Pacers remove openers as Australia reach 76 for 2 at lunch
Nagpur, Feb 9 (PTI) Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne handled the Indian spinners with a lot of confidence as Australia recovered from early jitters to reach 76 for two at lunch on opening day of the first Test, here Thursday.
Mohammed Shami (1/12) and Mohammed Siraj (1/13) removed Usman Khawaja (1) and David Warner (1) in quick succession but Labuschagne (47) and Smith (19) led the Australian fight back in an engaging first session where they didn't let India's spin troika get better of them.
Labuschagne, who hit eight shots to the fence in his 110-ball innings, played the role of an enforcer whereas his senior Smith defended doggedly during his 74-ball stay, nullifying the Indian spinners to a great extent in their 74-run stand for the third wicket.
There were a few deliveries from both Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel that turned and jumped, making life difficult for debutant Kona Bharat behind the stumps but Australia's two best batters were on top of their game during the session.
Ravichandran Ashwin, who primarily bowled around the wicket to the right handers, didn't look threatening initially and then changed to traditional over-the-wicket bowling.
All the pre-match talk by a section of Australian media about "doctored pitches" seemed presumptuous as the VCA Stadium track seemed like a typical dry Indian wicket, which will gradually offer significant turn from second day onwards.
There is turn on offer but that is standard for Indian wickets and the manner in which Smith and Labuschagne played showed that good technique is key to adaptability in any conditions.
Pat Cummins did win a good toss and opted to bat as batting fourth would be an onerous task on a pitch which will deteriorate as the match progresses. A first innings score of 275 could put Australia in a very good position to dictate terms in this game.
Khawaja got a classical outswinger from Siraj (inswinger for southpaw) and Rohit Sharma was right in taking the DRS which went in India's favour.
In case of Warner, Shami came around the wicket and fired from wide of the crease and the angular delivery sent the left-hander's off-stump for a cartwheel.
India looked in control before world No. 1 Test batter took charge. Labuschagne started with a picture-perfect straight drive off Siraj and then deliberately used the pace of his delivery to get boundary through vacant fourth slip region.
But two of his best shots were -- late cut off Axar's bowling and an inside-out cover drive off Ashwin.
Ashwin was trying to peg the batters on the leg-stump line but his ploy at least in first session hasn't worked well.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Politician wanting to take credit: Tharoor slams Trump for declaring halting of Indo-Pak hostilities
New Delhi, May 12 (PTI): Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Monday described US President Donald Trump's announcement of halting military hostilities between India and Pakistan as "a politician wanting to take credit for something" and slammed the American leader for re-hyphenating the two South Asian countries.
Asserting that he did not like the social media post of Trump announcing the cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan, Tharoor pointed out that the US president tried to make a "false equivalence" between India and Pakistan and said it was equating the victim with the perpetrator which was "shocking".
Asked about Trump's announcement, Tharoor told PTI Videos, "I see it as a particular politician wanting to take credit for something and I can see that the government of India probably said 'let them take the credit if they want to', but from our point of view we have made it clear that the peace followed a request from the DGMO of Pakistan who called his Indian counterpart at 3:35 pm (Saturday) and we did not take very long to say yes because we had never wanted a long war."
"We had made it very clear on May 7 that what we had done was to strike terrorist targets in reprisal for Pahalgam and the last thing that we wanted to see was the beginning of a long protracted conflict...We had said at every stage, we had done our thing, we have sent a message, if you react, we will react," the MP from Thiruvananthapuram said.
Clarifying that he was speaking as an individual MP, Tharoor said he did not like Trump's social media posts on the issue.
Tharoor said there were four problems with Trump's message including the "false equivalence" between India and Pakistan.
"You are making equivalent the victim and the perpetrator, which is really shocking. It is completely wrong to imply that as a result of this India is going to give some sort of negotiation to Pakistan. We will never negotiate to the point of a gun, we are never going to give the satisfaction to Pakistan of feeling that by unleashing a terrorist attack in Pahalgam they have somehow earned the right to negotiate with India," he said.
"I don't think that Mr Trump should have in any way, shape or form implied that the Kashmiri dispute has been internationalised by the American involvement. We don't even accept that there is a dispute of that nature, Kashmir is an integral part of India...we are not interested at all in internationalising the dispute," he said.
So the implication that the international community has a role to play in resolving this issue flies in the face of basic assumptions of India's foreign policy, Tharoor said.
"I do not believe we will do that. The fourth thing I did not like about Trump's tweet is that it re-hyphenated India and Pakistan," he said.
For the last 30 years, India has successfully in pursuade the world and US presidents since Clinton to not club the two countries together.
Tharoor also said the tension between India and Pakistan is not new.
"If we look back at the developments of the last decade, I think the last straw was the Pathankot attack...when the PM very graciously invited the Pakistanis to participate in the investigation into the attack. And they sent their intelligence people to an Indian airbase — something that had never happened before. They went back and said the Indians did it to themselves, that I think was the last straw.
"That’s when the prime minister felt, and the Government of India concluded, that you could never really trust the Pakistani military establishment and that entire apparatus there," he said.
"So if you look back at where things stood even before Pahalgam, it was not a very warm relationship. After Pahalgam, it’s taken a further dive — because, as you know, we’ve suspended the Indus Waters Treaty, we have reduced the number of personnel in the embassy here, in the High Commission, we have removed defence attaches," he said.
It is a very tense relationship even without a shooting war going on, Tharoor said.
"For three-four days we were shooting at each other which was a very serious matter which seems to have been brought to a halt right now. I hope it stays that way but even then peace in this case is just the absence of war," Tharoor said.
India and Pakistan have reached an understanding to stop all firings and military actions on land, air and sea with immediate effect after four days of cross-border strikes that triggered fears of a wider conflict.
In a short announcement, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said the directors general of military operations of the two countries agreed on the understanding during a call this afternoon.
The decision by India and Pakistan was first made public by Trump in a social media post while claiming that the talks between the two sides were mediated by the US.
