Marcus North’s return to form
The dark clouds of bad form hung over Marcus North and it looks evident that he might get dropped for the Ashes, if he doesn’t perform well in the ongoing Test match against India and Bangalore.
Against all odds, he surprised everyone with his well built century to boost Australia’s total to 478 in the first innings.
Australia, who were 0-1 down in the series won the toss and elected to bat first. As we know, the first innings in India always matters the most as wickets of the country tend to deteriorate as the match progresses. So the tourists needed a huge first innings
total to put India under pressure to get an early advantage and make full use of conditions, bowling on the 5th day of the match.
Marcus North entered the ground with Australia struggling at 198/4. Joining his well settled captain, Ricky Ponting, on the crease. Whenever a player is playing under pressure to cement his place in the team, playing with a master batsman like Ponting will
always help the cause.
North started his innings under the shadow of his skipper. The left handed batsman was under immense pressure with his team needing a solid display to pile up a big total. As expected, he played and missed a couple of balls early on in his innings. As time
went on, he found his touch and started to milk the balling for ones and twos.
North and his skipper added 58 runs for the 5th wicket as Ricky got out leg before wicket on a straight ball from part timer Raina. The responsibility on North increased as he was the set batsman. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 ended the first day on a score of 285/5.
Moreover, the left hander under pressure got better and better as the innings progressed. In addition, he scored his half century off 98 balls with five crunching boundaries. The responsibility of boosting the total brought out the best in him. As he spent
more time on the crease, he found his lost touch and scored a vital century. Marcus along with his partner Tim Paine added 149 runs.
The wicket keeper batsman left the scene scoring a gritty 59 runs to give support to his senior player. North took complete advantage of his return to form and added 28 more runs to his century.
Furthermore, Australia scored 478 in their first innings. North, not only performed under pressure and broke free from the shackles of bad form, he also made sure that Australia got a reasonable first innings total to test http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750.
Prior to his century in the first innings at Bangalore, the left handed batsman played 7 matches this year, scoring 290 runs at a modest average of 26 runs with a single century and a fifty.
Furthermore, he played 4 matches against quality seam bowling attack of Pakistan that comprised the fast bowling pair of Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir. In matches against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755, he has gathered just 69 runs at a poor average of 9. In between, his average
boosted against the depleted bowling attack of the Kiwis.
In http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754, he featured in 2 matches, scoring 211 runs at a breathtaking average of 105 with a best of 112. It looked like the current Indian series might be his last, if he didn’t perform at his best.
Moreover, the left hander started the tour with a century in a 3 day match against President’s Board 11. It would have given him some confidence, but it wasn’t to be. As expected, against the first string Indian bowling attack, Marcus only managed to score
10 runs in both innings of the Mohali Test.
Add to this, North was on the verge of being dropped from the side for the next series. Ahead of The Ashes, North in order to prove his mettle and that he still is a certainty in this current Kangaroo outfit scored a fighting century.
His hundred in the 2nd Test at Bangalore has not only cemented his place for The Ashes squad, but it has also saved his career.
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