The quiet enforcer works his magic

In 10 balls, he broke Australia’s spine with 3 wickets, his name barely being chanted from his familiar Chepauk stands

- Vivek Krishnan

A wry smile. That's all Steve Smith could offer. He had scored 46 runs off 69 balls by then, but his 70th ball - the first in the 28th over of the Australian innings-was a ripper that the batter could do nothing about. It left Ravindra Jadeja's strong fingers, pitched on a good length on middle stump and disturbed the top of off.

It seemed to encapsulate everything that makes the leftarm spinner tick- precise length, quick through the air and extracting just enough turn from a dry surface to breach the defence of a top batter adept at playing spin.

Off the second ball of his next over, it was the turn of Marnus Labuschagne, similar to Smith in his movements and mannerisms, to be undone by Jadeja. With the Indian spinners applying the choke on the Aussie batters in the middle overs, Labuschagne was trying to unsettle them by playing lap sweeps and conventional sweeps. He tried the latter against Jadeja, but the extra bounce induced a thin edge for a straightforward catch to 'keeper KL Rahul.

Next came Alex Carey, a lefthand batter. In modern-day cricket, there's an aversion among captains to bowl spinners who turn the ball into the batter. When the ball is spinning though, it's not quite easy to negotiate.

Jadeja went around the wicket to Carey to cut down the angle and trap him leg-before for a two-ball duck.