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Australia v India, Third Test Day 1 from the SCG: Will Pucovski shines with 50 on debut

Will Pucovski overcame a controversial call, rain and problems with the short ball with a 50 on debut | WATCH

Peter Lalor and Tom Crystal
12 min read
6:37PMJanuary 07, 2021.
Updated 7:17PMJanuary 07, 2021
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Australia's Will Pucovski leaves the field after being dismissed on day one at the SCG. Picture: AFP
Australia's Will Pucovski leaves the field after being dismissed on day one at the SCG. Picture: AFP

Australia vs India: Day 1 of the Third Test, from the SCG. Australia reached stumps on 2-166 after winning the toss. Marnus Labuschagne (67) and Steve Smith (31) are the not out batsmen.

Pucovski, Labuschagne revive Australia’s fortunes

Debutant Will Pucovski and Marnus Labuschagne smacked half-centuries as Australia recovered from an early setback to build a promising first innings in the rain-hit third Test against India, AFP reports.

Following David Warner’s departure for five, the hosts recovered to 166 for two at stumps after more than three hours’ play was lost due to persistent drizzle at the SCG.

Labuschagne was not out 67 while Steve Smith, who has struggled for runs this series, hit an attacking unbeaten 31. Pucovski contributed 62 in an impressive maiden Test innings.

Fellow debutant Navdeep Saini and Mohammed Siraj, in only his second Test, shared the wickets in a clash both sides are desperate to win with the four-match series level at 1-1.

After captain Tim Paine won the toss and chose to bat in front of 8692 socially-distanced fans, just under the quarter of capacity allowed, the rain started falling 35 minutes into the opening session.

It was enough time for Siraj to grab the key wicket of Warner on his return from injury, caught by Cheteshwar Pujara to put Australia on the back foot.

But a 100-run partnership between Pucovski and Labuschagne swung the momentum back in Australia’s favour before the 22-year-old fell lbw to Saini.

The patient Labuschagne, who has been Australia’s best batsman this series, survived an edge off Jasprit Bumrah on 11, which just failed to carry to slip, but was otherwise authoritative.

He brought up his ninth Test 50 with a boundary off Siraj, while Smith looked in ominous touch at the other end after failing to reach double figures in his four previous innings.

The former captain hit five boundaries in his 31 which came off 64 balls.

Dropped catches

Pucovski resumed on 14 and Labuschagne two when play finally restarted at 3pm after the lengthy rain delay.

Australia have high hopes for Pucovski, who scored two double centuries in the Sheffield Shield this season but had been sidelined with a concussion, the ninth of his short career.

India tried to unsettle him early on with short balls and he rode his luck, being dropped twice.

The first came on 26 when Ravi Ashwin enticed a thin edge, only for wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant to miss what should have been a simple catch.

Three overs later and Pant did it again.

Pucovski, on 32, got a glove to a rising Siraj ball and as Pant dived, the ball popped out of his hand. He made another grab and seemed to have caught it, but replays showed the ball hit the ground first.

He then survived a run-out opportunity after a misunderstanding with Labuschagne, but refocused to bring up his 50 with a boundary off Saini.

But Saini, in the team for the injured Umesh Yadav, finally snared his first Test wicket, trapping Pucovski to snap what was shaping as a dangerous partnership.

Veteran Warner missed the first two Tests in Adelaide and Melbourne with a groin injury and his return was highly anticipated. But he didn’t last long.

He showed intent with a two off his first ball but his natural aggression quickly brought him undone, swinging at a full Siraj delivery which took at outside edge and flew to Pujara at slip.

— AFP

Live blog — how day one unfolded:

Tom Crystal 6.46pm: Aussies in a good position at stumps

Navdeep Saini finishes off proceedings on day one, and Marnus Labuschagne (67) safely negotiates the final three balls of the session. Steve Smith (31) is unbeaten at the non-striker’s end. Play will resume 30 minutes early for the next few days in an effort to make up for time lost.

Tom Crystal 6.30pm: Smith-Labuschagne stand passes 50

The pair who have already combined for some match-winning partnerships are at it again. Labuschagne has 66, Smith 28 as the home team reach 2-162. They’ll be looking to reach stumps with eight wickets in hand.

