Kohli and Jaiswal put ruthless India on verge of crushing victory over Australia
Cricket probably doesn’t owe Virat Kohli anything,It has given him riches beyond imagination, influence beyond reason, recognition that has built into idolatry,But then, he has given cricket riches, both in the literal cash churned from his name and the intangible of what his story has added to the game,So if the game owed him anything, perhaps it was a lucky break, one generous chance at a century to ease the tension of a lean 18 months without one,Walking out with India two wickets down, 321 runs ahead, with Yashasvi Jaiswal immaculately set on 141 and Australia already wheezing, the game delivered one.
The third day of this first Test saw the real Perth appear.Not the mild impostor of the two days prior, with their gentle temperatures and occasional cloud.By the middle of day three, even in the shade, the heat buffeted up against you like a herd of cattle jostling through a gate.Horrible stuff to bowl in, more horrible still for players who knew they had let a match slip with a bad batting hour of their own.When Kohli was called upon to face the second ball after lunch, the Australians were already in their 85th over.
They had removed the asphyxiating presence of KL Rahul, but Devdutt Padikkal kept up the squeeze,Jaiswal had raised his ton with an uppercut six but otherwise was happy to keep playing percentages,Sure, Australia had the brief benefit of a new ball, but the overnight lead of 218 might already have been enough, so 321 by lunch looked to have moved the target towards impossibility,When Padikkal edged Josh Hazlewood to slip first ball after the break, the clock and the sun had moved past 1pm,Even with no heat in the match, there was heat in the ground: the Australians were in the middle of a frying pan.
But there is always the heat of being Kohli, the player who fans most want to see succeed,There is the want, the expectation,The big Indian contingent in the stands celebrated his first run, a tap to cover, then cooed a quality drive through mid off for three,After a run of low scores and some early rumblings about whether his occupancy in the team was expiring, this innings still mattered,Kohli set about it as though it did, seeing off that new ball, stretching forward to knock the ball into gaps, taking on the fielders.
Ducking a bouncer, stretching forward to drive through cover, three that would have skated for four if not for this terminally slow outfield.Making up for it with a rifled straight drive, Pat Cummins looking as flat as he has ever looked.With Jaiswal’s score soon topping 150 just as each of his previous three centuries have done, the line of succession was clear.Think generational Indian talents in their first Perth Test.Sachin Tendulkar’s teenage ton at the Waca in 1993, arching his back to carve the quicks.
Kohli’s first Waca visit in 2012 didn’t get the milestone, but he top scored in both innings, last man out for 75 after teammates fell around him,He did get a ton in his first game at the new Perth stadium in 2018, a top-tier 123 on the spiciest track the ground has yet seen,Now comes Jaiswal: a first-innings duck, a second-innings hunt,What stood out from a young player was his concentration, over seven hours at the crease,He is so much more than an IPL hitter.
That’s why England opener Ben Duckett was so tone deaf when suggesting that his team’s attacking cricket had “inspired” Jaiswal during their recent series.Jaiswal left home at 12 to live in a tent and work in street markets to fund his training, playing every format available to rise up to Mumbai state ranks before the IPL.English parents would be arrested if they allowed their child to try that.At 22, Jaiswal already has lifetimes more experience than cosetted players of some other countries ever will.There have been 1,032 players to visit Australia and bat in Test cricket.
Jaiswal is the 35th to make a hundred in their first match in this country.He is something else: a youthful face, an ancient hunger.He looked born to play in Perth, relishing the bounce, the chance to play off the back foot in his unusual style, using an almost straight bat to flash through point, or uppercutting over the cordon with a sabre show.Sign up to The SpinSubscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week’s actionafter newsletter promotionAnd when he was out, with Rishabh Pant and Dhruv Jurel following in short order, that let Kohli switch from quiet partner to charismatic lead.He put on 89 with Washington Sundar, 77 with Nitish Reddy.
The roar for the half-century was huge, let alone the build to the hundred.Kohli didn’t slow down though, slog-sweeping and reversing Nathan Lyon.After a finer sweep on 96 and a boundary dive, there was a very human moment, Kohli craning his neck to see the umpire, unsure if it had been signalled four.Don’t worry, you’ve got it.So the declaration, then Jasprit Bumrah devastating another top order late in a day: 534 to win, Australia 12 for three.
To a point, Kohli’s were junk runs, but they were runs that left Australia more and more deeply cooked, a stew left on simmer until every recognisable component of meat or vegetable has broken down into swirls of bubbling mush.They were runs that left India revelling in a talisman coming good.Runs unneeded in this match might yet matter in the series, if this inningsgets Kohli purring for closer contests.And while Kohli is not done yet, they were runs that might inform the handover to his protege.If Jaiswal is hungry, he could yet learn from the lean old wolf.
