Ind vs Aus: Australia survive to reach 232/9 at stumps on Day 4, lead by 40 runs

February 25, 2013

Australia_survive

New Delhi, Feb 25: Moises Henriques batted brilliantly in the pressure to make India bat again as he helped Australia surpass 192-run trail on the fourth day of the first Test at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

Debutant Henriques shone again with the bat in the second innings, smashing a six over long on to complete his half century. He also scored a fifty in first innings and added century stand with skipper Michael Clarke to help Australia reach 380.

Ravichandran Ashwin continued his red hot form, clinching another five-wicket haul in the match to take India closer to victory on the penultimate day.

Australia lost their seventh wicket when Ravindra Jadeja clean bowled Peter Siddle, who looked to play a slog sweep but missed the straight delivery.

Ashwin registered a ten-wicket haul when he trapped captain Michael Clarke plumb in front of the wicket on the third ball after tea.

Ashwin bowled a loopy delivery outside off on a length area that hit the rough patch and spun in viciously. Clarke rocked back but didn't even get a second to bring his bat down in time as the ball struck the pad.

Harbhajan Singh took his second wicket when he clean bowled Matthew Wade as Australia lost half of their side.

Wade went for a slog sweep to a delivery from outside off-stump but didn't connect as the ball sneaked through and struck timber.

Harbhajan took his first wicket when he trapped David Warner plumb in front of the wicket.

Harbhajan bowled a full delivery on middle, Warner tried to defend it down off the front foot but he failed to connect and got struck on the pads.

Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja dismissed Ed Cowan and Phillip Hughes respectively to leave Australia tottering at 65/3.

Ashwin struck again in the post lunch session as he broke the second wicket stand between Cowan and Warner by removing the former for patient 32 off 97 balls.

Australia suffered another blow in the next over when another southpaw Hughes was caught at slip by Virender Sehwag.

Trailing India by 158 runs, Ed Cowan and David Warner resumed Australia's second innings after lunch on the penultimate day.

R Ashwin dismissed Australian opener Shane Watson at the stroke of lunch to strengthen India's grip on the Test.

Ashwin bowled a flighted, slower delivery, wide outside off-stump and Watson first looked to play a defensive shot but was not close to the pitch of the ball that turned and bounced off the shoulder of the bat for an easy catch to Virender Sehwag at first slip.

Earlier, India gained a valuable 192-run lead as their first innings ended at 572 runs.

The Indian first innings ended when Peter Siddle had Bhuvneshwar Kumar (38) caught by captain Michael Clarke at mid-off off a slower delivery.

MS Dhoni registered the highest score by an Indian captain in Test cricket before falling to James Pattinson.

Pattinson had Dhoni caught behind by Matthew Wade off a bouncer which the Indian captain tried to hook but got only an edge.

Dhoni's 224-run knock was studded with 6 sixes and 24 fours.

The breakthrough came after Dhoni and Bhuvneshwar Kumar resumed the Indian first innings to start play on Day 4.

On Day 3, a maiden double hundred by Dhoni and Virat Kohli's fourth century flattened Australia as India finished at 515/8 with a lead of 135 runs.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
June 8,2020

New Delhi, Jun 8: Indian pacer S Sreesanth has slammed England all-rounder Ben Stokes for questioning MS Dhoni's intent during a World Cup match, saying that the former captain will end Stokes' career.

Stokes in his book titled 'On Fire' had questioned Dhoni's intent during India's 31-run defeat at the hands of England in the premier tournament last year.

"For Ben Stokes, I will only say that you should pray that Dhoni does not play against you in the future. Dhoni does not forget things easily," Sreesanth said during a Live session on Helo.

"I wish Stokes all the best for whenever he faces Dhoni again, be it IPL or an England vs India match. You must be earning in millions now, Dhoni Bhai will end your career. Dhoni will strike the ball everywhere and he (Stokes) can never dismiss Dhoni. Before he (Stokes) opens his mouth, he should make sure to wear a helmet," he added.

Former West Indies pacer Michael Holding had also come out in support of Dhoni and said that the wicket-keeper batsman wanted to win the match against England.

"Well, people will write anything in books these days, because people are a lot more free with their opinions and when they are writing books, they need to be making headlines at times," Holding had said on his official YouTube channel.

