Tuesday, January 06, 2015

Australia batters dominate toothless India attack: T4D1

Australia 2/348 (90ov, Warner 102/114b/16x4, Rogers 95/160b/13x4, Smith 82*/134b/10x4, Watson 61/132b/6x4) v India; T4/4 D1/5 at SCG. Australia
won toss and chose to bat.

This was as one sided a first day's play in a Test match as I can recall. Well as Australia batted after winning the toss India's attack was once again below par. 

Today, unlike other Tests of this series, there was no regrouping apart from when David Warner, who'd been characteristically ebullient, and Chris Rogers, more aggressive than usual, fell in the space of seven balls with the team total at 200 and 204. 

These turned out to be India's only successes of the day as Steve Smith showed that he's still in good touch while Shane Watson was allowed to play himself back into some much overdue batting form. They have already added 144.

India made four changes, not all of which I expected. None of them involved KL Rahul who'd failed twice with the bat at the MCG, and who I expected to make way for someone else. He missed a catch in today's first session, so will need to do a lot from here on if he is to continue his Test career. Australia only made the one change resting Mitchell Johnson for Mitchell Starc, giving Joe Burns another chance which, with the platform the top order has built together with a good pitch and a demoralised attack, he needs to take full advantage of to keep him in the selectors's minds.

Scorecard http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia-v-india-2014-15/engine/match/754743.html

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