Aaron Finch shocked by Hanuma Vihari's sensational delivery to Harris

Australian opening batsman Aaron Finch was under the gun coming into the second Test match against India at Perth. The 32-year-old eased his nerves with a well-composed 50 before being trapped LBW off Jasprit Bumrah. India’s pace quartet was on full throttle for most part of the day but it’s the part-time spinner Hanuma Vihari who impressed the right-hander the most.

The Andhra batsman was picked in the side as a replacement for injured Rohit Sharma. Having Ravichandran Ashwin also been sidelined due to injury, India went ahead with an all-out pace attack. Thus, the 25-year-old Vihari happened to be the only legitimate spin bowling option for Virat Kohli.

The Indian captain had twice the bang for the same buck when he gave Vihari the ball for a short spell. The intention was to give the fast bowlers some rest until the second new ball would be due. Well, the off-spinner made bigger in-roads by picking two important wickets of Harris and Marsh. The twin blows took everyone by surprise including Aaron Finch.

Vihari’s bumper – first of a kind in a while

After the end of play on Day 1, Finch spoke to the media on the proceedings thus far. He was asked a variety of questions ranging from Kohli’s captaincy to Nathan Lyon’s probable impact. When the question about Vihari was raised, the Victoria batsman did express his exclamation.

He said that the off-spinner’s chest-level bouncer to dismiss Marcus Harris was out of the blue. “[We all saw] Marcus Harris getting bumped out by a 100 kmph off-spinner might have been the first of something like that in a while in Test cricket.”

One of the world’s best T20 batsmen further praised Vihari that his deliveries pitched on the fuller length troubled the left-handers of his team. He said, “When Vihari bowled the fuller length, it was tough there were some chances created for the left-hander”.

It is noteworthy that both the victims of the Kakkinada-born are left-handers who were well-set. Harris scored his maiden half-century before perishing at 70. Marsh, on the other hand, fell short of just 5 runs as he edged one off to Rahane at slips.

Australia were 277 runs for the loss of 7 wickets at stumps on Day 1. The captain Tim Paine was unbeaten on 16 accompanied by Pat Cummins on 11. Vihari and Ishant were the pick of the bowlers for India with 2 scalps each. Umesh Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah had one wicket each to their name while Mohammad Shami remained wicketless.

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