Tom Crystal 6pm: 50 to Labuschagne

Marnus Labuschagne unfurls a lovely cover drive for four off Mohammed Siraj to reach a half-century from 108 balls. It’s his ninth in Tests. He follows up with a seventh boundary to move onto 58. Steve Smith has looked positive today, racing to 26 off 32 balls, featuring five boundaries.

Tom Crystal 5.25pm: WICKET!

One ball after the 100 partnership, Will Pucovski is sent packing, lbw to Navdeep Saini after shuffling across his stumps and missing one that nips back off the pitch. Pucovski faced 110 balls and hit four boundaries in his 62.

Tom Crystal 5.20pm: Plenty at stake in final session

Jasprit Bumrah and debutant Navdeep Saini are looking to break the Pucovski-Labuschagne partnership, which is up to 100. There are a minimum of 20.5 overs to go.

Tom Crystal 4.40pm: 50 to Pucovski on debut!

The opener hasn’t looked convincing against the short ball but he pounces on one from a fellow debutant, paceman Navdeep Saini, and hits it for four down to long on for a half-century from 97 balls, with four of those reaching the fence. Two consecutive boundaries took the right-hander to the milestone in an impressive debut.

Will Pucovski reaches his 50. Picture: AFP
Will Pucovski reaches his 50. Picture: AFP

Peter Lalor 4.25pm: Drama as Pucovski survives

In 2008 at this ground the Indian side accused the Australians of not playing within the spirit of the game over disputed catches.

Twelve years later, fortunately, things are not as heated and Rishabh Pant claiming a catch off Pucovski will not cause as much trouble.

The keeper spilt the skied ball as he dived and attempted to glove it before he and it hit the ground.

Replays suggested it had bounced and Pucovski, who was cursing his shot, was given a reprieve.

One other thing to note out of that: Pucovski is not convincing against the short ball. He is not scared of it, but he wafted at one in his first over, skied one a few overs later to the boundary for four and was most unconvincing against this delivery from Siraj.

A bit more intent might help.

Otherwise, he looks as good as they promised. Even accounting for the fact Pant dropped him earlier off the bowling of Ashwin.

Good innings, as they say, need good luck.

Tom Crystal 3.40pm: Pucovski, Labuschagne make steady progress

This pair has now added 40 runs since the early exit of David Warner. Both batsmen have looked watchful but relatively comfortable. Paceman Jasprit Bumrah and spinner Ravi Ashwin have been operating in tandem, and now Siraj takes over from Bumrah.

Tom Crystal 3pm: Play begins again

The sky has cleared enough for a resumption of play on day one. Tea will be taken at 4.40pm; A minimum of 57 overs are scheduled to be bowled.

Tom Crystal 1.45pm: Still no sign of play resuming

The planned revised start time for the second session (1pm) has come and gone without any prospect of a return to the field.

Tom Crystal 12.25pm: Early lunch taken

Play will resume, weather permitting, at 1pm local time. Amid the wait, it’s worth a look at the rise and rise of Will Pucovski, who showed signs of breathtaking talent from his time as a kid in the under-12s. Read more here

Tom Crystal 12.10pm: The restrictions in place at the SCG

As rain continues to fall, it’s worth noting how fans are being asked to act amid Covid restrictions. Police will be doing spot checks to ensure spectators from banned suburbs are not at the game. Offenders face fines of $1000.

Tom Crystal 11.45am: Frustration continues at SCG

Light rain is falling again and the covers are back on the wicket square. Looks like that sort of day, with a forecast of showers and a top temperature of 23C.

Tom Crystal 11.35am: Play set to resume at 11.45

Tom Crystal 11.30am: Team news recap

Australia made two changes to their side, recalling David Warner and bringing in Will Pucovski to open with him. Matthew Head has been dropped and Matthew Wade will move down the order after a brief opening stint.

Will Pucovski skies a hook shot. Picture: Phil Hillyard
Will Pucovski skies a hook shot. Picture: Phil Hillyard

India also made a pair of changes to the XI that won the Boxing Day Test, handing Navdeep Saini his Test debut for the injured Umesh Yadav. Rohit Sharma has been recalled for struggling opener Mayank Agarwal.

Australia: David Warner, Will Pucovski, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Matthew Wade, Cameron Green, Tim Paine (c), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.

India: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah.

Tom Crystal 11.15am: Good news for Sydney, SCG Test

Controversy has overshadowed this Test, and whether or not it should have proceeded with fans given the COVID-19 cases still being dealt with in parts of the city.

