India vs Australia 2013: MS Dhoni and George Bailey all praise for impressive Mohammed Shami

FILE PHOTO: Mohammed Shami

India’s pace bowler Mohammed Shami has earned praise from both the captains after his impressive bowling in the 4th ODI between India and Australia in Ranchi.

Shami and Jaydev Unadkat replaced under-fire Ishant Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the squad, with the Bengal pacer rattling the Australian top-order with a fine opening spell of 6-1-21-3.

He regularly clocked 140 kmph on the speed gun, and extracted some movement in the air and off the pitch, accounting for the wickets of Aaron Finch, Phil Hughes and Shane Watson.

The delivery that broke Watson’s stumps was a beauty which jagged in slightly and missed a full fledged drive from the batsman to hit the top of the off-stump.

Speaking at the press conference after the match was called off after the first innings, Indian skipper MS Dhoni said, “Shami is deceptive. He bowls quicker than you would think. What was important was he bowled full and the wickets he got, he was hitting the bails. That shows he was bowling the right length on this pitch. And at the death he was getting the yorkers in pretty consistently.”

Even the Australian captain George Bailey, whose 98 off 94 deliveries steered the visitors out of trouble after Shami’s initial burst left them reeling at 32/3, had words of praise for the 23-year-old, saying that the Australians were surprised by his pace.

“He bowled very well. He’s someone we haven’t seen in the series and he was a little bit quicker than what we expected. He certainly got a bit of movement off the seam. That’s something to be pretty aware of for the rest of the series. That’s obviously what’s going to be coming at us,” he said.

The overcast conditions helped too, as Shami was able to move the ball in the air. Talking about the pitch, the bowler said that it wasn’t very helpful, and slowed down after the rain.

“Nothing special in the pitch. We were bowling first and there will be something for the fast bowlers when the wicket is fresh. There was not much bounce or carry. It was a little better before the rain but once it rained, the pitch slowed down a lot.

“The plan was not to give any room to the batsmen and make them play at the ball. The pitch in the beginning was assisting fast bowlers and we bowled accordingly.

“How fast we bowl mostly depends on the conditions available. If there is some assistance, you get inspired to bowl quicker. As we saw today, if there is some swing, some movement, you put in the extra effort,” Shami said.