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| Aussies dance
to the tunes of a 20-year-old rookie |
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September
27, 2008
 Australia
were humiliated by a 20-year-old left arm spinner Gajendra
Singh on the first day of their warm-up match against the
Rajasthan Cricket Association Centre of Excellence at Jaipur.
The Aussies were bundled out for a paltry 218 with Gajendra
Singh picking up a five-for. The tourists' innings lasted only
just over the 77 overs. Only Simon Katich got some
respectability through a fine innings of 73.
The Aussies did bounce back with the ball but
that was expected as the pace of Brett Lee and others will
always be too good for lesser known
first class batsmen. The Rajasthan team slipped to 38 for 2 in
11 overs but they do have a tiny sort of fight coming from
international
discards Gagan Khoda and Y Venugopal Rao, who
both are unbeaten on 18 each. Venugopa Rao is also the Skipper
of the host team. Both Brett Lee and Stuart Clark had taken a
wicket each and the former had got his scalp with the first
ball of the innings itself.
The Aussies had a dramatic collapse earlier
on after an opening stand of 54 between Hayden and Katich.
Hayden's exit after a 48-ball 16 provided the collapse with
Gajendra Singh going onto pick 5 for 58 in 22.1 overs besides
bowling as many as 7 maidens. Katich, who has been there for a
long while in India having captained the Australia A team had
shown the much needed application in his 155-minute stay in
which he got 73 runs out of 105 balls with the help of 10
fours. All rounders Shane Watson (30 from 81 balls with 3
fours and a six) and Brad Haddin (21 from 61 balls with 2
fours) were the only ones to get anything significant among
the batsmen after Katich. Ironically, this batting collapse
against spin comes after a few days of solid practice for the
tourists on wickets that were tailor-made to suit their
requirements to face Harbhajan and Kumble in the coming days.
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