Aussies begin competitive cricket against RCA team

Jaipur, Sep 26 (PTI) Australia begin their competitive
cricket in their four-Tests tour of India with a two-day
practice game against Rajasthan Cricket Association's Centre
of Excellence team at Sawai Mansingh Stadium here Saturday.

Since arriving here on Monday, the World Champions had
been camping here to acclimatise with Indian conditions with
the R.C.A. generously opening doors of its state-of-the-art
Future Cricket Academy, which has 24 different outdoor pitches
of every kind besides five artificial pitches.

After four days of practice, Ricky Ponting and his boys
will gear up to the competition mode against a team led by
former India One-Day player Gagan Khoda.

Another former India O.D.I. player Venugopal Rao was to
captain the R.C.A. side but he will miss Saturday's match as
he is now playing for M.R.F. Pace Academy in the J.P. Atray
tournament in Chandigarh.

Most of the local team players are from Rajasthan Ranji
squad and it also has pacer Pankaj Singh who made it to the
Indian squad in the controversial Test tour of India Down
Under early this year but did not play any match there.

The practice game will give the visitors a hang of the
match conditions after four days of practice before shifting
base to Hyderabad where they will play a four-day match from
October 2.

The match will also give chances to visiting team captain
Ricky Ponting and key opener Matthew Hayden to spend time in
the middle in Indian conditions following injury lay-offs.

Ponting, who has a dismal record in India scoring 172
from 14 innings, would want to spend time in the middle as
long as possible with nothing at stake.

It will also be a chance for rookies like pacers Dough
Bollinger and Peter Siddle and spinner Jason Krezja to have
some experience of match conditions in India. Another rookie
spinner Bryce McGain though is likely to sit out tomorrow as
he is recovering from a shoulder problem he sustained during
Australia A's match against India A.

The 90-over match will start from 0900 hrs and both sides
can field only 11 players.

R.C.A. Chief Curator Taposh Chatterjee said Saturday's
pitch at Sawai Mansingh Stadium will be a conventional Indian
flat pitch with lots of runs in it.

The match is not expected much spectators because of the
tight security and R.C.A.'s decision to allow only invitation
card holders.

The squads:

Australia: Ricky Ponting (Captain), Doug Bollinger,
Stuart Clark, Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin, Matthew Hayden,
Michael Hussey, Phil Jaques, Mitchell Johnson, Simon Katich,
Jason Krejza, Brett Lee, Bryce McGain, Peter Siddle and Shane
Watson.

RCA team: Gagan Khoda (Captain), Gajendra Singh, Sumit
Mathur, Robin Bist, Nikhil Doru, Shailender Gehlot, Rohit
Jhalani (wk), Ashok Menaria, Mohan Singh, Pankaj Singh, Vineet
Saxena, Shubhanshu Vijay.