There were no demons in the Perth pitch, but the hosts could not cope with the brilliance of Jasprit Bumrah
More than any pitch in the world, people talk about Perth. In our collective memory, it was always the Waca, fast and furious enough for decades of sequels. These days the city’s cricket venue has hopped from the western bank of the Swan to the east at Perth Stadium, but in our collective contemporary consciousness the pitch is still essentially the Waca, spiritually the Waca. It was literally formed from the same clay, and as per the story about beings created that way, one half of the pair might as well have been made from the body of the other.
So if you look at the scorecard for the first day of the Australia-India Test at Perth, you would very reasonably have one question first. What in the hell was the pitch doing? India all out for 150 in two sessions, then Australia stumbling to the brink in the third, needing an Alex Carey miracle on day two to save them from 67 for 7. Seventeen wickets in the day, all to pace bowlers. It must have been an untameable monster, no? A golem with the face of Dennis Lillee and eyes of desert fire, hungry for the taste of batting dreams?
Well, not really. There was coverage this week of young curator Isaac McDonald, belying a gruff exterior by saying how nervous he was about his surfaces before big matches. He might be struggling with his dinner looking at the scores. But from what could be seen at the ground, he has done nothing wrong. It was a pitch with good bounce and carry, lively enough to give some lateral movement: tricky while offering nothing in the realm of treachery. It provided a brilliant spectacle for enjoyers of fast bowling. Various batters coped for a time. But overall, none could cope for long enough although it should not have been beyond them.