Kuldeep shines as India respond to Kohli absence, Smith hundred
- by Carmen Reese
- in Science
- — Mar 26, 2017
A fine bowling by spinner Kuldeep Yadav helped India keep Australia restricted to 218 for the loss of six wickets at tea on Saturday, the day one of the fourth and final Test match in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar trophy. Their spinners were bowling quite well at that stage and i thought the way he played to get 20 was vital.
"It was a dream come to true to meet and talk to my idol". India did not score any run or lost wicket in the single over bowled by Josh Hazlewood before stumps were drawn.
As soon as Kuldeep took the wicket he jumped in the air pumping his fists, then he ran to his captain Rahane and hugged him with tears in his eyes.
Smith and David Warner were past their individual fifties and the century-plus partnership was looking ominous for India when Kuldeep employed the trick he had learnt from Warne to lead India's second session fightback. I told him if you want to train under me, you have to bowl spin. He added that Warne has promised to have another session with him in the near future. It might be that wickets were falling at the other end, he was being cautious.
Kuldeep was drafted into the squad as replacement for captain Virat Kohli, who had to sit out after failing to recover from his shoulder injury that he picked up in the penultimate Test in Ranchi that ended in a draw. "That remains my theory", he said.
Wade dug in to make a valuable fifty and Pat Cummins (21) briefly shone before he was caught and bowled by Kuldeep.
Wade said Australia had not been blindsided by Kuldeep's shock selection, saying they had studied video footage of his bowling during their preparation for the series.
"We had to find a way to grind out 300". The ball hit the top of the bat taking a sharp edge to Rahane at first slip who took a marvellous catch to help Kuldeep take his debut wicket.
Openers Lokesh Rahul and Murali Vijay successfully negotiated the one over remaining in the day's play with India scoreless at stumps on 0-0. When I started, my natural action was chinaman and I had no clue that this is called chinaman or there existed an art called chinaman. "You need to work hard", said the Uttar Pradesh cricketer. He bowled a lot of leg-spinners with the scrambled seam, he's wrong'un was with scrambled seam as well.
Australians were on ascendancy at the start of this Test but things changed after lunch.
Wade conceded his side squandered a chance to post a more imposing total, but felt they did well to scrap to 300 after slipping to 6-208 when Smith departed for 111.
Ravichandran Ashwin would claim the prize wicket of Smith and the record for the most wickets in a season moving past Dale Steyn's mark of 78. But once you stayed there for a while, you get a read on him.