Jump to content

West Indies A tour of India, 2013

Chandan

By Chandan
in Cricket Talk

Recommended Posts

rkt.india Grand Master

rkt.india

Posted
Posted
“I think anybody who gets (Cheteshwar) Pujara out should be very happy,” said Kirk Edwards, the beaming West Indies A captain, at the end of play on the second day of their four-day fixture against India A in Mysore on Thursday (September 26). His happiness was easy to understand. West Indies A had hit up 429 after being asked to bat first and by the end of the second day’s play, reduced India A to 124 for 3, one of those three wickets that of Pujara, the big star in the Indian line-up. It wasn’t just Pujara’s wicket though. KL Rahul, the opener, looked really good while he was out there stitching together a 60-run partnership with Manprit Juneja, but got out to what he called “a bad shot”, edging a cut to slip off Nikita Miller. “I think we could’ve done better had I not got out,” he said. “We had a good partnership. It’s very important that we get good partnerships now.” Rahul also pointed to Assad Fudadin’s patient unbeaten 86, scored off 201 deliveries in close to five hours of batting, as something Indian batsmen needed to learn from. “That is the kind of patience the batsmen require, just to keep batting,” gushed Rahul. “He played slowly and stayed at the wicket. He took his time and waited for the loose balls. We should learn from Fudadin.” Edwards was expectedly full of praise for Fudadin, who started the second day unbeaten on four from 65 balls and then took a fair bit of time to start adding to his total. “Assad played a great knock in the context of the game. He started slowly yesterday, but the way he played required great mental strength,” said Edwards. “When you have a guy like that, you trust him to pace his innings and the aim is obviously to bat through to the end. A captain really can’t ask for more.” For Edwards though, things started going right pretty much from the time Pujara won the toss and opted to field first. “If I had won the toss, I would have batted. It would have made sense to bat first. I was pretty happy when he said he would field, to be honest,” said Edwards. “He would know how the conditions better than I do. So it probably didn’t play the way he expected it to.” That the Indians got it wrong was down to the reputation the Gangothri Glades pitch has of aiding fast bowlers, and that’s something Mohammad Shami admitted. “When we came here, everyone said the pitch would help pacers, so we played three medium pacers. There’s no pace here,” he said. Both Rahul and Edwards also called the pitch “two-paced”, Rahul adding, “Batting is becoming increasingly difficult.” The India A plans on the third morning will revolve largely around Juneja, who looked good during his unbeaten 47. “Manprit looks in good touch and we hope that he carries on and gets a big score,” said Rahul. “He made life a lot easier for me. He was getting runs easily and the boundaries were flowing. He is that kind of a player who comes in and scores his runs. I was just playing my game, waiting and accumulating runs. We have to be patient and spend more time at the crease. The more time you spend there makes it easier.”
Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...