"...It was not the game that India had to win, but I don't think anyone can say that was a team tactic to lose the game. I watched that game and it appeared to me as if India weren't putting up their 100 percent, but I realised it was not the case when the expression on MS Dhoni's face told me that he desperately wanted to win, so I do not think it was a team decision to not try to win," he had added.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
August 7,2020

Islamabad, Aug 7: Former Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, known for his blistering deliveries on the cricket field, recently baffled many with a deadly off-field bouncer by claiming he is willing to eat grass if it enabled an increase in budget for his country's Army!

"If Allah ever gives me the authority, I will eat grass myself but I will increase the budget of the army," said Akhtar in an interview with ARY News.

The 'Rawalpindi Express', considered the fastest bowler in history said he does not understand why the civilian sector cannot work in collaboration with the Armed forces.

"I will ask my army chief to sit with me and make decisions. If the budget is 20 per cent, I will make it 60 per cent. If we insult each other, the loss is ours only," the once feared fast-bowler said.

Akthar had also claimed to ARY News interview that he was willing to take a bullet for his country and had turned down a county stint just because he wanted to fight the 1999 Kargil War.

Ties between India and Pakistan have been strained in the recent months over several issues, the latest being Pakistan's attempt to broach in the UNSC the issue of Kashmir on the first anniversary of the India's move to scrap the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and to split the erstwhile state into two union territories .

Pakistan also has not been in a good financial position and under prime minister Imran Khan, himself an all rounder cricketer, has added nearly USD 22 billion, that is 35 per cent to the nation's international debt pile in the last two years, according to an Asia Times report in July.

While Pakistan recently received USD 1.39 billion from the IMF to cushion the economic shocks caused due to COVID-19 outbreak, Akthar had a few months ago proposed that a joint cricket match be played between India and Pakistan to raise funds to fight the coronavirus. The suggestion that was put down by cricketers in India.

Meanwhile the 'Pindi boy' whose deadly pace and bounce was once dreaded by batsmen had recently taken to Twitter to deny former India cricketer Virender Sehwag's claim of sledging him.

Sehwag along with other Indian crickerters such as Harbhajan Singh and even Rahul Dravid had been at the receiving end of Akthar's sledging and antics during their playing days.

"Yes, totally self made story by him. Mujhe yeh bol k bach k jana kidhar tha us nay," Akthar tweeted to a report in which Sehwag claimed that he had sledged the 'Rawalpindi Express' by telling him that Sachin Tendulkar was his father.

During an awards ceremony Sehwag had recounted that fed up with Akthar's sledging and retaliated by telling him to say the same things to Tendulkar, who smashed the 'Pindi boy' for a six. Sehwag quipped that he told Akthar then that "Baap baap hota hai".

In the recent ARY interview, asked about the allegation made against him by former India cricketer Virendra Sehwag that he makes pro-India comments for greater following on social media channels, Akhtar said, "I cannot talk on the basis of hate." 

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
January 9,2020

Jeddah, Jan 9: Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde criticised the new Supercopa format and said that "football has become a business and as a business it looks for income".

"The bottom line is football has become a business and as a business it looks for income. That's the reason we are all here," Goal.com quoted Valverde as saying ahead of Barca's semi-final against Atletico.

"It's a completely different format to what we're used to. It was always the first title and the opener of the season and to me, that seemed fine," he added.

The Supercopa was traditionally a two-legged affair played between the winners of La Liga and the Copa del Rey at the beginning of the season, but following last term's one-off meeting between Barca and Sevilla in Tangier, Morocco, the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) went ahead with a full revamp.

Instead of just two teams being involved, the Supercopa has been expanded to also include the runners-up from La Liga and the Copa - meaning Barca and Valencia are joined by Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid. It is also set to be hosted in Saudi Arabia for the next three editions.

"It's been changed and let's see, it will be judged once it has happened. It's interesting, with four good teams, but from a sporting point of view, I'm not sure," Valverde said.

"We must bear in mind that the football we are involved in is an industry, sources of income are sought and in the same way that there are special connotations in this country, there are also in Morocco, where we played last year," he added.

Barcelona will face Atletico Madrid in the semifinal of the Supercopa at King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah on January 10.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.