Virat Kohli was over the moon and Sunil Gavaskar could not keep calm after Mohammed Siraj produced a pacey delivery to give India just the kind of start they needed against Australia in the first ODI against Australia. After stand-in captain Hardik Pandya won the toss and opted to field, Siraj produced an absolute scorcher to see the back of Travis Head as early as the second over of the innings, and the way he set it up was a thing of beauty. Siraj began the over in the mid-130s but finished it with a delivery fired in at 140 kph that saw Head chop the ball on to the stumps.
Siraj had a bit of a stare down with Head after the Australia opener cracked the fourth ball of the over through the covers for a boundary but the India pacer ended up having the last laugh as Head walked down the wicket but played on for 5 off 10 balls. Siraj brought out the ‘SIUUU’, Kohli from slips was absolutely pumped and Gavaskar was thrilled with the way Siraj trapped Head by increasing the speed on that final delivery of the over.
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“If you have a look at what happened, the ball in which he was hit for a boundary, it was bowled at a 130 kph. So instead of getting discouraged by that, the next two deliveries have been around the 140 kph mark. He just ups his speed and that’s what’s happened again. That speed, the little late inward movement and Siraj gets his man,” Gavaskar said.
“Have a look at the speeds,” he added as the replay showed the first four balls being bowled at 120, 137, 134 and 130 kph. “The other one was slow, under 130; the next one was a little bit quick, almost charged up by that boundary and then when Head moves down, Siraj doesn’t lose his direction. It was short of length just a little bit and Siraj does the rest. The fastest ball of the over.”
India then almost struck off the next ball as Mitchell Marsh was nearly run out without facing a ball. Marsh dabbed a ball from Shami behind him but without where the ball had gone, new batter in Steve Smith took off and was half way down the wicket when Marsh took off. Wicketkeeper KL Rahul stumbled a bit while picking up the ball, but had that not been the case and the throw connected the stumps, it could have been curtains.
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