Naman Ojha keen to put average debut in Sri Lanka behind him
Naman Ojha smashed a quickfire fifty against South Africa. (Source: PTI)
Striking a confident half-century for Board President’s XI against the visiting South Africans in the two-day practice game, wicketkeeper-batsman Naman Ojha on Friday said he is keen to make amends after an average Test debut against Sri Lanka in August-September. Ojha made a valiant 52 against a potent Proteas attack led by Dale Steyn, who got the wicket-keeper caught by Hashim Amla.
“I have been playing for a long time in domestic cricket, so I have learnt from my mistakes and the mistakes I made in Sri Lanka. I will not get out through my mistakes,” said the Madhya Pradesh player after his 80-ball knock, laced with 7 fours and a six, at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.
Ojha’s fifty, opener Lokesh Rahul’s 72 and two 40-plus innings by Karun Nair and Hardik Pandya helped the Board XI stage a grand rally from a poor beginning, 27 for 3, to end up with a decent first innings total of 296. Ojha, 32, was batting well in his debut Test innings against Sri Lanka in the third match of the series at the SSC ground before he got a rush of blood and got out to off spinner Tharindu Kaushal for 21.
He also made 35 in the second innings in the match in which he replaced injured first choice stumper Wriddhiman Saha.
About Friday’s innings, Ojha said it will give him a lot of confidence for his next stint at the batting crease. “The knock is important for me and for my confidence in innings building for the season. If you have some runs behind you, it’s easy to play next game. It’s important for the confidence,” said Ojha after the day’s play.
He did not want to talk about rivalry for the India Test wicketkeeper’s spot with Saha. “My focus is on performance, if I perform (well) I am going to be happy.”
He complimented the South African spin attack against whom he got the majority of his runs today. “They are all good. Off spinners are good and Imran Tahir. Offie (Harmer) was turning the ball,” he said.
‘Standing up to spin tough’
Standing up to the wicket against his team’s spinners on wearing Indian tracks would be a big test of his skills, feels South African wicket-keeper Dane Vilas. “This wicket is not a typical Indian wicket where there is more spinning and spitting out of rough on day 4 and 5. It’s going to test you as a keeper. We don’t get the deterioration like here back home. I have prepared for it,” said Vilas.
He said it was good that he had come with the South Africa A team to play their Indian counterparts in Wayanad in two four-day games.
“It was a good experience in playing in these sorts of conditions. I had previously played in Champions League games but to come and play two four-day games is very good for me. Hopefully that experience of standing up to the spinners will help me,” Villas said.
He said it was overall a satisfactory day for his team as all the bowlers had a feel of the conditions along with players like him who joined the Test squad after missing the ODI and T20 part of the tour.
“The bowlers got overs under their belt, and bowling with the white ball is different from the red ball. And guys joining like me had time on the field, but a match game obviously is a lot different from the practice game. Before lunch they bowled too straight but they came back and bowled a lot better and the line they bowled was the key. They got extra bit of bounce as well,” Vilas noted.
