Handled the ball, then stumped

Australia were 340 for three at Chennai on the second morning of the deciding Test of 2001, Matthew Hayden past 200, Steve Waugh on 47. In the 96th over Waugh was given out handled the ball. Ricky Ponting came in and was stumped first ball. The card reads 4-340, 5-340, and Australia were all out for 391.

Three hundred and forty for three

Australia chose to bat and Hayden made 203 from 320 balls, with 15 fours and six sixes. Mark Waugh made 70, Justin Langer 35. They were 326 for three at the close of the first day, Hayden 147, and the series stood at one all after Kolkata.

Full scorecard: India v Australia, 3rd Test, Chennai, 18–22 March 2001 →

The over

Harbhajan Singh bowling. Waugh, on 47 from 150 balls, handled the ball, which the card records in those three words in the place where a bowler’s name would go. Ponting, stumped Dighe bowled Harbhajan, 0, one ball.

Adam Gilchrist leg before to Harbhajan for 1 at 344. Shane Warne caught for 0 at 374, Jason Gillespie 0 at 376, Colin Miller 0 at 385, Hayden last out at 391.

Seven wickets for 51 runs, and Harbhajan took six of them: 38.2 overs, seven for 133. Four of the last eight batters made nought. Australia were all out by lunch on the second day.

Five hundred and one

India replied with 501. Shiv Sunder Das 84, Sadagoppan Ramesh 61, VVS Laxman 65, Sachin Tendulkar 126, Rahul Dravid 81. The lead was 110. Australia made 264 the second time, Mark Waugh 57, and Harbhajan bowled 41.5 overs, twenty maidens, for eight for 84. Fifteen for 217 in the match, and a second innings in which he took eight of the ten and Nilesh Kulkarni and Sairaj Bahutule the other two.

One hundred and fifty-five for eight

India needed 155 and were 23 for one at lunch on the last day, 132 for five at tea. Laxman made 66 from 82 balls and was caught at 135. Sairaj Bahutule, on debut, was caught three balls later, 135 for seven. Zaheer Khan was caught at 151 with four still needed.

Sameer Dighe, also on debut, was 22 not out at the end, and Harbhajan 3 not out from five balls. India won by two wickets and the series 2-1. Colin Miller took three for 41 and Glenn McGrath two for 21; Warne’s six overs cost 41 and took nothing.

The dismissal

Handled the ball was a way of being out for as long as the Laws had a list of them, and it was removed from the list in 2017. Waugh’s is one of the few on a Test card, and the only one in a match this close.

Gooch’s at Old Trafford is another. The card records it without comment, as it records everything, and the fall-of-wickets line does the rest: two wickets at 340, one of them to no bowler.

Two awards

The card lists two players of the match, Hayden for 203 and 35, and Harbhajan for seven for 133 and eight for 84, and one player of the series, Harbhajan, for 32 wickets. The umpires were Arani Jayaprakash and Rudi Koertzen. It is Test number 1539.

What the card holds

A double hundred on the losing side. A dismissal with no bowler’s name. Two wickets in one over at 340 and seven for 51 after it. Fifteen wickets for one bowler in the match and 32 in the series. A chase of 155 that lost eight wickets. And a series line, India won 2-1, decided by the two batters who were not out at the end, both of them in the side by accident of the tail.

••••••

No. 9 in The Over That Turned It, a series of 9.

NextA hundred and thirteen wickets