Steve O’ Keefe recalls his performance in the 2017 Pune Test.

Steve O’ Keefe recalls his performance in the 2017 Pune Test. Steve O’ Keefe had six wickets in both innings of the India Test in Pune.

During their last visit to India in the 2016-17 season, Australia failed to win a Test series. They did, however, draw first blood in the four-match series with a resounding victory in Pune, where left-arm spinner Steve O’Keefe was the wrecker in chief, taking six wickets in both innings on a typical rank-turner.

The veteran spinner has now revealed how he castled the then-Indian captain Virat Kohli, who left a straight delivery that went straight through and disturbed the latter’s furniture. At the same time, O’Keefe explained where the Indian spinners had gone wrong tactically and how he had taken advantage of the surface.

“In India, my most memorable (wicket) was probably Virat Kohli.” We were playing on this absolute dust bowl of a wicket that was spinning and ragging sideways when I knocked him over. It was the absolute pinnacle of a wicket, junk. “Ravi Shastri described the wicket as having dermatitis, it was that bad, it had holes in it,” Steve O’Keefe said on SEN 1170 The Run Home.

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Steve O’ Keefe: It was an absolut tip of a wicket

“On top of that, Virat just lets this ball go, it pitches outside off, and I’m supposed to be spinning the ball (away) towards first or second slip.” “This thing just kept going with the angle; I’m trying to spin it and it’s knock out off-stump, so I’m like, ‘You beauty!'” he exclaim.

“In the first inning, the Indian spinners came out and were just spinning it wildly, going to second slip, bouncing off the middle — they were going everywhere.” Then I went out and put less revs (on the ball) than the rest of the world does in a day, and they’re just sliding on, and I’m just getting LBWs with these non-turners,” he continued.

In the Pune Test, chasing a mammoth 441, India needed someone to bat for a longer period of time, and all hopes were pin on Virat Kohli. Unfortunately, he could only manage a 13-point score. Steve O’ Keefe pitched one outside the off-stump on the second delivery of the 17th over, and Kohli left a straight delivery expecting it to turn. Nonetheless, the ball did not turn and instead skidded back to hit the off-stump, indicating a lack of anticipation.

Australia won the game by 333 runs, and O’ Keefe was named Man of the Match after taking 6/35 in both innings. However, it was India who staged a remarkable comeback following that, with a morale-boosting victory in Bangalore. The Ranchi Test ended in a tie, and the hosts sealed the series with the last laugh in Dharamsala.

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