Hussey (126*), Clark (44) help Aussies escape follow on; BP XI 251 runs ahead with 8 wkts in hand
Hussey (126*), Clark (44) help Aussies escape follow on; BP XI 251 runs ahead with 8 wkts in hand
HYDERABAD: Michael Hussey and Stuart Clark’s gumption spared Australia the ignominy of a follow-on but could not gloss over their teammates’ frailties against spin bowling in their warm-up match against Board President’s XI here on Saturday.
Having reduced Australia to 218 for nine, Board President’s XI had a golden
opportunity to subject the visitors to an embarrassing follow-on but Hussey (126 not out) and Clark’s (44) defiant association yielded 96 invaluable runs.
Australia somehow crossed the cut off mark (306) and finished their first innings at 314. Board President’s XI were 110 for two in their second innings with Wasim Jaffer (46) and captain Yuvraj Singh (37) in the middle when stumps were drawn, having stretched their overall lead to 251.
Stuart Clark trapped Aakash Chopra (4) early with a ball that kept surprisingly low and then S Badrinath exited playing a stroke that would haunt him for a while.
Brett Lee had banged it short and outside off-stump and Badrinath, trying to upper-cut it over slips, tickled and perished caught-behind.
The youngster, picked for the first two Tests against the same opposition, failed to justify his selection with his contributions of 2 and 14 in the warm-up match.
Keen to make amends for his first innings disappointment, Yuvraj looked completely at ease and twice he hit Michael Clarke over the ropes to assert himself.
Jaffer too was his usual self, leaning effortlessly into his drives and never lowered the guard. Earlier, Piyush Chawla wrecked Australia’s batting with five for 89.
Left-handed Hussey showed his team-mates the way to tackle spin on Indian wickets with a gritty 126 that contained 14 boundaries and a six. The 19-year-old Chawla and spin partner Pragyan Ojha shared five wickets in the space of 19 runs to slice through Australia’s lower order in dramatic fashion in the morning session.
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