Some of the spectators in the stands at the SCG. Picture: Phil Hillyard
Some of the spectators in the stands at the SCG. Picture: Phil Hillyard

The NSW government is confident it can host a ‘Covid-safe’ match and reduced the crowd capacity to 25 per cent as part of its preparations.

News today is that NSW has recorded zero new locally acquired COVID-19 cases and six in hotel quarantine. There is one new case of local transmission, recorded after the 8pm cut-off.

Acting NSW Premier John Barilaro said the case was linked to the Avalon cluster, on Sydney’s northern beaches.

Tom Crystal 11.10am: The covers come on as light rain falls

Tom Crystal 11am: Close call for Pucovski

The right-hander top-edges a hook shot against Mohammed Siraj but the ball lands safely and runs down to the fine leg boundary. The next ball produces a more orthodox on drive that yields three runs and puts Pucovski into double figures. Marnus Labuschagne has two.

Tom Crystal 10.48am: WICKET!

David Warner (5) slashes wildly at a Mohammed Siraj delivery outside off stump, gets a big edge and the catch is taken by Pujara at first slip.

Tom Crystal 10.36am: Warner gets off the mark

No mucking around from the recalled (from injury) opener. David Warner pushes Mohammed Siraj’s first ball out through the covers for two, then works the next delivery fine for a single. Pucovski gets off the mark by flicking one down to fine leg from the fifth ball of the over.

Tom Crystal 10.31am: Pucovski faces up first

No shielding of the strike for right-hander Will Pucovski, who is on strike to India’s star paceman Jasprit Bumrah. He leaves the first ball, which shows a hint of outswing. Ball five is a short ball to the man who’s had trouble with it. The batsman’s pull shot misses and the ball goes through to the keeper.

Peter Lalor 10.20am: Most anticipated debut since Phillip Hughes

It is the most exciting moment in Australian cricket since Phillip Hughes debuted in South Africa in 2009.

That innings lasted four balls, but the air of expectation around Hughes is similar to that around Victoria’s Will Pucovski.

He was denied an opportunity two years ago when Kurtis Patterson was included at the last moment, but there was no change of heart this time.

Tim Paine spoke about establishing an opening partnership at the toss and with Pucovski making his debut alongside David Warner the pieces are in place for some seasons to come.

The 22-year-old Victorian is set to face the opening overs with the veteran who has returned from injury.

Will Swanton 10.15am: Chappelli forced to watch from home

Not even a 75-Test, ex-Australia Test captain can get into the SCG because of the lockout of residents of Sydney’s northern beaches.

Cricket fans arrive at the SCG before the start of play on day one. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw
Cricket fans arrive at the SCG before the start of play on day one. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

Ian Chappell is supposed to be part of the ABC Radio commentary team but because he lives at Bayview, in the northern part of the northern beaches still under stay-at-home orders, Chappell has to, well, stay at home. After decades of TV work, Chappell’s radio commentary was brilliant in the early part of the international summer, the T20 and ODI matches, but he’s had a rough run during the Tests.

After a couple of days in Adelaide, he was forced to stay in his hotel room and then fly back to Sydney because of COVID-19 measures by the SA government. Then he was forced to miss the Boxing Day Test altogether after the fresh outbreak in Sydney. Now he’s missing the Sydney Test for one of the few times in decades and if the Brisbane Test goes ahead next week, he’s unlikely to be allowed up there, either.

Staff Reporters 10am: Australia will bat after winning the toss

Australian batsman Will Pucovski before the third Test. Picture: AFP
Australian batsman Will Pucovski before the third Test. Picture: AFP

Peter Lalor 9.30am: Pucovski confirmed in Australian team

Confirmation this morning that young opening batsman Will Pucovski will open the batting for Australia today in the Third Test against India at the SCG.

Peter Lalor 9am: Brisbane Test up in air as India complains

Brisbane may yet lose its Test match.

The Indians remain unhappy about a fourth Test at the Gabba, claiming the quarantine conditions are more strict and are said to be unwilling to cross into Queensland.

It is understood the squad is angry the restrictions could be harsher and there were high level meetings between the BCCI and Cricket Australia last night.

