Tempers flied high in Adelaide on 4th day

Things got heated up a little bit yesterday in the first test match between India and Australia as the players from both sides looked to get involved in the war of words. It all started when David Warner was clean bowled off the bowling of Varun Aaron and the Indian team gave him a send off by screaming ‘come on’, ‘come on’ in almost his ears as he walked back to the pavilion. Unfortunately for India, that turned out to be an illegal delivery as the TV umpire found out that Aaron had no part of his feet behind the popping crease as he bowled the ball. So, Warner was called up and as he came back, he started mocking Aaron which prompted some of the Indian close in fielders to have an animated chat with the Aussie left hander.

The second incident took place in the final session of play when Rohit Sharma was bowling. Steven Smith came down the wicket against him and tried to pad a delivery away. Rohit appealed viciously, but, the umpire, obviously, could not give that wicket as Smith was a long way down the wicket. It was almost impossible for the umpire to judge from there if the ball was going to hit the stumps. The altercation arose when Smith tried to gesture to Rohit that he should not have appealed for that. Rohit, who was already frustrated after not having got that wicket, got furious to see Smith gesturing towards him and he screamed loudly ‘what’ ‘what’.

Smith did not respond to that though, to his credit, and got ready into his stance to face another ball, but, that’s when Virat Kohli decided to take it a bit too far. He went to Smith and asked him to stay in his limits and not try to say anything unnecessarily to the bowlers or the fielders. Smith reverted back to him angrily, but, then, the umpires took charge and got it all sorted. It did not look too good on television, but, many experts reckon that it’s actually good that such a thing happened as it would set the series up nicely now.

Australia ended first day with upper hand in Adelaide

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 Dhoni in Adelaide, Kohli to be the captain

Finally, the suspense has cleared and it has been officially stated by the Indian team management that the regular captain MS Dhoni would not play in the Adelaide test match. With Dhoni reaching Australia on 6^th and then, having a couple of training sessions with the team, a few people were starting to believe that he might opt to walk out for the toss on the morning of the 9^th. There were even talks about India playing him as a specialist batsman for his fingers to be protected.

But, Virat Kohli, who will lead the team in Adelaide, told the media that there was never a plan to play Dhoni as a batsman. Whenever he plays, he would play as a wicketkeeper. As per Kohli, Dhoni is fit to bat, but, he is not fit to keep wickets as of now and that’s why, he has been kept out. It’s just a matter of few days for him to be able to start the wicket-keeping drills again and most probably, he would be playing the second test match which is starting from 17^th in Brisbane.

This is the first time that Kohli is going to lead India in whites. This is a big thing, butterfly-in-the-stomach type of thing, but, the Delhi batsman is not even close to being nervous or at least he tried to suggest so. Kohli is not planning anything. He says he would act spontaneously on the field on the demand of the situation.  But, one thing that he has promised is the aggression and the ruthlessness.

If India wins the Adelaide test under Kohli, there would be a strong case for him to be retained as skipper in Brisbane even if Dhoni gets fit as he is supposed to be.

Pakistan won the first T20 in Dubai

Pakistan beat New Zealand by 7 wickets in the first T20 game yesterday in Dubai. After restricting the Kiwis to a modest total, the hosts were clinical with the bat as they hunted down the target in 19.1 overs to take a 1-0 lead. The second and last game will be played later today on the same ground.

Sarfraz Ahmad, who has been the best batsman for Pakistan in all formats in the recent times, was in top form again as he scored 70 plus opening the batting to get his team to the win. A few people remained awestruck by his improvisation especially with the six that he hit off Matt Henry over square leg. Henry was clocking close to 90 miles an hour, but, that did not make Sarfraz hesitate in playing the sweep shot. He went forward and easily lofted the ball as if he was playing against a gentle medium pacer. The expression that was on Henry’s face after that shot was played was worth seeing. He could not believe that he was treated that rudely by the batsman.

This was not the first time that Sarfraz swept a fast bowler for six. He had done that to James Faulkner, the Australian fast bowler, in the 3-match ODI series a few weeks ago. The Pakistani wicketkeeper has got great eyes and he is gutsy too. No matter however good hand-eye coordination you have, playing such shots takes some guts.

Pakistani bowling also deserves some credit for this win against New Zealand. In the death, the bowlers of the home team were superb, especially Irfan who was bowling the full balls that were tailing in for the left handers and were curving away from the right handers making the big hitting difficult.

IPL betting case at an interesting point

The IPL betting case has reached a point where it’s impossible for anybody to predict the final verdict. The only issue that the two judges seem to have with N Srinivasan is his conflict of interest. The Tamil Nadu based administrator has clearly been told by the bench that if he is willing to be allowed to contest the president’s election, he will have to show the court that he is not on the wrong side by any means in buying an IPL team while being one of the board officials.

The defence lawyer put forward various points in front of the court yesterday. He told the court that Srinivasan had not voluntarily asked for the permission to become an IPL team owner. Actually, Lalit Modi, the current Rajasthan Cricket Association chief, had made him place the bid. Modi, who was the head of the IPL governing council at that point of time, took the help of the then board president Sharad Pawar and got slight amendment made in the board constitution to clear all hurdles for Srinivasan.

The defence lawyer also pointed out that if the conflict of interest issue is taken seriously, a lot of other people would also come into the picture. Several former players, despite being at some post in the board, have commentated in the previous editions of the Indian Premier League.

However, the judges were not completely satisfied by those points and they asked the lawyer to come up with more details in the next hearing which has been scheduled on 8^th of December. According to the legal experts, the verdict is not too far away in this case and it can go in the favour of either of the parties. It all depends on how strongly the defence lawyer argues on 8^th.