India v Australia - 3rd Test, Day 2 - The Quick Flicks

Brad Haddin made a return to Test cricket after more than a year.

The Legends Talk:

When Sunil Gavaskar and Allan Border spoke in the morning about the Test match, Border said that the Australian side was well balanced with two spinners, two quality fast bowlers and a support bowler Moises Henriques. Gavaskar quickly asked how a side having seven New South Wales members be called balanced? Border was caught off guard.

Stumped out of nowhere:

For now, Allan Border heads the list but Michael Clarke might soon overtake him. We are talking about the number of times a batsman got stumped in Test cricket. Border was stumped nine times in his career. Clarke is now in the second position with eight.

Clarke uncharacteristically jumped out of his crease on his first delivery and got stumped after Jadeja made the ball spin away from him. He might as well have to make a power point presentation on it, who knows? It was Clarke’s second golden duck of his career.

Butterfingered Virat:

After Rahul Dravid’s retirement, we might have got his heir apparent in the form of Cheteshwar Pujara, who has consistently scored runs at number three. But India is dearly missing Dravid in the slips. After Virender Sehwag‘s lapses at first slip, it was Virat Kohli today who dropped a couple of catches, which in Dravid’s lexicon were “sitters”. Ed Cowan was the beneficiary of Kohli’s benevolence on both the occasions – on 35 when Cowan’s cut flew past India’s new first slip fielder and on 64 when an easy chance was missed. In between Pujara too dropped Cowan. But Kohli’s catching technique was discussed in great detail in the commentary box.

On air, Matthew Hayden, who knows a thing or two about standing in the slips talked about how Kohli is unbalanced while catching. How about donning India cap as a fielding coach, Haydos?

Finally Kohli caught Cowan off Ashwin on 86.

‘Hughes’ sigh of relief for a moment, but agony afterwards:

Off his twentieth ball of his innings, Phil Hughes finally found a way to score a run off an Indian spinner courtesy a firm push towards covers. It was his first run off the spinners on his 59th delivery in this Test series. But twelve balls later, Hughes was out for two in a cheeky fashion when he gloved left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha’s delivery to ‘keeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Haddin starts with a bang:

Before this Test, Haddin last played a Test match in January 2012 against India. He made his comeback in the team mainly because of first-choice ‘keeper Matthew Wade’s injury. After blocking a couple of deliveries from Ojha, Haddin launched an assault on the spinner and hit him for a straight six. It was a stylish comeback indeed.