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Hodge, Da Silva lead West Indies’ fightback
A terrific rearguard act form half-centurions Joshua Da Silva (79) and Kavem Hodge (71), and a brief cameo of 32 from Alzarri Joseph at the fag end, saw West Indies fight to post 266/8 on the opening day of the pink-ball Test at the Gabba on Thursday (January 25). After Mitchell Starc’s triple strikes rattled the top-order early, the sixth-wicket pair dug in to stage a comeback that kept Australia at bay until the last hour of the day’s play.
In better batting conditions, West Indies had no hesitation in doing the obvious but the decision spectacularly backfired on the visitors with the top-order continuing to fall to loose shots outside off stump after the debacle in Adelaide. However, a defiant 149-run partnership between Da Silva and Hodge not only managed to revive their first innings but also keep Starc & Co at bay for better part of the remaining play.
Starc was the destroyer-in-chief in the afternoon, striking thrice in the second half to reduce the Windies to 64/5 by Tea. To their credit though, openers Tagenarine Chanderpaul and Kraigg Braithwate did well to negotiate the testing new-ball spells from him and Josh Hazlewood for the first 30 minutes before a tentative push from the skipper got the hosts the first opening.
A 33-run stand ensued for the second wicket, where Kirk McKenzie settled in quickly and played with positive intent as he smoked a full ball from Nathan Lyon into the long-on stands. But one shot too many and the No. 3 was soon walking back with Pat Cummins breaking the enterprising partnership. McKenzie was guilty of attempting a flashy cut off a shortish delivery that he ended up edging to the right of Usman Khawaja at first slip.
Starc returned for a second spell on the other side of the drinks break and took only two balls to make an impact as Chanderpaul paid the price for fishing outside off after making a solid 21. The veteran pacer was quick to move to 350 Test wickets when Alick Athanaze nicked off trying to drive away from the body. Khawaja pouched another sharp, low catch at the stroke of Tea to mark the end of Justin Greaves’ short stay in the middle and give Starc his 351st.
The second session was as engrossing as the West Indies’ collapse of 4 for 22 just prior. Looking to wind up the lower-order quickly, Australia were frustrated to the core with Da Silva and Hodge staging a solid recovery through a wicket-less session – the first across the two Tests so far that belonged wholly to the visitors.
Walking out in a situation all too familiar, Da Silva responded well and batted positively from ball one. For a brief moment, he even scored at more than run-a-ball, notching up two lovely boundaries off Cummins. Hodge took cue and pulled a short one from Starc into the stands in the very next over as the visitors raced to 100 quickly after Tea.
With the pink ball softening and the track easing out progressively, Hodge and Da Silva both showed great resolve and judgement. Australia’s frustration was evident from the way Cummins shuffled his bowling options in search of that desperate breakthrough. Even Marnus Labuschagne was summoned for the final over before Dinner, but to no avail.
Their wait for the wicket continued for over an hour into the final session under lights, while the two batters reached their respective half-centuries. Hodge got to his maiden one first, albeit through a lucky edge that didn’t quite carry to gully. Da Silva got there in the following over, also bringing up the century of the sixth-wicket partnership alongside. Incidentally, Hodge’s next scoring shot was also an outside edge that, luckily for West Indies, raced to he fence via a vacant second slip.
Starc continued to induce edges off Hodge, who had a couple of more lucky escapes. A tough chance was put down by Cameroon Green when he was on 59, and right after the drinks break Hodge nearly dragged an inside on to the stumps, on 61. With the partnership approaching the 150 milestone, Australia’s desperation grew and Cummins next called upon Travis Head to roll his arm over.The part-timer leaked 10 straightaway with Da Silva fetching a couple of boundaries more for his tally.
Lyon eventually delivered the breakthrough Australia hunted, trapping Da Silva LBW on 79. The batter did waste one of his team’s reviews hoping, perhaps, the height would save him. Hodge too fell in quick succession, Starc finally managing to get his man on 71 for his fourth wicket of the day. But just as the home team harboured the hopes of wrapping up the tail cheaply, Alzarri Joseph launched a flurry of boundaries against Cummins and Starc to put Windies past the 250 mark. His thoroughly entertaining cameo of 32 came to an end in the final over of the day’s play with Hazlewood inducing an edge to second slip for his second wicket of the day.
Brief scores:
West Indies 266/8 in 89.4 overs (Joshua Da Silva 79, Kavem Hodge 71, Tagenarine Chandrapaul 21, Kirk McKnzie 21, Alzzari Joseph 32; Mitchell Starc 4-68, Josh Hazlewood 2-32) vs Australia
Rajat Patidar led defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) into the final with the quickest innings of 90 or more in the IPL, scoring a delightful unbeaten 93 off 33 to take his team to 254 for 5, the highest total in an IPL playoff, against the best attack of the tournament, Gujarat Titans (GT). Having finished in the top two, GT still have a chance to make the final at their home ground in Ahmedabad in Qualifier 2 as they await the winner of the Eliminator between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals. The last eight IPLs have been won by the side winning this fixture: Qualifier 1.
