Australia vs India: Hanuma Vihari gets hit on the pad after Matthew Wade throws the ball at him

Hanuma Vihari didn’t make the greatest of starts to the Sydney Test against Australia. For most of the times, he was on the firing line, both while batting and fielding. In the first innings, he got to a laboured four before Josh Hazlewood ran him out. He also had a tough time when he was standing close in while fielding. The game was never going to get any easier for the 27-year-old.

In the fourth innings when India were in pursuit of chasing 407 runs, Vihari was faced with a massive task of taking his team through to a draw if not a win. But instead of giving up the ghost, he put his head down and indeed helped India secure a draw. He batted for 163 balls and stayed unbeaten on 23 runs with four fours. He played and missed a number of times during his knock.

Hanuma Vihari showing some grit

But he didn’t give his wicket away even when the Australian bowlers bayed for blood. However, the Aussies didn’t leave any stone unturned to ruffle him, though all their tactics went in vain. In a video doing the rounds on social media, Matthew Wade was seen, trying to get under his skin. The Andhra Pradesh-born Vihari played a defensive shot after which the ball bounced quite high.

Wade collected the ball threw the ball at Vihari, though it’s not clear whether the throw was intentional or not. The batter copped a blow on his pad after which he seemed a tad bemused. The throw had quite a bit of force as it caught Vihari by surprise, pushing him back.

Here’s the video:

Aussies behaving like Aussies #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/OtKFFUu9el

— Jitendra Jain (@JitendraJain_) January 11, 2021

The Sydney Test was marred with a number of controversies. On the third and fourth day, incidents of Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah, getting racially abused did the rounds. The situation became grave to an extent that six spectators had to be evicted from the venue.

On the last day, Ravi Ashwin and Tim Paine, the Aussie skipper, were also involved in an altercation. As far as action on the field is concerned, Vihari and Ashwin’s unbeaten 62-run stand took India to a draw. Cheteshwar Pujara’s 77 and Rishabh Pant’s 97 also guided the visitors.