Perth: They tried the off-stump line, short ball tactic and even attacking the line of stumps but nothing seemed to work against Virat Kohli, who blunted the Australian attack with his 30th Test hundred, leading speedster Josh Hazlewood said as his team stared at big defeat in the opening Test against India.
India posted a mammoth 487 runs in their second innings, setting the hosts a stiff 534-run target. Australia ended opening day at 12 for 3 and even Hazlewood knows that it would take a miracle to save the game.
"We cycled through a few plans. He batted really well. He's a good player. He batted well. We sort of hung it outside off for a bit with an offside field. We tried straight. We tried the bounces. We tried a lot of things. He negated everything. So, yes, credit to him. He batted well," said Hazlewood on Kohli's unbeaten 100 which took him past Sir Donald Bradman's 29 Test hundreds.
He admitted that he hasn't had too many harder days in office like one on Sunday when Indian batters grounded a quality bowling attack into submission.
Hazlewood bowled 21 of the 84 overs sent down by Australian quicks, who got only four wickets, giving away 290 runs.
"Yes, it's up there. It probably speaks for itself," Hazlewood said when asked if that was one of the harder days he had had in the field. "They piled on the runs and had a couple of really big partnerships there. It was hard work out there. Following it at certain stages.
"The new ball probably does a little bit. But, if you get through that, then it's a bit easier batting. We saw a little bit up and down towards the end of the day, obviously. So, that'll be something the batters will be watching tomorrow." Asked about his plans for tomorrow, Hazlewood said it was now up to the batters to do the job and he would just relax. "I'm probably looking mostly towards next test and what plans we can do against these batters. I guess the batters just sticking to what they do, their preparation." Australians are the hosts but the Indian team gets massive support from the crowd at the stadium. Asked about the phenomenon, Hazlewood said it was nothing new to them. "We're used to that now. I think wherever you play India, it's an Indian home ground. I reckon the last few tours have been similar. The one-day series in Australia are similar. Yes, we're all used to it now." Hazlewood was not overwhelmed by the strong position of India in the game, saying they too have enjoyed such moments."
"I think that's sort of the way the game flows sometimes. We've been on the other end of it as well a lot of times when we're piling it on and next minute we come out and take a few quick runs late in the afternoon. You see it both ways. "They're obviously well in front on this one and they're doing the damage. That's just sort of ebbs and flows of the game." Asked about Pat Cummins coming out to do the night watchman duty, Hazlewood shared that it could have been Nathan Lyon also, but for the day the skipper put his hand up. "We've just been talking the last few weeks about potentially having two options and Gaz (Lyon's nickname) obviously put a fair shift in their bowling. Pat put his hand up to do it tonight. I think we'll see both guys used throughout the series. "
He also backed his skipper as he faced questions on coming into a Test match without playing a domestic game. "I think he bowled the most out of the quicks. His pace was probably the pick of the quicks as well. He kept his pace up the whole game. His bounces were on track most of the time. He looked his normal self to me. I can usually pick up with the other two quicks when they're a little bit off and I didn't see any sort of signs of that. "Maybe a little bit of a rust in the first innings. You sort of take the freshness I think over that and throughout this game he obviously I think got better and you'll just see him get better as he goes along I think. So the freshness I think trumps playing that Shield game for him."
Hazlewood sought to give the impression that they are not overtly worried after being buried under the mountain of runs in the opening game, saying it was a long series and they would look to get something good out of the series-opener. "It's just again the batters sticking to their plans tomorrow, batting some time. It's obviously a long series. It's a five-match series. So if we can put some overs into their top quicks, I guess that's probably the couple of goals that we need to tick off tomorrow. "If a couple of guys find some form and score an 80-90 or even 100, that's probably the positives we can take out of it."
