Travis Head stole the show on Saturday, as he destroyed the Indian bowling line-up in Adelaide. Day 2 of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy pink-ball Test saw plenty of action, but it was Head who hogged the spotlight with his century.
Head was unplayable at times as he raced to 140 off 141 balls, and it looked he would add more to his tally. But then he lost his wicket to Mohammed Siraj in the 82nd over.
Receiving a scorching yorker, Head failed to bring down his bat on time and the ball crashed into the stumps. What followed was pure pandemonium as Siraj tried to give him a send-off in celebration. But the Aussie batter was not in the mood to stay silent so then the pair exchanged some words. Then Head walked off to a loud applause from the Adelaide Oval crowd. Siraj was also booed by the spectators.
Travis Head on verbal spat with Mohammed Siraj
Speaking after Stumps, Head said, “I think they booed him after the reaction. If you want to raise the crowd up, you get the crowd.”
Subtly disagreeing with Siraj’s actions, he stated, “Yeah, there’s been conversations I’ve had, I’ll leave those conversations that I’ve had with individuals around that. Like I said, I feel like the way I would like to play the game, I guess the respect shown for myself and I hope my teammates, I’d feel like I’d hold a high expectation of my teammates as well and the way we conduct ourselves and the way we go about things. I can’t speak much for India but like I said I’m going to call that in certain situations, I’ve had conversations with guys this year about that and I feel like you can play hard and play fair but obviously when you’re out you can’t do much about it.”
“I’m disappointed with the reaction I had after that but I’m going to stand up for myself.”
Despite the incident, Head pointed out that both teams share a positive relationship. “I think the relationship [between the teams] is really, really good. I think that’s why I’m disappointed with the couple of reactions I’ve got when I’ve been dismissed, that’s all. I’d rather [someone] try and tear shreds off me and then give it to me. But I feel like the lead up is out of nowhere,” he added.
In response to India’s first innings total of 180, Head’s knock took Australia to 337. The visitors had a poor start to their second innings, losing wickets early. Pat Cummins and Scott Boland tore apart the Indian batting order with two-wicket hauls respectively, as they managed to post 128/5 at Stumps and trail by 29 runs.
