CA XI vs India, 4-day Practice Match, Day 2, Review: Reasonable day for the Indian batters

Prior to the start of the Test series, India are currently taking part in a four-day warm-up match against Cricket Australia (CA) XI at Sydney Cricket Ground. After the opening day was washed out, the visitors had a decent outing with the bat, having scored 358 runs in 92 overs. Barring KL Rahul, all the Indian batsmen did well. After the second day’s play, CA are trailing by 334 runs.

Top order shines

CA won the toss and had no hesitation to bowl first. Prithvi Shaw and Lokesh Rahul opened the batting, but Rahul succumbed to another failure and was dismissed by Jackson Coleman. However, Shaw and Cheteshwar Pujara buckled down and put on 80 for the second wicket. Daniel Fallins removed an ominous-looking Shaw, who notched 66 runs from 69 balls with 11 fours.

After Shaw’s dismissal in the 21st over, skipper Virat Kohli and Pujara came to the party and carried on the good work. The duo cobbled together 73 runs to take India to a commanding position. Both batsmen scored half centuries, 64 and 54 respectively. While Pujara fell prey to Luke Robbins, Kohli gave a simple caught and bowled chance to right-arm fast bowler Aaron Hardie.

Rohit did his bit as well

Hanuma Vihari looked good and he notched a well-compiled knock of 53 runs from 88 balls with the help of five boundaries. The Andhra Pradesh batsman was dismissed by part-timer D’Arcy Short. Rohit Sharma, who was making his comeback in red-ball cricket, had a massive task ahead of him and he didn’t quite disappoint, having scored 40 runs from 55 deliveries.

But he would be disappointed with the fact that he couldn’t carry on. Ajinkya Rahane also looked good after scoring 56 runs from 123 balls. Ravi Ashwin, Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav couldn’t open their account as Rishabh Pant remained not out on 11.

From CA’s perspective, Hardie was the most successful among the bowlers as he finished with four wickets. In their first innings, CA’s batsmen- Max Bryant and D’Arcy Short- came out all guns blazing and scored 24 runs with four boundaries in four overs.

Brief Scores

India: 358 all out in 92 overs; (Prithvi Shaw 66, Virat Kohli 64; Aaron Hardie 4/50, D’Arcy Short 1/42)

CA: 24/0 in 4 overs; (Max Bryant 14*, D’Arcy Short 10*; Mohammed Shami 0/11, Umesh Yadav 0/13)

CA trail by 334 runs

Here’s the Indian batting scorecard

Indian batters performance on Day 2 against CA XI. #CAXIvIND pic.twitter.com/qzajx9Wlcr

— Sai Kishore (@SaiKishore537) November 29, 2018

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