Sprinting singles in the heat, concerned with meeting a standard more than the score.Piling into Marnus Labuschagne’s short balls, no hesitation whistling boundaries from a part-timer.Ruthless, as his team was.With India 453 runs ahead, Kohli argued with the umpire about a wide.
Retailers prepare for cautious Christmas as a chill settles on consumers
Shoppers may be preparing to swoop for Black Friday bargains this week, but retailers are expecting a “cautious Christmas”, with households concerned about high energy and housing costs, as well as the potential impact of the recent budget.Trade has been slow in the run-up to the US-inspired promotional spree, which is a week later than last year, as shoppers held off buying presents in the hope they can snap up a bargain.Figures from the e-commerce trade body IMRG, which tracks the performance of more than 200 retailers who trade online, indicate that sales continued to fall this month after a disappointing October – down 11.7% for the week from 10 November, the worst weekly performance of the year so far.Andy Mulcahy, insight director at IMRG, says the latest figures mean online sales are down 2
Passwords are giving way to better security methods – until those are hacked too, that is
We humans are simply too dumb to use passwords. A recent study from password manager NordPass found that “secret” was the most commonly used password in 2024. That was followed by “123456” and “password”. So let’s all give praise that the password is dying.Yes, we know that we should be using 20-letter passwords with weird symbols and numbers, but our minds can’t cope
Labour could be knocked off course as it sticks to £40bn mission | Heather Stewart
‘“Starmer the farmer harmer”: the placards sported by the army of angry landowners who rolled into Westminster last Tuesday sent a clear message to the prime minister, albeit while he was out of the country.By Thursday, the Treasury was hinting at a retreat, albeit a very modest one, on its plans to levy inheritance tax on larger estates, mooting a transitional regime for the oldest farmers, who may not have time to organise their affairs.Meanwhile, the Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, fresh from wading into the future of EU relations, said retailers were right to warn of job losses as a result of Rachel Reeves’s £25bn national insurance contributions (NICs) increase. Scores of companies had written to the chancellor to plead their case.The noisy protests and hurried government consultations conjured botched budgets of the past – George Osborne’s omnishambles in 2012, with its pasty and caravan taxes; Gordon Brown’s abolition of the 10p tax rate in 2007, which Alistair Darling later had to paper over
Without the EU, the joke is on us if Trump gets his tariffs | William Keegan
‘As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be occupied by a downright fool and complete narcissistic moron.”Those were the words of the great American journalist HL Mencken (in the Baltimore Evening Sun, 26 July 1920). The impending arrival back at the White House surely fulfils his prophecy.Last time Trump arrived in office, he was relatively unprepared
Remember the global financial crisis? Well, high-risk securities are back
When Margot Robbie made a surprise cameo in the 2015 film adaptation of Michael Lewis’s book The Big Short, she did more to educate the general population about the risks of securitisation than most financial experts.The Australian actor’s brief monologue, notoriously delivered from a champagne bubble bath, explained how banks were bundling up their growing cache of risky sub-prime mortgages into investable bonds, before slicing them up and selling them off for profit.But the proliferation of these mortgage-backed securities in the early 2000s meant there was a catastrophic ripple effect across the global financial system when borrowers started to default on their home loans.The resulting crisis in 2008 triggered a crackdown by regulators. They introduced new rules that could help ensure that asset-backed securities – once allegedly referred to as “crack cocaine of the financial services industry” by the billionaire Guy Hands – would never again spark such a massive meltdown
Jaguar boss defends new ad and rebrand amid ‘vile hatred’ online
The boss of Jaguar has defended the company’s move away from “traditional automotive stereotypes” after a clip of its new advert was met with a barrage of “vile hatred and intolerance” online.This week, Jaguar Land Rover, the luxury UK carmaker owned by India’s Tata Motors, posted a 30-second clip on X featuring models in brightly coloured clothing set against equally vibrant backdrops, without a car or the company’s traditional cat logo.“If we play in the same way that everybody else does, we’ll just get drowned out. So we shouldn’t turn up like an auto brand,” Jaguar’s managing director, Rawdon Glover told the Financial Times of the company’s “copy nothing” campaign.The new ad and rebrand prompted a backlash online, including on X where the platform’s chief executive, Elon Musk, posted: “Do you sell cars?”In response, Glover said, “Yes
Nat Sciver-Brunt guides England to ‘scrappy’ T20 win against South Africa
Scotland deliver show of strength to stall Australia’s resurgence
Max Verstappen hails title as his best – and insists he is staying at Red Bull
Kohli and Jaiswal put ruthless India on verge of crushing victory over Australia
Australia v India: first men’s Test, day three – as it happened
Never write him off: how Max Verstappen overcame ‘undriveable monster’ to win fourth world title