Cricket: Australia plays Derbyshire while Pakistan take on http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Leicestershire-c807 in warm up
Australia and Pakistan had contrasting warm up games ahead of the first test that begins on the 12th of July. Pakistan had an indifferent day-1 with the ball against Leicestershire and struggled to knock over the county side in almost 90 overs. Australia had a fun day out with the bat against Derbyshire. On day one they piled on 436 runs. But the second day was different for both teams. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 enjoyed a solid batting practice while the Australian bowling attack could not find answers to roll over the Derbyshire batting line up in 80 overs.
Australia batted first on day one. Captain Ricky Ponting enjoyed a brilliant hundred scoring 116 runs, and Michel Hussey also joined in the fun with 132 runs. There was a fifty for the wicketkeeper Tim Paine, and it was obvious that the track was good for batting.
The trend continued on day 2, although it was not exactly the same, as Derbyshire batsmen did not offer the same kind of aggression but did make the Australian attack work hard.
The opening pair of Rogers and Madsen looked good. The left right combination did not let the Aussie bowlers settle.
Hilfenhaus and Bollinger shared the new ball but could not put it to good use. Rogers was in a mood to play a long innings and continued to frustrate the Australian attack.
Madsen was no different, the right hander was not willing to put bat to ball on anything that was not in his arc, Bollinger bowling from over the wicket did try to use the angle to his advantage, but there was no swing back into the right hander for him. Madsen continued to let 60 % of the balls go.
As soon as either of the bowlers over pitched the batsmen were quick to pounce on it. Roger who is very strong on the off side, being a left hander it almost does come naturally to him, hit Hilfenhaus repeatedly through the covers adding to the frustration of Aussie Captain.
Ponting quickly brought on Mitchell Johnson. But that did not change much. Johnson did gather some serious pace but was unable to rattle the opening pair.
Like the other 2 bowlers, after getting tired of the off stump line, Johnson started to get straighter. That mean’t playing into the opening pair’s hands, who then, started clipping him away for runs.
Ponting finally introduced his leg spinner Smith in the 19th over. But as soon as Rogers saw spin he stepped out and launched a massive six over midwicket. In Smith’s next over Madsen repeated the dose.
The frustrating opening partnership was finally broken when Madsen tried to play a flashy cover drive and nicked one to Paine behind the stumps off the bowling of Johnson. He scored 58 runs from 118 balls with 8 fours and a six.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 did not have to wait for too long, to get the second wicket, Rogers fell 7 short of his hundred and Paine and Johnson accounted for him too. He scored 93 runs from 164 balls with 9 fours and a beautiful six.
Batting at number 3, Park continued to test the Australian attack and stayed on the back foot, while Redfern did not last long and was caught by North off the bowling of Hilfenhaus for just 15 runs.
Smith finally got a wicket when Durston tried to hit one long and was caught by Hilfenhaus in the deep. He scored just 4 runs from 24 balls.
The day ended with Derbyshire at 235 for the loss of 5 wickets. It certainly had given the Australians something to think about. The wicket may not have been helpful but Ponting admitted that an attack of this quality should have been able to run through a county side.
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