da betsson： Australia held Ranji Trophy champions Mumbai to a draw in the threeday warm up match played at the CCI in Mumbai on Saturday
Waleed Hussain24-Feb-2001Australia held Ranji Trophy champions Mumbai to a draw in the threeday warm up match played at the CCI in Mumbai on Saturday. Australiawere 141 for six in 55 overs at the finish. Steve Waugh (34 not out)and Damien Fleming (22 not out) were unbeaten at final draw of stumps.Mumbai who declared their first innings at 328 for nine, closed theirsecond innings at 191 for eight, shortly after lunch. Australia whowere set to get 317 runs for victory, were never in with a chance. Infact they faced defeat until Waugh and Fleming added 61 valuable runsfor the unbroken seventh wicket.The Australians proved in the match that they had the batting strengthto offset any reverses early in the order. Also, their bowling attackcame good in the latter part of the match. Shane Warne sent a clearmessage with a seven wicket haul in the second innings.All the three days of the match were well contested. The Worldchampions looked rusty on the first day but came back well on the lasttwo days of the match. Steve Waugh led from the front and top scoredin both the innings. He was also unbeaten on both occasions. The twoskippers led their teams well with fighting knocks with the bat andthe tail wagged successfully for both sides.This morning, Warne pegged back Mumbai with a magical spell. He baggedseven of the eight wickets to fall in Mumbai’s second innings,conceding 56 runs off 21.3 overs. Glenn McGrath picked up the otherwicket.Going after a tough target, the Australians soon ran into trouble.The openers would have liked to spend valuable time in the middlebefore the Test match. Michael Slater played a steady innings anddisplayed vintage strokes all around the ground. In his brief inningshe showed excellent ball selection and aggressive batting style,something that was lacking the first time around.Slater made 32 before he was stumped by Dighe off Sairaj Bahutule.Ricky Ponting followed soon, dismissed by the same duo. Adam Gilchristand Justin Langer were out to mistimed strokes, the former beingcastled and the latter holing out to mid-wicket.The Australians at tea were 60 for three off 20 overs. It was onceagain Steve Waugh who bailed the visiting team out of trouble. Threemore wickets fell after the interval before Waugh and Damien Flemingfigured in their match saving partnership. Sairaj Bahutule was thebowler who did the most to torment the Australians, picking up fourfor 38.