Winning the toss gave Australia the advantage they didn’t have in Adelaide. An opening partnership of 112 put the icing on that cake. Marcus Harris was sublime. He looks a likely prospect, with a set up that reminds one of Warner and a temperament than reminds one of Langer. He played much better straight today than he did in Adelaide and in getting to 70 looked every chance of a maiden Test century. The freak delivery he received from the off spinner Vihari that reared off a spot on the pitch and took his gloves to first slip was unfortunate. He has made a solid start to Test cricket. Aaron Finch on the other hand looks as though his Test career will proceed much as his short-form career was gone. He drives with a gap between bat and pad and he likely to take full balls off the stumps through mid wicket. Bowled and LBW always look likely to be the way he is dismissed, and it’s just how many he makes before he gets taken down that will determine his place. He played some nice shots today and was then trapped in front two balls in a row that he escaped by the skin of his teeth, before finally being trapped plumb by Bumrah. He fought hard to play straight and his 50 was well made. One gets the feeling India have him worked out though.
Khawaja and Handscomb again failed to make any impression. Khawaja was magnificent in the 1st Test against Pakistan in saving that match, with his temperament and patience the key to that innings. At the moment he appears to still be stuck in that mindset without being able to work the singles or get off strike. He is wanting to be the number three batsman, the one who plays through the innings and takes the responsibility of holding the batting together. But he’s forgotten that he also needs to generate runs as well. Today it felt as though he over-compensated for his poor dismissal in the second innings in Adelaide and tried not to play the wild slog, but he got so bogged down that he instead tried to cut a ball that wasn’t there and just edged it behind for 5. Again the Indian plans to him have been excellent and he needs to have some hard thought as to how to get out of the boggy ground he is currently occupying. Handscomb was taken by a blinder by Kohli at second slip, but the cut shot wasn’t on to a bowler whose stock delivery is the one in to the right hander, which cramped Handscomb and made the glide over slips he was attempting just a push to slips. Today was his chance to nail down his position in the team. The door is still wide open.
Marsh and Head played terrifically well under trying conditions. By mid afternoon the wicket was starting to play tricks and the bowlers had found their range. It would not be unfair to suggest that there was about a hundred play-and-misses by the Australian batsmen on day one as the ball started to move in the air and off the wicket. Neither batsman allowed this to worry them as they consolidated after the four quick wickets. Marsh played a couple of those cuts and drives that make him look like an elite batsman, but was also dropped by Pant from a simple edge behind from the off spinner. To his detriment Marsh failed to learn the lesson, and soon after was caught at first slip attempting the same shot. His 45 should have been more.
Travis Head is Australia’s new talisman, the young kid with a desire to get on with the game and change the course of the match, such that players like Ponting, Clarke and Smith had done before him. He is not in that company yet but he has the same spirit as they did at the same age, and the same ability to exhilarate and frustrate. He had reached 58 through a combination of wonderful strokeplay and some good fortune, and with the new ball taken should have looked to negotiate his way to stumps with his skipper to leave Australia in a leading position. Instead he slashed away in the air to deep backward point where Kohli had stationed a fielder all day, in what was really a very negative fashion for a team on the first day of a Test. However it looked like genius as Head picked him out, and not only concluded his own innings but opened up the Australian lower order late in the day against the new ball, and the possibility was there for India to finish the innings off on day one. Head is a very good up-ad-coming player, but he negated all of his good work during the day with that one shot.
Paine and Cummins showed the way batsmen should play out the final nine overs of the day, and will resume on day two with more work to do. Once again the lower order will have to be the ones to fashion a good first innings total rather than an average one, and again it is the batsmen who should be disappointed in their dismissals after making a good fist of the start of their innings.
You get the feeling that India missed a trick in not choosing either Jadeja or Kuldeep as the spinner in the XI. Perhaps they will still reap the reward of choosing four specialist fast bowlers, and all four are good fast bowlers at that. But the pitch does appear to be open to spin already, and while their part timer Vihari picked up two wickets he did not appear threatening in the way Ashwin was in Adelaide, or that Jadeja has been against Australia in the past. The already up-and-down nature of the pitch may well work better for the fast bowling cartel, but if it does flatten out a little then the lack of a specialist spinner may well harm their chances.
How many more can Australia fashion with the bat on Day Two against the Indian attack who all had extravagant movement with the ball? Can Australia’s bowlers exploit any dangers in the pitch to bowl India out cheaply and set up a winning position? With Nathan Lyon end up being the key protagonist on a wicket that 24 hours ago looked as though it was going to be a fast bowlers paradise? Or will India’s batting line up hit their straps and take the game between their teeth. Like the six previous days of this series, the new day looks to be as promising and exciting as Test cricket can offer.
No comments:
Post a Comment