Get Instant News Updates
Enable
x
Notification Settings X
Time Settings
Done
Clear Notification X
Do you want to clear all the notifications from your inbox?
Settings X
For Quick Alerts
ALLOW NOTIFICATIONS  
For Daily Alerts

Determined Hayden eager to settle scores at Delhi

By Staff

New Delhi, Oct 26 (UNI) After being at the receiving end in the second Test at Mohali, opener Matthew Hayden has warned his Indian counterparts to be ready for a resurgent Australian team and said his almost barren series so far will come to an end at Feroz Shah Kotla ground in the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar trophy which begins here from October 29.

''We will definitely come good in the next game and we have set sights on our target,'' Hayden told mediapersons after the Australian team's long training session here today.

Hayden, who has himself not been among the runs in this series, vowed that he will make it count this time when he goes out to bat against the Indians.

''It's a big game for us and we are very much aware of it.

Hopefully, rub of the green will go with us and a big score is round the corner for me,'' a confident looking Hayden assured.

Hayden was particularly one of the Australian players along with speedster Brett Lee who had had an extended training session today which went on for almost four hours.

After the routine fitness session, the burly opener started his batting practise against pacers Lee and Stuat Clark who was ruled out of the last match because of an injury.

He then switched over to the spinners and was more keen to practise his sweep shots which brought him great success during Australia's tour of India in 2001.

Indian pacers particularly Zaheer Khan has troubled Hayden a lot on this tour and during India's tour Down Under earlier this year.

However, the 36-year-old opener does not seem to be much perturped by Zaheer's success against him and instead claimed that his record has been superior against the Indian pacer, which he believes, will get extended in the Delhi Test.

''When a bowler is successful against you, that means there is a strategy that working for the bowler and same is the case with Zaheer.

''But I know that even I have a great record against him and I hope that my success against hime improve here,'' he added.

The Indian spinners have troubled the Australians a lot in the series so far and the reverse swing which has been exploited to good effect by the home team bowlers has not improved the cause for the visitors.

''Whenever we come to the shores of India, spin has been a topic that is very much talked about. And, reverse swing has become a great weapon in modern day cricket.

''Our team has been practising hard here and I am sure we can cope with it as well,'' Hayden said.

Meanwhile, Australian spinners have been of no use to their team so far. Cameron White and Jason Krejza have not been able to make no impact in any of the games that the two have played.

India's legendary spinner Bishen Singh Bedi was also here to teach some of the nuances of spin bowling to the two Aussie spinners.

''My relationship with him (Bedi) goes a long way back to the days when I was in MRF academy. He was here to teach some basics to our spinners,'' the opener said.

Hayden has had a poor tour so far where the opener has been able to fetch just 42 runs in four innings which includes to ducks as well.

In the second innings of the Mahali Test while chasing a mamoth 516 runs, Hayden came out to bat and was looking to put pressure on the Indian bowlers as he tried to smash all the bowlers.

But the opener denied to have changed his style in that innings in which he scored 29 runs off 20 balls but finally fell in the trap as he was caught leg before the wicket by off-spinner Harbhajan Singh.

Hayden also predicted a high scoring game here and said he himself would prefer to take the advantage of a ''very good batting track''.

''It looks to be a good batting track and I believe it will be high scoring as well,'' he noted.

UNI RAR AB AKJ HT1602

Story first published: Thursday, August 24, 2017, 16:33 [IST]
Other articles published on Aug 24, 2017