The Board President's XI opener’s run-a-ball hundred prevents Australia from going into the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on a high.
Ajinkya Rahane is yet to realise his dream of playing for India but he could have already made a vital contribution for the senior team.
The young Mumbai batsman set the tone for the India-Australia series with a scintillating hundred for the Board President’s XI against Ricky Ponting’s team at Chandigarh’s Sector 16 stadium on Monday.
In the record books, Rahane’s innings will be noted down as just another hundred, but more importantly it has ensured that the Australian bowlers will not go into the Test series high on confidence.
The visitors may shrug off the psychological factor, but cricket is regarded as a highly mental game not for nothing, and Mark Taylor’s side of the 1997-98 will vouch about the importance of doing well in the tour opener.
In that particular series, led by Sachin Tendulkar’s double hundred, the Mumbai batsmen mauled the Australian bowlers so badly in the warm-up game that the mental scars were visible in their poor performance in the three-Test series which India won 2-1.
Ponting’s men started the warm-up game brilliantly and had their tails up after the first innings before Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara pulled them back in the final two sessions of the three-day game.
More than the runs, his senior pros in the Indian team will be delighted by the manner in which Rahane got them. Opening the innings in place of skipper Gautam Gambhir, Rahane scored his 113 at less than run-a-ball (18 fours, 1 six, SR: 101.80) against the Aussie attack led by Ben Hilfenhaus and Mitchell Johnson.
Hilfenhaus and Johnson, two important cogs in the Australian attack, had their tails up after their morale-boosting outing in the first esaay in which they finished with analysis of 12-4-47-5 and 7.5-2-26-2.
After their second innings performance, Hilfenhaus (6-0-24-0) and Johnson of (9-0-52-0), would be left with mixed emotions as things did not look as easy on the final day.
“It’s only natural that their bowlers will now be a bit wary of our batsmen. They would be left wondering if India’s young gun is so good, how will it be against the Tendulkars, Sehwags and Dravids,” said former India wicketkeeper Chandrakant Pandit, who was the coach of the Mumbai side which played the tour opener against Australia before the 2004 series.
Usually shaking the confidence of a visiting side is part of a pre-planned strategy by the home team. Rahane, however, denied that he had any such instructions. “I just trusted my instincts. I was very upset with myself for getting out for a duck in the first innings and to be made to field for 500 plus runs by the Australians. I wanted to make up for it. I tried to play positive and it paid off,” Rahane told DNA. “It’s the best innings of my career so far, because it has come against Australia and in the second innings of the match.”
Brief score: Australians 505 & 187/6 decl in (S Watson 104*, P Chawla 3/64) drew with BP XI 177 & 174 for no loss (A Rahane 113*, C Pujara 52*)
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