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Rediff.com  » Sports » Lee adding guile to pace in India Tests

Lee adding guile to pace in India Tests

October 15, 2008 17:57 IST
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Australian spearhead Brett Lee is adding variety to his pace to excel in India after a subdued start in the drawn first Test.

Lee, 31, took one wicket in each innings as India frustrated the number one side by salvaging a draw, batting through most of the final day on an uneven pitch in Bangalore.

One of the fastest bowlers in the world, Lee worked on change of pace and movement in the nets on Wednesday.

The second Test in the four-match series starts on Friday.

"Not to win the first Test is disappointing," he told a news conference. "We possibly could have got a lot more wickets on the last day and won the Test but it wasn't to be."

He said India's new ball bowlers Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan, who shared 13 wickets, showed excellent control.

"They definitely used the ball swinging back in nicely when it got older," he said. "Just probably we didn't capitalise as much as we would have liked to in the second innings.

"Today was a matter of working on a few different balls... [and] different sort of variations."

LEARNING FAST

Lee said he learnt a lot in his first Test in India, having missed the 2001 series loss due to elbow injury and not getting to play in 2004 when Australia won their first series in the country for 35 years.

"I was really happy with the way I bowled in the first Test," he said. "You can look up at the scoreboard and see not a lot of wickets next to my name or Stuey [Stuart] Clark's or any other bowler.

An elbow strain prevented Clark from bowling on Wednesday.

Lee missed the home one-day series against Bangladesh for personal reasons and his bowling in the drawn four-day warmup prompted skipper Ricky Ponting to say he was a bit "underdone" entering the series.

The bowler with 291 Test scalps has assumed the lead role after Glenn McGrath retired last year and heads a young pace attack in India.

Lee looked forward to playing on a pitch which was home to his Indian Premier League (IPL) team Kings XI Punjab earlier this year.

"It feels like a home game," he said. "Hopefully the wicket has got a bit of carry, this is traditionally a bouncy wicket here in India. The one in Bangalore was a bit low and slow."

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Source: REUTERS
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