“Failure of top-order is our biggest worry”, says the off-spinner Ravi Ashwin after India registered a massive win by 243 runs against the Australia in a warm-up game that was played here at Cardiff on Tuesday. This was expected to be a close contest but it turned out be a one-sided affair as Indians played out of their skins to register this emphatic win.
Ravi Ashwin, who picked up the wicket of Adam Voges, was quoted by Indian Express saying, “Duncan Fletcher's forehead is creased because in successive games, the top order failed to fire. He is making them work hard in practice but the results are not much encouraging at the very moment.”
He added, "Fletcher has tonnes of experience of playing in English conditions and his inputs are really helping us in one way or the other. But it’s up to individual that what he takes from the leaf of the expert’s book. The only mantra he has spelled is runs will come easily if you are willing enough to stay on the crease”
Indian top-order again failed to adapt themselves to the conditions which led to the early breakdown of middle –order against Australia. India were struggling at 55 for five in the 17th over till skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (91) and Dinesh Karthik rescued the innings with a fabulous 211-run sixth wicket stand.
Karthik scored another brilliant century to stamp his authority in the Indian middle-order for the opening match against South-Africa which will be played on June 6th. He smashed 146* runs and never looked in trouble during his 140-ball stay against Australia.
Ashwin was quoted by Hindustan Times saying, “Karthik has been quite consistent with the bat and his sublime form will always be a beneficial element for the Indian team. We need to make a fresh start from here on. Whatever happened till now is a history. If our openers come good in next match then it’s not going to be an easy task for Proteas to breach our batting line-up.”
It was some brilliant bowling from Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma as they destroyed the top-order of Australia by picking up eight wickets amongst them. Ishant picked up three whereas Yadav bagged a five-wicket haul. Australia was bundled up for just 65 runs in just 23.3 overs in their last warm-up match.
Meanwhile, the stand in skipper of Australia, George Bailey was quoted by The Hindu saying, “This kind of performance is very disappointing for the team but we need to make corrections before our first league match of Champions Trophy.”
He added, "There were no gremlins in the wicket and this defeat is a good lesson for us. We just need to be more patient. Michael Clarke's timely recovery for the tournament will be crucial to the team's success in the Champions Trophy as we are the defending champions.”