AM Rahane
The Indian Borad President’s XI was just offered the last session to bat. But, Rahane ensured good entertainment with his alluring strokes. He launched Peter George for a six and punched the ball hard through covers. He displayed a dazzling stroke-play with 18 boundaries in his innings of 113 at a strike rate of 101.80. Pujara supported him well with his unbeaten 52 as both these batsmen shared a formidable stand of 165.
Earlier, in the first innings Watson, North and Katich too smacked centuries as the Aussies put a mammoth total of 505 losing seven wickets in 144.3 overs. The hallmark of the first Aussie innings was their opening stand of 207 between Watson and Katich. Ponting, Paine and Clarke too made decent contributions in the innings but failed to carry on. In the bowling department for the BP XI Ojha, Shreesanth, Dhawan and Chawla chipped in with three, two, two and one wicket(s) respectively.
The BP XI batsmen departed cheaply in just 193 minutes for a mere score of 177 runs in 45.5 overs. Piyush Chawla was the sole batsman with his 82 to get past fifty. He troubled Hauritz as he danced down the pitch to loft him over his head or even push him for singles. Hilfenhaus led in the bowling for Aussies with his five wicket haul in his spell of 12 overs conceding just a 47 runs. Johnson and George also scalped two wickets each.
The second innings saw Australian’s to take the over the BP XI’s exposed attack. They declared their innings for 187 for the loss of six wickets in a meagre 41 overs. Chawla chipped in with three wickets the second innings as Unadkat, Yadav and Ojha also managed one each.
The match saw many injuries although mild ones. Gambhir was hit on his right hand by an escalating delivery from Hilfenhaus on second day and he chose to stay away from action afterwards. North with a minor back strain stayed away as well. And, Katich too opted out of batting with a bruised thumb. In the second President’s innings too Dhawan retired as he came in to open the innings after getting a blow.
The Indian domestic batsman continued the tempering of opposition’s spinners as this time Haurtiz was left wicket less in both innings and he would have desperately wanted to improve least his first inning’s effort. Previously too when Australia visited India Kohli, Yuvraj and Rohit were seen to soften Jason Krejza as he was left wicketless for 199 runs in 31 overs. Also, South Africa’s Paul Harris was seen unsuccessful as Manish Pandey and Abhishek Nayar took him for 71 runs in 12 overs. And, again Hauritz has now appeared as an apprehension for the Australian’s.
By: Chintan Zalani
Tags: AM Rahane, Australia, Chandigarh, Cricket, Indian Board President's XI, Mohali, Sports, Test Cricket
