Courtesy: Cricket Australia
On Saturday, November 23, Australian head coach Andrew McDonald was surprised by the pitch conditions changing quite considerably on day two at the Optus Stadium in Perth during the first Test in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) series. After 17 wickets fell on an eventful day one of the Test match, Indian openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul managed to bat out the final two sessions on day two against a very good Australian attack in their second innings, which led to Andrew McDonald stating that the seam and swing on the pitch was down compared to yesterday.
After India were bundled out for 150 runs in their first innings on day one of the first BGT Test match, they restricted Australia to 67/7 at the close of play. But, in the morning session on day two, the Indian fast bowlers needed to bowl 24.2 overs to pick up the final three wickets of the Australian batting lineup, to bundle them out for 104 runs after captain Jasprit Bumrah registered his second five-wicket haul in Test cricket on the Aussie soil.
If you look at the seam and swing, it was down compared to yesterday: Andrew McDonald
The next two sessions of play on day two belonged firmly to the Indian opening pair of Yashasvi Jaiswal (90* off 193) and KL Rahul (62* off 153) as they stitched together an unbeaten stand of 172 runs, to put the visitors in a commanding position with a lead of 218 runs. After stumps on day two of the first BGT Test match, Andrew McDonald fronted up to the press, and said, as per Cricbuzz, “I think the wicket has changed considerably. If you look at the seam and swing, it was down compared to yesterday (when) it was difficult work.”
Apart from sharing his astonishment about the sudden change of nature of the pitch at the Optus Stadium in Perth, Australian head coach also praised the Indian openers for their exceptional batting performance. He remarked, “I thought KL and Jaiswal played extremely well also. You needed to ride your luck a little bit also, our guys got the balls in the right areas and there were some plays and misses as well. Anything can happen if you get some edges on that, it could be a totally different day.”
