Australian speedster Pat Cummins took four for 29 as India were bowled for 244 in the first innings at the SCG. Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane were two of his scalps as those strikes dented India’s chances of getting a good total Speaking in the virtual press conference after the day’s play, Cummins said that the idea was to keep Pujara under pressure for his style of play. Pujara was dismissed in all four innings of this series by Cummins.
“He’s someone you know you’re going to have to bowl a lot at, and I think we got our heads around that this series. For him to score runs, we were going to make it hard as possible. And whether he bats for 200, 300 balls, we’ll just try and bowl good ball after good ball, challenge both sides of his bat, and fortunately so far it’s worked,” said Pat Cummins.
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My Rhythm Feels Good: Pat Cummins
The Australian speedster further spoke about his performance in the series. With 14 wickets, Cummins is the highest wicket-taker in the series so far.
“It’s right up there. Rhythm feels really good and it feels like I’ve got pretty good control over not only where the ball’s landing, but the seam movement as well. I feel like I can nip it in and out a bit more than I have in the past. Coming into the series quite fresh as well, not having played Tests since last summer, that’s a massive help. Even three Tests in, the legs feel really fresh, so don’t discount that either.”
Pat Cummins concluded by saying that though India did not score many runs in their first innings, he expects the Indians to come back hard.
“I think, at the start of the day, I was kind of hoping that we wouldn’t end the day still having to bowl, so to be having 200 lead with eight wickets in hand on a wicket that is deteriorating pretty quickly, great result,” the 27-year-old added.
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