Chennai: First thing that caught the attention when Pragyan Ojha was introduced as early as the 10th over of Australia ‘A’ innings was his short sleeves. But that wasn’t the only noticeable change in the left-arm spinner who is on a comeback trail after serving suspension for an illegal bowling action. He now comes a bit side-on and delivers with more higharm action, both are significant part of his remodelled avatar.
Ojha, who had snapped up eight wickets in the last two first-class matches since his comeback, demonstrated that he hasn’t lost his craft as he took three wickets to reduce Australia ‘A’ to 75 for four before the visitors fought back to finish the day at 185 for four in 58 overs here at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on Thursday.
The Aussies rode on an unbeaten half-century from the nimble Peter Handscomb (75 not out in 137 balls) and giving him company at stumps was Marcus Stoinis (42 not out in 87 balls). The two had already put on 110 runs for the fifth wicket.
It was pacer Abhimanyu Mithun who delivered an early blow on the Aussies by dismissing Cameron Bancroft for two in the fourth over. Ojha made it 57 for two when left-hander Travis Head lofted a flighted delivery to Amit Mishra who ran backwards before pouncing on it at wide mid-off. Ojha then struck twice in the 24th over with the wickets of skipper Usman Khawaja (25) and Nic Madison (0).
Scorecard
India ‘A’ (1st innings): KL Rahul c Khawaja b Abbott 96, Abhinav Mukund b Fekete 9, Cheteshwar Pujara c Khawaja b Fekete 55, Karun Nair c Stoinis b O'Keefe 0, Shreyas Iyer b Sandhu 39, Naman Ojha c Sandhu b O'Keefe 10, Vijay Shankar (not out) 51, Amit Mishra lbw b O’Keefe 27, Abhimanyu Mithun c Abbott b O’Keefe 0, Umesh Yadav c Stoinis b O'Keefe 1, Pragyan Ojha c Handscomb b O’Keefe 2. Extras (b-5, lb-2, nb-4) 11. Total (in 114.3 overs) 301.
FoW: 1-20, 2-127, 3-132, 4-187, 5-214, 6-221, 7-283, 8-283, 9-289.
Bowling: Sandhu 20-8-56-1, Fekete 20-6-42-2, Abbott 24-7-52-1, O’Keefe 31.3-8-82-6, Stoinis 14-4-40-0, Head 5-1-22-0.
Australia ‘A’ (1st innings): Cameron Bancroft c Naman Ojha b Mithun 2, Usman Khawaja c Mukund b P. Ojha 25, Travis Head c Mishra b P. Ojha 31, Peter Handscomb (batting) 75, Nic Maddinson c Nair b P. Ojha 0, Marcus Stoinis (batting) 42. Extras (b-7, lb-2, nb-1) 10. Total (for four wickets in 58 overs) 185.
FoW: 1-7, 2-57, 3-75, 4-75.
Bowling: Yadav 8-1-34-0, Mithun 7-2-21-1, Vijay 6-2-18-0, Ojha 18-1-52-3, Mishra 16-6-33-0, Karun Nair 3-0-18-0.
