Report: Warm-up 2: Cricket Australia XI vs Indians - Day 2

Team India made the most of their second warm-up game, against Cricket Australia XI, at the Gliderol Stadium in Adelaide with 92 overs of bowling 90 overs of batting. (Also Read: Report: Warm-up 2: Cricket Australia XI vs Indians - Day 1)

In two days’ play, the bowlers picked up 15 wickets for 326 runs and scored 375 losing seven wickets. Three batsmen retired after getting to their respective half centuries.

After the batsmen put on 375, the Indian bowlers came to the party once again, getting two early wickets. It was Varun Aaron, who got the first strike, trapping Ryan Carters lbw off his first ball. Umesh Yadav followed suit, trapping Ashton Turner on the backfoot and getting the Indians their second wicket in the seventh over.

The two opening bowlers pitched the ball between good and back of a length consistently, often forcing the batsmen to go on the backfoot. There were fewer bouncers as compared to the first innings.

Despite losing a couple of early wickets, the CA XI batsmen scored runs at a good pace, finding the fence on a regular basis.

Wriddhiman Saha was behind the wickets while Vijay and Dhawan occupied the first and second slip respectively.

After bowling five overs each, Aaron and Umesh made way for Ishant Sharma and Karn Sharma. A couple of tight overs later Ishant cranked up the pace. He set Mathew Short up with a bouncer, pushed the next one a touch fuller outside the off-stump and then knocked off the bails with a full, straight delivery.

Ishant welcomed the new batsman, Alex Keath, with two sharp bouncers and in the next over, got him to edge a back of length delivery to behind to Saha.

To begin the day, Murali Vijay (60 off 136) and Virat Kohli (66 off 94) started off steadily and solidly. There was a barrage of short balls in the phase just before the day’s first drinks break, which the two Indian batsmen negotiated well. There were some controlled pull shots and fine leaves. The two ducked out the bouncers when they had to and fended the accurate ones away.

About 45 minutes into the day’s play, both Virat and Vijay retired their innings to give Ajinkya Rahane (56 off 64 balls) and Rohit Sharma (48 off 73) a hit in the middle. The two Mumbai batsmen started out facing spinners but were treated to some short stuff from the pacers regularly as their stay in the middle progressed.

Rohit was in an attacking mood from the beginning and found the fence with fluency. He played shots around the wicket, pulling, driving and lofting the ball all along. The first two sixes of the Indian innings came from Rohit’s bat – over midwicket and long-on. He also struck five fours. Rahane’s strike-rate was equally impressive even as he kept the ball along the ground most times. His knock comprised seven fours.

Rohit was two short of his fifty when Evan Gulbis ran him out. Rahane retired soon after getting to his half century with a crisp boundary past point.

Saha and Suresh Raina opened up after spending a while at the wicket. Raina went on the attack, cracking two fours and a six, all on the on-side. His stint ended after a quickfire 20 (24 balls) as he prodded forward and edged one to the slip cordon. Saha was more delicate, guiding the ball down the fine leg and driving it. 

Saha batted on as he lost Raina, Ravindra Jadeja and Karn Sharma in quick succession. The Indians’ innings ended on 375 when Saha nicked one to the slip cordon.

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source: bcci.tv