India’s Ravi Ashwin (right) gets ready to bowl during a training session at the Sydney Cricket Ground yesterday. Picture: AFP
India’s Ravi Ashwin (right) gets ready to bowl during a training session at the Sydney Cricket Ground yesterday. Picture: AFP

Indian sources were adamant that the conditions are different from Sydney to Brisbane and there was widespread unhappiness in the group but said they had no word back from the BCCI at 8.30am this morning.

The Australian revealed on Friday that the Indians would refuse to go to Brisbane because of quarantine restrictions.

The team is furious that the public they perform for has more freedom than they have.

SEN reported this morning that a formal letter had been sent.

“The BCCI have formally written to Cricket Australia about the restrictions that will be imposed on the Indian team in Brisbane,” reporter Jimmy Smith said.

“They are against that. They’ve been in lockdown for an extended period of time, most of these people were playing in the IPL and then came here to Australia.”

The players are upset about being in a bubble for so long especially as they face another four Test series against England in early February.

Sources said they did not want to be treated like “caged animals”.

Acting captain Ajinkya Rahane would not commit to travelling to Brisbane when questioned on the eve of the Sydney Test.

READ MORE: Brisbane Test in danger over Queensland quarantine rules

Sam Landsberger 8.50am: Warner’s back, but all eyes on Pucovski

Will Pucovski will become Australia’s 460th Test player when he receives his baggy green cap at the SCG on Thursday and forms a new combination with David Warner, a mix of fire and finesse.

Will Pucovski bats in the nets ahead of the SCG Test. Picture: Getty Images
Will Pucovski bats in the nets ahead of the SCG Test. Picture: Getty Images

Warner commands eyeballs no matter where in the world he is batting. But in Sydney today the spotlight will shift to Pucovski, the batting prodigy who Australians first expected to lay eyes on two years ago. Instead, Kurtis Patterson batted him out of a Test debut in 2019 with twin tons in a tour match, and last summer Pucovski maturely removed himself from consideration on mental health grounds.

Then Pucovski’s ninth concussion knocked him out of calculations for the first two Tests this summer.

On Monday an independent neurologist cleared the young Victorian to return, but it was only half the battle. Rewind two years and Pucovski revealed to mindfulness coach Emma Murray that he wasn’t sure if he wanted to keep playing.

His history of head knocks and mental health battles can be traced back to a mishap at football training when he was 16.

Read the full story here.

Gideon Haigh 8.30am: Sydney has a live Test, but not an occasion

For the first time in many years, The Australian’s cricket writer Gideon Haigh will not be at the Sydney Test on Thursday: “no, chances are, will you,” he writes today.

“I am precluded mainly by the peculiar cult of Dan Andrews, ever more demented in its incompetent caprice and endless schadenfreude. Should you be in New South Wales, you’ll be lucky to have obtained a ticket given the scaling down of the Sydney Cricket Ground’s capacity to comply with the COVID-safety regime.

The Richies are seen at the SCG Test in 2019. Picture: File
The Richies are seen at the SCG Test in 2019. Picture: File

“Perhaps, as do I, you have friends in the UK and US, either in hard lockdown or ever present danger – predicaments worsened by flagrantly incompetent public officials. To deem ours a crisis by comparison, when the entire country has suffered two COVID deaths since the end of October, seems like … well, I was going to say ‘madness’, but let’s leave the hyperbole to others, and call it disproportionate.

“The general objection, however, feels less epidemiological than moral, reminiscent of those admonitions of pleasure in wartime – don’t people know that there’s a war on?!”

Read the full story here.

Rhiannon Down 8.10am: MCG coronavirus case prompted SCG mask rules

NSW health minister Brad Hazzard has confirmed the decision to implement mandatory mask wearing at today’s third Test between Australia and India at the SCG was sparked by the MCG case in Melbourne.

Mr Hazzard said Victorian health minister Martin Foley rang him shortly before Wednesday’s press conference informing him the sporting ground had been added to the state’s hot spot list.

“Victorian health minister rang and informed me of what happened at the MCG and that had fed into our public health decision making,” he said on Sky News.

Health authorities announced a mandatory mask rule for the SCG on Wednesday, requiring punters to wear face coverings when seated in the grounds.

He also confirmed health workers would be required to get a daily saliva test for COVID-19 from January 21, in a bid to bolster the state’s defences against further outbreaks.

READ MORE: Indians refuse to confirm Gabba

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/cricket/australia-v-india-third-test-day-1-live-coverage-from-the-scg/news-story/a783b1555afafe48ccd6cfad1a9d337a