The offspinner Jason Krejza showed his eight wickets in the first innings were not a fluke by adding four more breakthroughs in the second to finish with the fourth-best figures of any debutant. Despite Krejza's topsy-turvy return of 12 for 358, the coach Tim Nielsen did not wish he had been preferred in the opening three games, when Cameron White was the main spinner.
"We're not regretting, it's always hard not to look back when someone has taken 12 wickets and think 'what if'," Nielsen said. "The great thing for Jason is he has had six or seven weeks of bowling in Indian conditions. He's been able to watch a spinner like Harbhajan Singh bowl in Indian conditions and learnt day-in, day-out about spin bowling."
Krejza's performance in one of the tour games, where he finished with 0 for 199, showed he was not ready for Test action a month ago, but he developed quickly and Nielsen expects him to be a future part of the team. "I really believe the work Jason has put in over the last six or seven weeks, you've seen in this Test," he said.
"He wasn't quite ready to play in Hyderabad and if we had played him in the first or second Test with that level of play, he may have found himself struggling to work out the game. A little bit of patience from the selectors, and with Ricky Ponting using him well, has seen some great success and I'm sure we'll see him more in the future."
In the second session Krejza bowled VVS Laxman with a well-flighted and big-turning offspinner before being on a hat-trick with the smart return catch of Sourav Ganguly. After tea he helped finish the innings by picking up Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Zaheer Khan to capture 4 for 143 from 31 overs.
His match figures were the second most expensive of all time, but until Shane Watson arrived on the fourth day, Krejza was the only bowler able to upset the Indians. He will now hope for a game against New Zealand at the Gabba later this month.