Wisden’s men’s Test spells of 2023, No.5: Matthew Kuhnemann – 5-16

India v Australia
3rd Test, Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023
Holkar Stadium, Indore, March 01-03

Completing a perfect 10 in gymnastics, running a marathon under two hours, beating the New Zealand All Blacks in Rugby in the early 2010s, challenging the Australian Hockeyroos in women’s field hockey in the 1990s – these have been some of the toughest challenges in the history of sport. Winning a Test match in India in the last decade has come up right amongst them.

Since the start of 2013, India have won 36 of the 46 Tests they have played at home. More astonishingly, they have lost just three. Beating India in a Test match in India requires the stars to align absolutely perfectly for visiting teams. It requires them to neutralise the cheat code that the pair of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja is, and it requires at least one of their players to put up a performance of a lifetime.

In Pune in 2017, it was Steve O’Keefe who ran riot on a raging turner dealing India the first of their three defeats since 2013. Six years later, another Australian left-arm spinner repeated the act in Indore, setting up the platform for one of the toughest feats in modern sport – beating India in a home Test.

Matthew Kuhnemann was not considered good enough to be picked in Australia’s original squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2023 that had four spinners. It was only when Mitchell Swepson had to return for personal reasons and when the Australian management realised that Ashton Agar’s “red-ball game is not quite where he wants it to be”, that Kuhnemann got a game.

His debut in the second Test of the series in Delhi was decent, showing signs of promise, but figures of 2-110 across the two innings meant not many people, including the Indian team, had an idea of what was about to hit them in the third Test in Indore.

Winning the toss, India opted to bat first. On a dry surface that gave the indication it would turn big and turn soon, Kuhnemann was brought on in the sixth over of the day. Rohit Sharma, who had already scored a century in the series and was looking at ease against spin like he has for the majority of his career, thought it would be a good idea to put pressure on the inexperienced spinner early on.

The plan made sense. Rohit stepped out on the last ball of Kuhnemann’s first over and looked to go aerial down the ground. The flight of the delivery had lured him in. The drift made him feel it was within his reach. Until the sharp turn ensured that it wasn’t. Rohit was beaten all ends up. Alex Carey had to move sharply to his right to collect the ball and whip the bails off, which he did. Kuhnemann had removed the India captain in his first over. A dream start for the 26-year-old, start being the keyword. It was only about to get better.

[caption id=”attachment_601197″ align=”alignnone” width=”1024″] Rohit Sharma was deceived by the drift and turn on the Matthew Kuhnemann delivery. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)[/caption]

Two balls later, Shubman Gill fell prey to his guile. A flighted length ball on off stump brought him forward, but the dip prevented him from reaching the pitch of the ball. Gill pushed away from his body, and the turn and bounce did the rest as it caught the outside edge, handing a dolly to Steve Smith at slip.

Virat Kohli came out to bat at No.4 and was greeted with a ball that pitched on leg and went past off on just the second delivery he faced. Flashbacks of Pune 2017, had just started.

If the turn the surface was offering was not a good enough ally for Kuhnemann, he was soon to find out that he would have variable bounce on his side as well. The last ball of his third over kept extremely low and nearly sneaked through under Kohli’s bat as he somehow managed to keep it out from the back foot.

Two balls later, Kuhnemann had his third. Shreyas Iyer, another exceptional player of spin, was undone by the tightness of his line and the low bounce as he tried to force a cut to a ball that wasn’t wide enough, resulting in an inside edge onto his stumps. In the space of 20 balls, Kuhnemann, who wasn’t in the original squad for the tour, had ripped out the heart of the Indian batting order.

Kohli was fighting a lone battle at one end before Todd Murphy dismissed him for 22 to reduce India to 70-6. KS Bharat fell on 82 before Kuhnemann returned after lunch to finish off the tail.

A dream delivery got rid of Ashwin, tempting him forward to drive and turning just enough to get his outside edge, while a flatter one pinned Umesh Yadav on the back foot, catching him plumb in front.

India were bowled out for 109. Kuhnemann finished with 5-16 off his nine overs, the sixth-best figures by a visiting left-arm spinner in India this century, and the first five-wicket haul by an Australian left-arm spinner since O’Keefe’s twin six-fors in Pune.

Australia took an 89-run first innings lead before bowling India out for 163 in the second innings. Nathan Lyon wreaked havoc, picking 8-64 as Australia chased down a target of 76 with ease.

There are several venues around the world which are considered to be fortresses for the respective home teams. For India, their entire country has been a fortress in Test cricket for more than ten years now. In Indore, it suffered a rare breach and Kuhnemann, with his maiden five-for, was one of the chief architects of it.