Making India Grumpy Pleased Up, Says CA XI's Harry Nielsen

Cricket Australia wicketkeeper Harry Nielsen believes his team’s batting effort against India in the warm-up game has made the visitors tired and will be helpful for the hosts in the first Test.

Given India’s strong bowling attack, it looked like they would make light work of Cricket Australia. However, Virat Kohli & Co. were in a for a big surprise. Max Bryant and D’Arcy Short gave the batting side a strong side by scoring fifties.  The openers added 114 runs for the first wicket. At one stage, the hosts were 213 for 2  before losing 4 wickets in quick succession. As a result, they found themselves 6 down for 234. However, Harry Nielsen scored a century while Aaron Hardie scored 86 before the lower-order batsmen contributed too as Cricket Australia XI piled up 544. Consequently, India had to toil hard for 151.1 overs.

India now head to Adelaide where they will have just four days to recover for the first Domain Test at Adelaide Oval.

India’s three frontline quicks bowled a combined 74 overs while pace spearhead Ravichandran Ashwin bowled 40 overs. And Harry Nielsen is delighted his side managed to make India grumpy on the field with the batting effort.

“I think they were getting a bit grumpy, which was pleasing us,” Nielsen said.

“With an eye towards the first Test, we were sort of trying to keep them out there as long as we could and help the Test team out.

“I think we did our job beautifully batting for (151.1) overs. I bet they certainly didn’t plan on that, but they should’ve bowled us out.

“We were never going to declare, (hoping to) get plenty of overs into their quicks and wear them out a bit. Hopefully we’ve done (Australia) a favour and they can cash in Adelaide,” he added.

The first Test would get underway on December 6. Perth, Melbourne and Sydney will host the remaining three games before both the teams lock horns in a three-match ODI series,