India's other-end problem

On a day that he became the third-fastest Test player to the double of 100 wickets and 1000 runs, R Ashwin was left an unsatisfied man. He came in at the early fall of Virat Kohli, put his head down to bat for close to three hours to take India to what seemed like safety, then he threatened with the new ball, but saw his colleagues release all the pressure and leave the visitors with a tough task on a pitch that could pose challenges on the final day.

This was Ashwin's slowest innings of 30 or more, which ate into the time for Australia to force a result, only India gave away 251 runs in 40 overs, easily the worst run-rate the team has conceded in all the Tests that he has played. Ashwin was pleased with his own effort with the bat and saw some promise when one spun sharply to get David Warner in the second over of Australia's innings. But India lost it after that.

On a pitch that has been slow, where the ball is turning as much as it did for Ashwin, there is no way a side should be conceding more than six an over over 40 overs and India will now have to bat longer than they might prefer to save this Test, although they have the ability to threaten like in Adelaide.

"We definitely leaked a lot more runs than we would have liked to have," Ashwin said. "They played a few good shots, we started off pretty poorly with the new ball as well. Definitely the game could have been different. The way we applied pressure, the way the ball was spinning, the way it was coming out for me, it could have been a lot different. Having said that, it is still pretty decently poised. They definitely have an ace up, but we will have to see how it goes. We batted pretty well in Adelaide. When I batted there weren't many devils in the wicket. I definitely found it a little hard to score. It's a new-ball wicket."

Even though Ashwin asked questions with the new ball, there was no pressure from the other end. With no swing or seam, Bhuvneshwar Kumar's gentle pace was easy to hit, and Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav were their usual profligate selves. Yadav, going for 45 that included 10 boundaries, even registered the worst economy rate ever for a bowler who has bowled a minimum of three overs in an innings. In his last over, he showed total lack of application by bowling short when the field had been set to protect the off-side boundary down the ground.

The pressure Ashwin built being released so regularly did not please him too much. "When what you have been working on, and what efforts you have put in, when it pays off in numbers, it feels heartening," he said. "Yes genuinely I thought this could be a chance where I could create something for the team. Ideally, I would have liked a little bit more control from the other side. It would have been nice. But they also took us on. I mean you have to give credit to them. They batted very positively.

"They took us on. A few shots were played. We started pretty poorly with the new ball. We have to admit it. When we picked up wickets, we kept on leaking 15-16 runs from the other end. That wasn't helping the cause. That's gone now. You have to look forward. We put ourselves in a decent situation this Test after batting well, but we will have to see how it goes. Even in Adelaide it was similar. We will see how they take this up."

Ashwin's seemingly mild annoyance at the support cast now that the pitch was doing tricks for him was at odds with his reaction towards them throughout the series. In Melbourne, when only he and Ishant Sharma had maintained any sort of pressure, Ashwin had said, "It's too far-fetched for me to think along those lines. I can only think what best I can offer the team. At the end of the day you can't point a finger at anybody else that he went wrong. It is a team game."

When asked in Brisbane what difference it made for him bowling alongside two genuinely quick bowlers, Ashwin had said: "As far as I was concerned, I had my focus very sharp. It really didn't matter what was happening at the other end. Not from the point of view of the team's cause. From my perspective, whatever happened at the other end I would have forgotten and gone about my job. Having faced the music ourselves, it is a pleasure actually to see the opposition also face similar kind of music."

When Ashwin was actually onto something, however briefly, the other end mattered. If only India can sort out the other end, all the runs that Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane have been scoring might amount to something.