On a day on which the Aussie
players did whatever they could to make their little mate Phillip Hughes smile
in the heaven, the Indians were able to
make their presence felt as well right at the end of the day’s play as
they got three back to back wickets with the second new ball to make things
almost even-Stevens. Winning the toss, the hosts batted first and David Warner
was in an absolute hurry. He got some wide half volley which he gladly accepted
and peppered the off side fence quite a few times before the Indian stand-in
captain woke up and made the first bowling change which controlled things a
little bit.
The boundaries still flew
though, but, not at the same rate at which they were flowing in the first half
an hour. The only spinner that India picked i.e. Karn Sharma was on debut and
his nervousness could easily have been felt as he bowled a handful of
full-tosses to start with, some of which got dispatched, some didn’t, but, the
Aussies absolutely coasted along. Warner was so influential from one end that
the fall of two cheap wickets at the other end did not let the scorecard look
bad for Australia at any point of time.
Later, Michael Clarke and
Steven Smith clobbered their way to fifties too. Clarke had to retire hurt as
trying to sway away from the line of a leg side bouncer, he hurt his back and
the pain was so much that he was immediately off. The resigned look on his face
was not good to see for the Australian fans. It remains to be seen if he comes
back tomorrow and resumes his innings or not. Presently, Smith is unbeaten out
there and the remaining players who have to bat apart from Clarke are the
tail-enders i.e. Johnson, Harris and Siddle.
No comments:
Post a Comment