Australia’s Steve Smith played another captain’s knock, while Chris Rogers and Shane Watson hit half-centuries on the opening day of the third Test against India in Melbourne, Australia, yesterday.
Before a Boxing Day crowd of almost 70,000, Smith joined teammate David Warner in reaching 1,000 Test runs for the calendar year with his unbeaten 72.
At the close, Australia were 259-5 after winning the toss, with Brad Haddin seeking a confidence-boosting innings on 23.
Photo: AFP
Smith passed 50 for the fourth time in five innings in the series, among them an unconquered 162 in Adelaide and 133 in Brisbane. So far he has amassed 447 runs at 223.5 for the series.
Smith, who won his first Test as skipper in four days in Brisbane last weekend, was well positioned for his third ton of the series after Rogers and Watson missed out on cashing in on solid starts.
“It’s phenomenal to watch and great to be a part of. He is just growing day by day and it’s scary to think how good he can be,” Rogers said of Smith. “Someone threw a ball back at him today and he had the confidence to say a few words back at him, so it looks as if he knows he belongs and he knows he’s one of the better players in the world at the moment.”
Photo: AFP
Rogers hit his third straight half-century of the series and Watson made 52 in a 115-run stand, before they were dismissed five minutes apart in the hour after lunch.
The pair had put on 59 runs off 131 balls for the fourth wicket.
Rogers, who scored 116 in last season’s corresponding Boxing Day Test against England, pushed at paceman Mohammed Shami and was snapped up behind by Mahendra Singh Dhoni for 57.
“I think three scores in the 50s is good in some respects, but it’s also very disappointing,” Rogers said. “As an opener you do the hard work and put yourself in a position where you can get a big score, so to get out like that was disappointing because I felt good today, I felt my feet were going and I had a real desire to get a big score.”
Watson followed six balls later in off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin’s seventh over with an ill-judged sweep shot and was out leg before wicket for 52 in 89 balls.
Watson had a let off on 37 nearing lunch when Shikhar Dhawan fumbled him at second slip at the third attempt off Shami.
It was Watson’s 23rd half-century in Tests with just a below-par conversion rate of four centuries in his 55th Test for the top-order batsman.
It was the 27th time in 102 Test innings Watson had been dismissed leg before wicket.
Shaun Marsh again failed to go on after a solid start and was caught behind by Dhoni off Shami with no addition to his teatime score of 32 off 83 balls.
Debutant Joe Burns was given a rousing welcome as he came out to bat at four wickets down and got a roar with his first scoring shot off Shami for three.
Burns hoisted Ashwin over midwicket for four in a positive show of confidence at Test level, but he only lasted 27 balls before he attempted a pull shot on 13 and bottom-edged through to Dhoni off Yadav.
Warner, who scored twin tons in the opening Adelaide Test, was out in the second over of the innings.
He only lasted six balls before he played across Umesh Yadav and edged to Dhawan at third slip for a duck.
Shami and Yadav finished with two wickets each.
India made two changes from the team that lost the second Brisbane Test, with debutant Lokesh Rahul and Shami coming into the side.
Rahul, who replaced Rohit Sharma, was selected to bat at No. 6, while speedster Varun Aaron made way for Shami, who was off the field for treatment on an injury late in the day.
Team officials said Aaron was flying home for his grandfather’s funeral and would be returning to Australia by the end of the Melbourne Test.
Dhoni’s tourists trail 2-0 in the four-match series after defeats in Adelaide and Brisbane, and they have not won at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 33 years.
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Arne Slot has denied that Darwin Nunez was dropped from Liverpool’s win against West Ham because of a training-ground row with a member of his coaching staff. The Liverpool head coach on Sunday last week said that Nunez was absent from the 2-1 victory at Anfield, having felt unwell during training the day before, although the striker sat behind the substitutes throughout the game. Speculation has been rife that the Uruguay international, whom Slot criticized for his work rate against Wolves and Aston Villa in February, was left out for disciplinary reasons. Asked on Friday to clarify the situation, Slot said: “He
RSS