Former Australia wicketkeeper-batsman Brad Haddin called the horrible mix-up between Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane that resulted in running out of the Indian captain the “big moment” of the day as it dented tourists’ progress in their first innings of the ongoing Test in Adelaide.
In the final session of Day 1 of the ongoing first Day-Night Test, Team India suffered a massive blow as a well-set Kohli paid a high price for a handful of minor miscalculations from his deputy Rahane, disastrously running out after scoring a hard-fought 74 off 180 balls on Thursday.
Following early wicket fall, Kohli and Rahane both were batted with fine grit and determination and stitched a solid partnership of 88 runs for the fourth wicket, and even India captain was looking to set for a big score. But it was vice-captain’s call that stranded him in the middle of the pitch to be run out.
In the final ball of the 77th over, Rahane called Kohli for the run with Cameron Green at mid-off, and when the captain responded, his partner backtracked, leaving Kohli almost midway through the pitch as the all-rounder collected the ball and threw it back to the off-spinner, who took off the bails.
The terrible mix-up proved too costly for the Indian cricket team as Kohli’s who was batting at 74 ran out dented India’s progress as two more wickets fell after the disastrous run-out and they could manage only 244 runs in the first innings against Australia in the ongoing Adelaide Test.
Haddin said on the Sony Sports Network: “The big moment we’re all talking about is Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane’s run out. We know how important that last session of play here is when the second new ball comes into play.”
He further added, “You need your set batsman to play and that run out just turned things back towards Australia. And in the end, 6/233, it’s an even day but could have been a lot worse for both teams.”
On Cheteshwar Pujara’s (43 off 159 balls) approach, Haddin believes that Kohli lost his momentum a bit because of the veteran batsman’s slow innings on Day1 of the game against Australia.
He further pointed out: “I thought he was just building into his innings. He got better every 10 runs as he went on. He looked in control and I think his momentum got lost a little bit from (because of) Pujara. They weren’t rotating the strike and at times, Pujara was getting caught down one end and they were losing the rhythm of the game. It was affecting Kohli.”
He signed off by saying, “But when Rahane came in, they looked like they were enjoying batting together. They ran well between the wickets before that nightmare run- out. He started to get a lot of rhythm back in his game. And then, he looked like Australia had no answers to him. He looked in total control. He was playing on skills and not on emotions as we’ve seen sometimes from him. The run-out came at the right time for us.”
(With Hindustan Times Inputs)
