India vs Australia: Roll of the dice goes visitors’ way in practice at Bangalore
Australia arrived at the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore and chose an unorthodox way to begin the day’s practice session: a game involving giant dice.
Having suffered their third consecutive bilateral series loss against India in India, one might have expected Steve Smith’s side to have low morale heading into the M Chinnaswamy stadium for the fourth ODI starting on Thursday.
However, that was not the case. Australia, who arrived at 12 in the afternoon for the practice session, assembled near the practice pitch and they were in the huddle.
After five minutes, there was a loud roar and cheer from the huddle.
The reason for the cheer was a giant dice. It was a new game introduced by the Australian support staff for a new approach to the session.
The giant dice was tossed up by one of the players and whenever a big number landed, there was cheer. When a small number came up on the dice, there was groaning and shouting.
All the travelling Australian journalists admitted that it was the first time that they had seen such a start to the practice drill.
After the game ended, Australian players yelled in delight and started the session.
Practice hard against spin
After a couple of warm-ups, the Australian batsmen undertook a lengthy batting session on the two practice wickets.
On the wicket closer to the main square, Australian batsmen practiced against medium pace while on the side wicket, they tackled some local legspinner and a left-arm orthodox bowler.
Aaron Finch, who scored a century in Indore, had a lengthy batting session. Marcus Stoinis and James Faulkner had a one hour bowling session.
As the practice session drew to a close, David Warner squared off against Glenn Maxwell.
The left-hander got the better of the big show, smashing him for a couple of big sixes. Steve Smith also joined in and struck some lusty blows against the spinners.
Smith’s side has a poor record against India in ODIs at the M Chinnaswamy stadium, having lost three out of four ODIs.
Their only win at the venue came in 2003 when they secured a 61-run victory thanks to centuries from Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting.
