Test cricket at its best as Bumrah steps up again and then goes too far

There were hours on Saturday when the ball didn't seem to get past the bat even though India's numbers seven and eight were in residence.

On Sunday, on the same pitch, there were hours when the ball didn't look like hitting the bat, even though Australia's top order were the occupants.

Yet it was the same field, same location, similar ball.

Australia, the world, may not have seen such a fast bowling exponent as Bumrah.

His outstretched arm resembles a tense trebuchet as he takes a few steps in, leaning his head to one side as if to avoid the whirring arc of his own weapon. Unlike a trebuchet, it is ruthlessly accurate and fast, meaning it concedes few runs and often hits the stumps.

Like a trebuchet he destroys.

No bowler before him has reached 200 wickets while he averages less than 20. That number does not include the wickets he buys for others when he takes a spell and batsmen relax fatally.

There are the poles of play, brutality and beauty, murder and poetry as RC Robertson-Glasgow Don Bradman once summarized. The battle between Bumrah and Marnus Labuschagne was martial, and Labuschagne will have the midriff and forearm bruises to confirm this. From time to time Labuschagne was literally overthrown, but never from his mission. Their fight was crucial.

Bumrah sometimes made the other Australians look like park players, beating them two balls in three and sometimes displacing the estimable Usman Khawaja as if he were a number 11.

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There is the butterfly effect where the game often triggers the slightest contingency, which is barely noticed at the time. Australia needed runs and Steve Smith had the right idea when he hit one wide and full off Siraj to fall behind.

It was only one wicket, but 22 balls later Australia had lost 4-11 and the match had almost gone over the edge. Australia's triumph was to grab him by the legs and drag him back.

There was the obligation to balance the needs of the moment, the day and the match, because another is just around the corner and will be decisive. Winning but putting oneself into the effort could prove pyrrhic.

Australia have their form and fitness issues but the 18 extra overs last wicket pair of Nathan Lyon and Scott Boland forced India to bowl will have gained their pound of flesh.

The 55 runs they combined also clinched the day, although Australia will have to factor into its plot the way the batting became more comfortable as the day progressed. For the second day in a row, just when it all seemed to be over, it wasn't.

The sting this time was that Bumrah would take himself out of a wicket in the last over, and Lyon would add salt by slipping the last ball for four.

With stumps drawn, Bumrah stood alone on the field for a long time, his hands clasped around his knees. The question now is how well he and India can relate. Test cricket at least gives you a night to sleep on it.

There were the games within the game.

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Australia needed more runs but could not forge them initially and could not afford more wickets to haunt them later.

India desperately needed wickets but could not afford to trade runs. It was and is 1-1, you remember. Like a hung parliament, everything became a negotiation.

There were the five catches that India dropped, none easy, but any of which could have turned the match again. On the other hand, there was the miscommunication between old friends Pat Cummins and Mitch Starc that cost Starc his wicket and ran out, which, as far as anyone knew at the time, would leave Australia short.

Especially in this match there is extra theatrical action, where one good guy deserves the other. Konstas, Bumrah, Siraj, Virat Kohli: they have all led this line. Kept within bounds as it has been, this byplay adds to the excitement.

If Test cricket was ever truly too solemn for its own good, it isn't now. It's full of sass, charm and guts.

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