VIDEO | Usman Khawaja pulls off a Ricky Ponting to claim Virat Kohli's scalp
Australia had done their homework to restrict Virat Kohli from scoring heavily in Adelaide, and it seemed like the latter failed to wrap his head around the tactic. After playing 15 balls across the stump, he poked one to gully off a Pat Cummins delivery, and boy did Khawaja just pull off a stunner.
Never count Australia off in Australia. The team may have been down by a series of terrible performances after the Newlands ball-tampering scandal, but they have a spine in the form of their bowling line-up. Led by Mitchell Starc, the troika, which also includes Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins, had their work cut out and how beautifully they lived up to the billing.
After India lost two early wickets thanks to some careless batting displays by KL Rahul and Murali Vijay, it was going to take another rebuilding by the Indian skipper, but Australia didn’t allow him to open his arms from the very first ball that he faced. When the third ball of the 11th over of the innings came on the fifth stump line, Kohli couldn’t control his urge and pushed hard at the delivery, thinking of a cover drive - his age-old nemesis in Test cricket.
Given the ball was full and was angling away, it flew off the edge of his blade and could well have beaten Usman Khawaja, who was standing at gully position. However, Khawaja’s inner Ricky Ponting suddenly woke up and he took a step to his left and then put out a full stretch dive to pluck it with his left hand. This was as terrific a catch as possible and set the tone for the series, which was seemed to be all gloom after the way it was branded on various news channel before this match.
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