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Sunday, Oct 03, 2004

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Useful outing for Aussies

By G. Viswanath

Australian opener Justin Langer got himself some useful batting practice with an unbeaten century on the final day of the three-day match against Mumbai. — Photo: Vivek Bendre

MUMBAI, OCT. 2. Justin Langer's 108 (152b, 12x4, 2x6) in a little over three hours in a cauldron like the Brabourne Stadium on Saturday came as the icing on the cake for the Australian team against a persevering Mumbai spin attack.

The left-hander looked firm in defence, powerful in attack and was unafraid to dance down the pitch.

Determined to get even with Ajit Agarkar, the left-hander hit a few cracking shots off the seamer and countered the spinners using his feet well and employing the cut and sweep.

Fatigue might have caught up with him as he decided to leave the field after scoring a workmanlike century.

The Australians practised with fixity of purpose for three days and took the field for as many days to get used to the heat and humidity.

They achieved the many purposes, most significant of which was its batsmen spending quality time in the middle. Then, Glenn McGrath picked up four wickets and Brett Lee too impressed with a splendid burst with the second new ball on Saturday.

And to top it all, Langer brought up the first century of the tour.

Michael Clarke, who fell victim to Vineet Indulkar's fielding effort in the first innings, came out to open Australia's second innings. Nominated by Ricky Ponting to take his place in the team, Clarke justified the decision in his two-and-a-half hour effort. He handled the two spinners, Nilesh Kulkarni and Ramesh Powar, well.

Spin diet

Last week India captain Sourav Ganguly had said spin would play a big role in the four-Test series against Australia.

What he perhaps did not envisage was the Australian batsmen would be fed on a diet of quality spin bowling in their preparatory match.

In all they faced 117 overs of spin, from off-spinner Powar, leg-spinner Sairaj Bahutule and left-arm spinner Kulkarni.

Langer and Clarke's 142-run stand for the first wicket was the main feature of the third day's play after McGrath and Lee hastened the end of the Mumbai first innings.

Thanks to Agarkar's attacking innings and a lower order defiance by Kulkarni and Vinayak Samant, Mumbai was able to restrict the lead to 47 runs.

"After half a day's loss on the first day, both teams understood well the reason for playing the match.

"We have difficult choices to make, especially for the No. 3 slot. We have to pick a well-balanced team for the first Test,'' said Gilchrist, after the captains agreed to call off the match after the first mandatory over.

The scores: Australia — 1st innings: 302 for seven decl.

Mumbai — 1st innings: V. Mane c sub (White) b McGrath 3, W. Jaffer lbw b McGrath 48, V. Indulkar lbw b Hauritz 13, A. Muzumdar lbw b McGrath 52, V. Kambli lbw b Watson 26, R. Powar c Hauritz b Watson 4, S. Bahutule c Gilchrist b Lee 8, A. Agarkar c McGrath b Clarke 37, V. Samant c Gilchrist b Lee 20, N. Kulkarni (not out) 15, A. Salvi b McGrath 7. Extras (b-4, lb-4, nb-14): 22. Total (in 92. 2 overs) 255.

Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-64, 3-80, 4-150, 5-151, 6-156, 7-179, 8-213, 9-248.

Australia bowling: McGrath 21.2-8-25-4, Lee 21-4-53-2, Watson 10-1-23-2, Clarke 11-1-56-1, Hauritz 21-4-62-1, Katich 3-0-18-0, Hodge 5-0-10-0.

Australia — 2nd innings: J. Langer (retd.) 108, M. Clarke c Indulkar b Powar 52, B. Hodge (not out) 29, S. Katich (not out) 76. Extras (b-3, lb-6, nb-2): 11. Total (for one wkt. in 54 overs) 207.

Fall of wicket: 1-142.

Mumbai bowling: Agarkar 5-2-14-0, Salvi 9-4-13-0, Kulkarni 19-0-69-0, Powar 16-1-85-1, Mane 4-1-15-0, Indulkar 1-0-2-0.

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