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Mathew Wade applauds India’s bowling effort that restricted Australia to just 300 runs and says Australia hoping to extract help from cracks in pitch
Australia's wicketkeeper-batsman Matthew Wade was impressed with India's debutant chinaman Kuldeep Yadav's repertoire of tricks and admitted that some of the visiting team batsmen found it difficult to pick him.
Kuldeep grabbed 4 for 68 as Australia were all-out for 300 after reaching 131 for one at lunch.
"Yeah, it took a couple of balls to get used to it. He bowled a lot of different deliveries. He bowled a lot of leg-spinners with the scrambled seam, his wrong 'un was with scrambled seam as well. It took a few balls to get used to it, but once you stayed out there a little while, you got a read on him," said Wade, who scored a useful half-century in Australia first innings.
Wade said that even though they had done their homework on Kuldeep, it was a different proposition facing him out there in the middle.
"Yeah, we have a look at everyone before the start of the series, so the boys are on top of what he was going to bowl. It's different when you get out onto a game scenario, especially the way the wicket was going to play and what's going on out there, but yeah, everyone has had a look at his footage and he bowled quite well today," he said.
But the left-hander conceded that Australia missed a great opportunity to put up a big score after the start they had got.
"Yeah, I suppose a little bit. 140 for 1 after lunch, you would hope to push on but credit to the Indians. They bowled really well through the middle session and we had to find a way to grind out 300. I thought to get there in the end was a good effort," Wade said.
Wade made an observation that the pitch is already showing cracks which are bound to open up big time, making the role of the quicks as important as the spinners.
"I think the cracks are playing a huge role, with the spinners as well as the quicks. We'll be looking to get a little bit out of the cracks in the wicket tomorrow and hopefully we can create 10 opportunities," he said.
Wade was all praise for Australian skipper Steve Smith, who has taken batsmanship to an altogether different level.
"You look at the scoreboard and he's on 50 at that moment. It looks that easy for him. I know it's obviously not that easy for him when he's out there, but off the ground, it looks like he is playing a different game. For sure, he is the best player in the world at the moment and he's on track to be one of the greatest players Australia has ever seen," he said.
On his own 57-run knock, Wade said: "Yeah, it was good obviously to get some runs. But I feel I have been contributing enough with the bat in this series. It was just important that I did it today as we needed some runs at a pretty crucial time. So yeah, I am happy to get some runs individually.
"But it's 1-1 in the series and it all comes down to tomorrow. We need to play well tomorrow, and they do as well. So it's going to be an interesting day of Test cricket."