Brilliant Rassol picks seven to dismiss Australia for 241

Chennai: Young Jammu and Kashmir all-rounder Parveez Rasool announced his arrival at the big stage by recording brilliant figures of seven for 45 against Australia in the first warm-up game here today.

Rasool wreaked havoc in his three spells as he helped Board President`s XI bowl out the visiting side for a modest 241 in 88.3 overs on the opening day at the Guru Nanak College ground. The youngster did expose the now familiar weakness of the Australian batsmen against spin bowling and also presented Chief Selector Sandeep Patil and Co with an option beyond Ravichandran Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh in the off-spin department. It could not have been a better birthday gift for the immensely talented cricketer from the valley, who recorded his career-best figures a day before his 24th birthday tomorrow. Rasool did not try anything extraordinary in the 28.3 overs that he sent down during the day as he deceived the batsmen with flighted deliveries and also got appreciable turn from the slow track. His seven scalps included top-order players like regular Test opener Ed Cowan, stand-in captain and wicketkeeper Matthew Wade and all-rounder Steve Smith. Australian openers Cowan and Usman Khawaja (32) added 77 runs for the opening stand before Rasool made inroads into the opposition line-up. Left-handed Cowan, top-scored with 58 but was done in when he tried to play a cut shot and was snapped up by Parthiv Patel behind stumps. Wade, who is in-charge of the side as Michael Clarke and Shane Watson are yet to arrive, hit couple of sixes of the bowling of leggie Sarabjit Ladda on his way to 35 but misjudged the length of a flighted delivery from Rasool. Wade gave him the charge only to be holed at long-off by substitute fielder Kamlesh Makvana. PTI