Report: India A vs Aus – Day 1
First Published : 16 Feb 2013, 17:18
Last Modified : 16 Feb 2013, 17:18
When he was left out of India’s squad for the first two Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Gautam Gambhir vowed that he would work hard and come back strong. At the first opportunity he got, the feisty left-handed opening batsman lived up to that promise by scoring a fluent 112 for India A in the three-day warm-up match against the Australians.
Batting first, India A finished day-one at 338 for 4 in 90 overs with Manoj Tiwary (77*) and CM Gautam (34*) at crease.
Gambhir and Jiwanjyot Singh (24) put up an opening stand of 67 runs before Xavier Doherty came and broke the partnership by dismissing the Punjab batsman.
Gambhir batted on like a man on a mission. He negotiated the pace Mitchell Starc, Peter Siddle and Moises Henriques well before taking on the spinners. 70 of Gambhir’s runs came in boundaries as he dispatched the ball to the fence for 13 fours and three sixes.
The Australians included three spinners in their attack in Nathan Lyon, Xavier Doherty and Ashton Agar. Left-arm spinner, Doherty tasted most success with three wickets of the four to fall on the day.
Doherty got his first strike when he had centurion Gambhir caught by Watson, breaking his 128-run partnership for the second wicket with Rohit Sharma (77). He struck again to remove Rohit before returning in his next over to get rid of Abhishek Nayar (4).
India A were 272 for 4 when Nayar fell. Tiwary and CM Gautam took them to 338 without any further loss.
While the pacers were economical and had firm control over innings, the tweakers went for easy runs against the spin-loving Indian batsmen. Australia’s 19-year-old off-spinner, Ashton Agar, who was hyped up to be good enough to take on India’s Test batsmen, conceded 78 runs in 13 overs at six runs per over.
Brief Score:
Day-1: India A 338 for 4 in 90 overs (Gambhir 112, Doherty 3-69)
