"Just relentless, almost robotic" - Tahlia McGrath reserves high praise for Pooja Vastrakar after Day 1 of one-off Test
Australian batter Tahlia McGrath was lavish in her praise for Indian seamer Pooja Vastrakar, calling her relentless, extremely talented, 'almost robotic', and perfect for red-ball cricket after the first day of the Wankhede Test between the two teams.
Vastrakar, playing only her fourth Test, clean bowled Ellyse Perry with a sharp nip-backer on her fourth ball and finished the first innings with 4/53 to skittle the Aussies to 219. It was the best spell of her Test career and arguably, even her best for India.
"Vastrakar bowled extremely well. The ball she got Pez (Ellyse Perry) with was an absolute peach. When I was walking out to bat, she was getting sideways movement of the seam both ways, and she just bowls a relentless length that keeps you on your toes and is perfect for Test match cricket. She is an extremely talented cricketer and was disciplined with her skills today," McGrath said after the day's play.
"It's just relentless. And she's almost robotic. She just runs in and hits the spot time after time and puts so much pressure on the batters. So, for us, it was about capitalizing whenever she gave us any width we had to put it away. As well as try to use our left-right combination as much as possible to try and throw her off her lengths," she added.
McGrath, who scored the only half-century in the first innings, also admitted that Australia couldn't replicate Vastrakar's skill and bowled too full without much control of the seam. India ended the day with 98/1 on board.
"Hit the deck and set up the batter" - Pooja Vastrakar reveals her plans to tackle the Aussies
Also speaking after the day's play, Vastrakar said coach Amol Mazumdar had prepared the team for hitting the deck and setting the opposition batters up for in-swingers.
"Looking at the surface during our practice sessions, we knew it wasn't an easy pitch to get wickets; we'd have to work hard here. The bowling coach told us that we will have to bowl wicket to wicket, hit the deck and set up the batter: So I was bowling the occasional inswinger and that's how I got Perry."
"The natural shape I get is the outswinger to the right-hander. But we watched some videos and realized that the Australia batters struggle with incoming deliveries. So in practice we were trying to get the ball to come in. And with the wobble seam, the ball cuts back in sharp and comes a long way, and that troubles the players."
Smriti Mandhana continued Day 2 where she left off and finished with a score of 74(106) before being run out. Before her dismissal, India lost Sneh Rana for 9(57) as Jemimah Rodrigues and debutant Richa Ghosh carried the game forward. Catch the live-action here.