Australian cricket team all-rounder Cameron Green finally got to don the cap of his national side in international cricket last evening. The debutant got to bowl as well as bat in the final ODI of the three-match ODI series between India and Australia at Manuka Oval.
A jittery Cameron Green walked into the crease at No. 5, contrary to his batting positions in List A games which are generally lower. At the time, Australia still needed 186 runs in around 27 overs. He partnered up with Aussie skipper Aaron Finch and contributed a not-so-disappointing 21 runs off 27 deliveries. Kuldeep Yadav then dismissed him in the 31st over.
During that time, Green received a rather unexpected gesture from the Indian wicket-keeper, KL Rahul. Apparently, the two cricketers exchanged a few words while Green was on the field. He revealed that he was ‘taken aback’ by the words of encouragement that KL Rahul said to him with regards to his debut match. The 21-year old was surprised as well as touched by Rahul’s nice gesture.
Green said, “I was actually taken aback by how nice KL Rahul was behind the stumps. I think he asked me if I was nervous or not, and I just replied saying ‘yeah obviously, a little bit nervous’, and he just said, ‘go well, youngster’. I thought it would have been the opposite. I think Virat was trying to be pretty loud at the time. I was a bit taken aback by how nice that was. I’ll remember that forever.”
Green had a slow start, and he tried to get hold of the situation during the initial deliveries he faced. He admitted that it was captain Finch’s support that helped him a lot in getting through the game.
“Obviously early I was a bit scratchy, it took me a few balls to get used to it a bit, but unfortunately, in that situation, you had to get yourself in quickly.”
The talented youngster was in awe of the quality of the spinners of the Indian cricket team. Acknowledging them he said, “They’re class bowlers, especially their spinners. I haven’t faced quality like that. Jadeja is just a beautiful bowler who knows exactly what he’s trying to do. Trying to spin a couple away from you and dart one back in. It was class bowling. You can do as much research and watch as much footage as you can, which I did, to get a better understanding of how they bowled, but it’s a different beast when you’re actually facing them out in the middle. It took me a couple of overs to get used to it. But I take a lot out of it.”
India won the final match of the ODI series, however, Australia sealed the series by a 2-1 lead. With this victory, Australia has now acquired the top spot in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Super League points table. Both the teams will now battle it out in the three-match T20I series that commences on Friday.
