof plan to walk away relatively unscathed. By the time he was introduced in the eighth over, the mood at the venue had started to shift. Australia rode some luck - which you need in abundance at this venue - as Yashasvi Jaiswal miscued a pull on a back of length ball and Ruturaj Gaikwad couldn't time a slot delivery pitched up. Suryakumar Yadav too had trouble middling length balls and ended up cutting one to backward point very early in his innings.

So when Sangha was on, there was anticipation resonating from the stands for India's newest sensation to leave his imprint again. Rinku Singh has had an incredible past 10 days, finishing games for India, making it to the squad for South Africa tour and most recently, batting from as early as the ninth over and still making his kind of impact with a 29-ball 46. The scenario on Sunday was similar. But Sangha identified the pitfalls of the tacky surface that meant batters found it hard to score square of the wicket if the right lengths were hit. Sangha also avoided the left-hander's hitting arc by repeatedly going full and wide outside the off-stump, ramping up enough pressure for Rinku to bite the bullet in his second over. Rinku's attempt to clear the long-on fence with a slog sweep was a failed one, leaving India on 55 for 4.

Even as Iyer gleefully accepted that gift from Dwarshius in the 11th over, he was already recalculating what would serve as a safe total. Sangha's confidence to keep the Indian batters from targeting him also came from the fact that the ball spun prodigiously, even forcing Iyer - one of India's best players of spin - to dial down his murderous intent against them. In fact, he faced 9 balls from the young spinner and picked just six singles off it.

Small spells of drizzle leading up to the game made Chinnaswamy conditions alien enough for Jason Behrendorff to try cutters at the death and get away with most of them. Iyer picking and choosing his moments to push the innings ahead protected the hosts from an early collapse and set them up for a big flourish that Axar Patel and Jitesh Sharma contributed well to. Iyer himself saw through the change of pace from Nathan Ellis in the final over, got to a vital 53 that dragged India to 160/8.

But lulling the India supporters into silence had become a pastime for Australia as they took a real stab at what was expected to be a tough total on a tricky surface. Dew decided to skip making an appearance so taking on spinners was not viable but India's quicks were carted around to keep Australia at pace with their target. Axar finished a scintillating spell of 1 for 14, and yet the chase was still within Australia's grasp at 57 off 36, thanks to Ben McDermott's wielding of his willow.

McDermott ran into Arshdeep at a time when the left-armer was struggling to land his yorkers, and maximised the situation. Two full-tosses were hit for a six and four to dwarf the equation considerably and rattle the death bowler. Sunday's game was shaping up to be a good test of India's adaptability to these surprising conditions as well as Suryakuamar's captaincy nous under pressure.

He calmed Arshdeep down with a friendly arm around the shoulder on his way back to the top of the run-up, who then had McDermott caught at long-off to get the crowd going again. Fans who've never failed to take the name of their beloved IPL franchise - even out of context in international fixtures - took a break from that and fully got behind the national side. This was once again a pivotal moment where the mood within the venue was shifting, but for the good of the home side.

Suryakumar added a touch of his sharp game-reading acumen to it to tug at the momentum in the 17th over. After Matthew Short had hit Mukesh Kumar for a four down the ground, the India captain moved his deep point fielder to long-off and his short third man fielder to backward point - in what appeared like an invitation to take a risk and go square of the wicket on the off-side which didn't have boundary riders. Short fell for it, but ended up slicing another low full toss to Gaikwad at backward point.

Matthew Wade though was still determined to reach for the 3-2 scoreline which he felt would've been a fair reflection of how his side had performed all series. It was still within reach as they needed 10 off the last six balls, from Arshdeep, who was in the midst of a truly forgettable fixture. But he held his nerve, bowling an excellent final over, to ensure a 4-1 finish for India.

"Thinking [before the over] was not much really," Arshdeep would later reveal. "It was a 'nothing to lose' kind of situation for me. Surya was saying, we'll see what happens. I felt I could win it because there wasn't anything left for me to lose, I'd already conceded a lot."

The tension in the air at around 15 minutes past 10 PM was familiar but the crowd drowned it out with their noise. Natural order had been restored and thousands in the stands followed Suryakumar's cue to raise the roof as India did just about enough to sway away from Chinnaswamy's conditions curveball.