By IANS
Melbourne : Rain, as forecast, is threatening to rob the Indians of much needed practice ahead of the Boxing Day (Dec 26) Test against Australia.
In alien conditions, their top-order batsmen had a rough time against the second-string Victoria pace men and were reduced to 110 for three at Junction Oval on the first day of the three-day game before rain ended the day’s play here Thursday.
Rain delayed the start of the game and a storm in the afternoon turned the Oval into a veritable lake. In the middle session when play was possible, the Indians lost three quick wickets before Rahul Dravid (33 batting) and in-form Sourav Ganguly (51 batting) restored some order.
The Indians, went into the game without their skipper Anil Kumble, fellow-spinner Harbhajan Singh, opener Virender Sehwag and fast bowler Zaheer Khan with Mahendra Singh Dhoni leading the side. India are playing their four young pace men to see how well can they utilise the conditions and adjust to the bounce.
Allan Wise, who doesn’t find a regular place in the Victoria eleven, rocked the Indians, dismissing opener Wasim Jaffer (0), V.V.S. Laxman (1) and Sachin Tendulkar (19) for 38 runs before the visitors recovered to 110 for without any further loss when umpires called off play for the day.
With more showers forecast in the next two days, the Indians will have to go into the first of the four-Test series without much acclimatisation.
Make-shift opener Dravid and Ganguly provided confidence to the people in the dressing room with their unfinished stand of 72.
Tendulkar played on to Wise when he looked in good touch, having hit a pulled six, but the television replays showed he was out to a no-ball not seen by the umpire.
Wise, whose disconcerting bounce bothered the Indian batsmen, had figures of three for 32.
Former skipper Dravid said after the day’s play that they should have had another warm-up game and felt there was little they could do with the unfriendly weather.
“We just have to wait and see how the weather will be in the next two days. We would obviously have liked better weather and a little more cricket ahead of the first Test, but we have to make do with what we’ve got and try to make the best of it,” said Dravid.
Wise and new ball partner Peter Siddle had India’s batsmen regularly playing on their toes, and even though Dravid rated the Junction wicket a little slow, he said India had to make some adjustments.
“There was a definite difference in bounce here after what we had in the three Tests against Pakistan. When you play on the back foot and you expect the ball to hit the middle of the bat, but here it hits the splice, so we need to get used to it,” Dravid added.