Head, Siraj clear air on sledging incident at Adelaide during 2nd Test, Indian pacer accuses batter of "lying" - World News Network

Adelaide [Australia], December 8 (ANI): Australian batter Travis Head and Indian pacer Mohammed Siraj cleared the air over their sledging incident during the recently-concluded second Adelaide Test, with the batter saying that they have “moved on” while the mercurial 30-year-old fast bowler accused Head of lying during the press conference about the incident.
Adding an element of drama and emotion to the hotly-contested Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Siraj aggressively sent off Head after cleaning him up following a counter-attacking century that severly depleted Indian bowlers and team’s chances of win. As Siraj aggressively gestured the Aussie suggesting its time for him to take a walk back to pavillion, Head also returned back the favour with some words. Siraj was heavily booed by the Australian crowd following Head’s dismissal.
During the post-day press conference on Saturday, Head said that he jokingly said “well bowled” to Siraj and the exchange of words “went a little bit far”.
“I actually jokingly said ‘well bowled’, then he pointed me in the sheds and I had my reaction as well,” Head said in the post day press conference, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
“I do not want to give it too much airtime. I feel like the way I play the game I would like a better reaction. I was surprised at the reaction in terms of the situation of the game and the lead up. There was no confrontation leading up to it,” he said.
“It probably [went] a little bit far, that’s why I’m disappointed in the reaction I gave back, but I’m also going to stand up for myself. Like to think in our team we would not do that. [It is] not the way I would like to play the game and feel like my team-mates are the same. If I see that, I probably call it out, which I did,” he added.
As the day three started, while speaking to Star Sports, Siraj offered his version of events, saying that he was just celebrating in the start and did not say anything to Head. He also made accusations that the batter was lying in the press conference about the incident.
“I only celebrated at the start. I didn’t say anything to him,” he said in an interview with Star Sports translated from Hindi as quoted by ABC Sport.
“What he said in the press conference was not right. It is a lie that he only said, ‘Well bowled,’ to me. It is there for everyone to see that that is not what he said to me. We respect everyone. It is not like we disrespect other players. I respect everybody because cricket is a gentleman’s game, but what he did was not right. I did not like it at all,”he added.
However, Head said that the duo made up when Siraj came out for batting on day three of the match.
“Sweet with it. He came out and just said [it was] a little bit of misunderstanding … I think we will move on. We have had a great week, so let us not let it ruin it,” Head said as quoted by ABC Sport after the match.
“It was fine. He said, ‘Why would you swear?’ I sort of said, ‘Look, I did not at first … [but] I definitely swore at you the second time round.’ I probably could have laughed it off and walked off and enjoyed myself. He just said it was a misunderstanding as well, and there was no issues for me. We move on. I’m sweet. It is what it is,” he added.
Coming to the match, India won the toss and opted to bat first. However, they had to face the wrath of a moving, erratic pink-ball and its mastermind, Mitchell Starc (6/48). Except for a 69-run stand for the second wicket between KL Rahul (37 in 64 balls with six fours) and Shubman Gill (31 in 51 balls, with five fours) and a fighting 42 in 54 balls (three fours and three sixes) from Nitish Kumar Reddy, there was not much highlights from India who were skittled out for 180 runs. Skipper Cummins and Scott Boland also took two wickets.
In the first innings, a 67-run partnership between Nathan McSweeney (39 in 109 balls, with six fours) and Marnus Labuschagne (64 in 126 balls, with nine fours) for second wicket set the platform for Travis Head to impose his domination over Indian bowlers yet again with a counter-attacking 140 in 141 balls, with 17 fours and four sixes, just when Aussies lost some regular wickets. His century took Australia to 337 runs and gave them a 157-run lead.
Jasprit Bumrah (4/61) and Mohammed Siraj (4/98) were top bowlers for India. Ravichandran and Nitish got a wicket each.
In their second innings, India appeared even more toothless as the star-studded top-order and middle-order returned back to pavillion despite starts from Jaiswal (24 in 31 balls, with four boundaries), Gill (28 in 30 balls, with three fours) while KL Rahul (7) and Virat Kohli (11 in 21 balls with a four) failed to score well. India ended day two at 128/5.
On the third day, Pant also lost his wicket for 28 in 31 balls, with five fours. From there on, it was not looking back for Aussies, who skittled out India for 175 runs in 36.5 overs. India lead by just 18 runs, setting Aussies 19 runs to win.
Skipper Cummins (5/67) took a majestic five-wicket haul, his eighth as a captain. Boland took 3/51 while Starc took 2/60.
Set a target of 19 runs, Khawaja (10*) and McSweeney (9*) chased it down without breaking a sweat in 3.2 overs. (ANI)

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