Extra Cover: Paine’s Kohli power play, Perth’s Boxing Day duck
Virat Kohli is used to be being the alpha male on any cricket pitch he walks on but one of the nicest blokes in the game just turned the tables on the combative India skipper.
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Paine finally won a toss, in his fifth Test as captain, and in doing so avoided joining Australia’s second ever skipper, Billy Murdoch, who lost his first five in the 1880s.
But Paine was in good company on four losses. The great Richie Benaud also lost his first four tosses as captain when he took over the leadership in 1958.
Paine also did his best to make Kohli sweat before the coin was flipped.
The Indian skipper was baking in his navy blue blazer in the middle of the ground, where it was 35C, for at least four minutes before Paine arrived.
It brought back memories form 2001, when combative Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly repeatedly made then Australian captain Steve Waugh wait at more than one toss, which he said later was to “get under his skin.”
PERTH’S POWER PLAY GETS DUCK
The ambitious desire of Western Australian cricket officials to steal the Boxing Day Test from Melbourne took a knockout blow on day one.
With a brand new, $1.6 billion, 60,000 seat stadium venue boss Mike McKenna, who used to work at Cricket Australia, declared his intent to have a “conversation” about luring the traditional Melbourne or Sydney Tests to the west.
But with less than 20,000 spectators turning up for day one, amid pre-match talk the pitch was going to provide all sorts of fun, those ambitions look beyond lofty.
The baking temperatures and lack of shade, plus the proximity to Christmas was said to be a factor in the turn-out.
But 20,000 has long been the average crowd in the west, because that’s how many people the WACA could fit.
Two-thirds of the new venue were however, empty, and with expectations of at least 70,000 on Boxing Day this year, the numbers don’t stack up well for a western raid on the marquee matches of the summer
CHANNEL 7’S TOSS UP
The whole world knew the result of the toss in Perth before viewers watching Channel 7 on Friday.
While Fox Cricket broadcast the toss live, and viewers saw Indian captain Virat Kohli call incorrectly, allowing Aussie skipper Tim Paine his first ever win, Channel 7 was recording it.
The toss result, with Australia choosing to bat, spread like wildfire across social media.
But Seven delayed showing it to its free to air viewers in a bid to marry with its interviews with the captains, which come after Fox has its turn.
FINCH’S SLICE OF HISTORY
When the question gets asked at pub trivia nights in the future, Aaron Finch will be the answer.
Not only did the Victorian score the first run in Test cricket at the new Perth stadium, he also hit the first boundary.
It was off the same ball too. Finch hit the third delivery of the second over, bowled by Indian quick Jasprit Bumrah, to the mid-wicket boundary with a well-timed pull shot.
PANT’S BANTS ROLLS ON
Chirpy Indian wicket keeper Rishabh Pant will probably leave Perth with a very sore throat.
Pant’s antics behind the stumps in Adelaide were not restricted to him taking a record-equalling 11 catches in the first Test.
The stump mikes captured his incessant talking, which was both encouragement to his teammates and given the Aussies batsmen a bit of advice.
Pant kept up to the stumps for 95 of the 217 overs India bowled too, so he was never far from the action.
But in Perth, with India taking in four quick bowlers, Pant had to shout a lot louder to get his message through.
Early on the opening day he was standing way back on the logo as the ball flew threw. He kept chatting, reminding Aussie opener Aaron Finch he had given up 18 straight dots balls.
But by the end of the first session, the chat had dried up, as all his shouting took a toll.
CAPITALISING OFF KOHLI
There was a rare occurrence in the second session, when Usman Khawaja got off the mark courtesy of an overthrow.
Khawaja had faced 10 tough balls after coming in at the fall of the first wicket, playing and missing several times to Indian quick Jasprit Bumrah.
He also being tied down by Ishant Sharma, before the pressure was released courtesy of Indian skipper Virat Kohli.
After defending a ball to Kohli as short cover, Khawaja didn’t leave his crease. But for some reason Kohli decided to have a ping at the stumps, missed, and the throw went past keeper Rishabh Pant allowing Khawaja to score a single.
It was the third instance of the Aussies getting overthrows, all off Kohli.
ICC MOVES ON MATCH-FIXING
Less than a week after a man was ejected from the Adelaide Oval for alleged “pitch-siding” the International Cricket Council has confirmed it wants match-fixing to become a criminal offence.
A man was spotted at the Adelaide Oval during the first Test using three phones allegedly to send information to Indian bookmakers, to take advantage of the 12 second delay between live action and television broadcasts.
In India yesterday ICC chief executive David Richardson said they were in talks with the governments of all cricket-playing to have match-fixing outlawed.
“The ACSU (ICC’s anti-corruption unit) is trying to be much more proactive in first of all disrupting these criminals who are travelling the world trying to corrupt the game,” Richardson said.
“We are persuading governments to introduce legislation that can make attempts to fix cricket matches a criminal offence and put these people behind bars.”
The ACSU currently has 13 open investigations in to match-fixing around the world, most in unsanctioned T20 leagues.
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Originally published as Extra Cover: Paine’s Kohli power play, Perth’s Boxing Day duck