Asked to bat first in chase-friendly Dharamsala, RCB came out full of intent and skill despite missing the injured Phil Salt, but GT nearly snuck back in with a period of 22 balls, 18 runs and two wickets of set batters in a single Jason Holder over. In the time that Patidar scored 93 off 33, the other end, including extras, produced 68 off 37 legal deliveries.
Having never scored more than 233, GT needed something special, and only Jos Buttler came close to that with 29 off 11. The RCB fast bowlers ran riot and took out half the side within the powerplay.
RCB would have dearly loved to have Salt back, but his absence allowed them to play Jacob Duffy as the fourth overseas player. Venkatesh Iyer started the innings with two fours off the first two balls, moving around in the crease to try to mess with the lengths of the GT fast bowlers. It took Virat Kohli four balls to lay bat on Kagiso Rabada’s hard lengths, but Venkatesh ramped him for a six first ball even though he got into a tangle.
Even though Rabada came back immediately with the wicket of Venkatesh, the makeshift opener had done his job with 19 off seven. Immediately after the wicket, Kohli charged at Siraj and drove him over mid-off. Some classic batting – a flick off the hip, a late cut and a square cut – from Devdutt Padikkal consigned Rabada to 18 in his second over and brought up the team fifty in just four overs.
Rattled, GT had to move away from bowling Siraj and Rabada through the powerplay for the first time in eight matches.
Holder and Rashid Khan combined to bring GT back into the contest. Holder kept hitting the hard lengths, and Rashid bowled his first two overs for no boundary. In between, Holder managed to remove Kohli and Padikkal for 43 off 25 and 30 off 19. Not big innings but ones that understood the assignment.
Having gone funky with their selection – no Romario Shepherd in the batting-first XI so they could play an extra bowler if Shepherd was not needed – RCB promoted Krunal Pandya to likely maintain ideal points of entry for Tim David and Jitesh Sharma. While Krunal did his job with 43 off 28, it was the other batter that led to dropping jaws.
Patidar broke the spell off 22 quiet balls with a pulled six off a Holder ball that wasn’t quite short enough. After a boundary-free first over from Kulwant Khejroliya, playing his first game of T20 cricket since last April, Prasidh Krishna created two opportunities in the 14th over. The first one, a leading edge, fell between the converging wicketkeeper and deep third. The second one went straight to Rabada at deep square leg, but was dropped with Patidar on 26 off 20. At the end of the 14th over, RCB were an even 140 for 3, the last time you could say the match was even.
Starting with no-balls from Khejroliya in the 15th over, the flood gates opened for 114 runs in the last six overs. Two of his nine sixes were bona fide highlights reels for the year. The first an extra-cover drive off Rashid from the crease, and then a back-foot drive over cover off Rabada, who by now had the purple cap. That shot off Rabada left even Kohli awestruck.
The GT bowlers didn’t quite try a quick bouncer at him, but Patidar nicely steered a slow bouncer over short fine with a delayed hook. At one point, even a century seemed likely, but he didn’t quite get enough strike.
For the first time ever, both innings of an IPL match started with two fours as B Sai Sudharsan hit Duffy for fours, but the GT openers were not as successful as the RCB top order at upsetting the bowlers’ lengths. Both Shubman Gill and Sudharsan tried charging at Bhuvneshwar, but got only two runs from his first over.
The pressure was mounting, but the first wicket came in an unconventional manner, with Sudharsan losing his bat as he cut Duffy away for four. The bat ricocheted onto the leg stump before the ball could reach the fence. Bhuvneshwar then extended his dominance over Gill with a wobble-seam delivery that got his leg stump. Now Bhuvneshwar leads the head-to-head with six wickets in 79 balls for just 80 runs.
No option left, Buttler came out swinging, looked dangerous, but Josh Hazlewood got the better of him with a knuckle-ball legcutter. The rest was always going to be a formality but RCB carried it out in style. Rasikh Salam bowled a double-wicket maiden to get Nishant Sindhu and Jason Holder to leave GT five down within the powerplay. Duffy ended up with three wickets, Bhuvneshwar reclaimed the purple cap, and only some late damage control from Rahul Tewatiya prevented this from becoming the biggest defeat in an IPL playoff match.
Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 254 for 5 in 20 overs (Venkatesh Iyer 19, Virat Kohli 43, Devdutt Padikkal 30, Rajat Patidar 93*, Krunal Pandya 43, Jitesh Sharma 15*; Kagiso Rabada 2-54, Jason Holder 2-39, Prasidh Krishna 1-53) beat Gujarat Titans 162 in 19.3 overs (Sai Sudarshan 14, Jos Buttler 29, RahulTewatia 68; Jacob Duffy 3-39, Bhuvenshwar Kumar 2-28, Josh Hazelwood 1-39, Rasik Salam 2-24, Krunal Pandya 2-16) by 92 runs
[Cricinfo]
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