The warm-up match against Cricket Australia XI at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) may have turned out to be a great outing for a number of Indian batsmen but it was not quite the same for the bowlers.
Cricket Australia XI kept them on the field for more than 151 overs, finally getting dismissed for 544 with a first innings lead of 186. Four batsmen from the representative side scored half-centuries, with wicketkeeper-batsman Harry Nielsen scoring 100 to make the Indian bowlers toil.
Nielsen, who was finally dismissed by India skipper Virat Kohli, said that they wanted to help the national team by keeping the Indian team out on the field for as long as possible so as to tire them before the start of the opening Test and he also believed that the long stay made the Indian cricketers ‘a bit grumpy’.
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“I think they were getting a bit grumpy, which was pleasing us,” Cricket.com.au quoted Nielsen as saying.
{{/usCountry}}“I think they were getting a bit grumpy, which was pleasing us,” Cricket.com.au quoted Nielsen as saying.
{{/usCountry}}“With an eye towards the first Test, we were sort of trying to keep them out there as long as we could and help the Test team out,” Nielsen added.
“I think we did our job beautifully batting for (151.1) overs. I bet they certainly didn’t plan on that, but they should’ve bowled us out.
“We were never going to declare, (hoping to) get plenty of overs into their quicks and wear them out a bit,” Nielsen further added.
The test series begins in Adelaide on Thursday, with further matches in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney.