The much-coveted Border-Gavaskar series has finally hit the stadium with the opening match, being a day-night Test, underway at the iconic Adelaide Oval in Adelaide. India won the toss and opted to bat first and although they lost the early wickets of Prithvi Shaw (0) and Mayank Agarwal (16), the visitors managed to bounce back in the game courtesy of the gritty knocks from Cheteshwar Pujara (43), skipper Virat Kohli (74) and Ajinkya Rahane (42).
The first day’s play has come to an end, and the scorecard reads 233/6 with wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha (9*) and Ravichandran Ashwin (15*) forging a 27* run partnership for the seventh wicket.
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With the momentum a bit in the host’s favor who would look to scrape wickets in the early moments of the next day’s play, former cricketer turned commentator Ricky Ponting has predicted Australia as the winner of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
The batting maestro, who donned the baggy green on 168 occasions and scored 13378 runs to his name, came up with a Twitter post that said he is looking forward to the commentary alongside Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar and added that the Tim Paine-led Australia would win the series by a margin of 2-1.
India had won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on their previous tour to Australia by 2-1, and with Virat Kohli heading back home after the Adelaide Test, it is important that the Men in Blue cement a victory in the first Test itself.
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Earlier in the day, Ponting, who is currently the head coach at Delhi Capitals, had pointed out a flaw in Shaw’s technique and how the Australian bowlers could get the better of him. In the immediate delivery, Shaw was bowled out by Mitchell Starc in the exact same fashion while trying to cover drive a delivery.
“He has got a little chink in his armour, I think it is the ball that does come back in to him. Very comfortable playing the ball away from his body. He does get his head in the line of the ball and plays under his eyes but he doesn’t commit his front foot to the line of the ball a lot. Quite often leaves a big gap between bat and pad and that is where the Aussies will target. Starc will try and swing one back through the gate,” Ponting said in a video posted by 7 Cricket on their official Twitter handle.
