There was a moment on Friday when bowler Mohammed Shami, assuming that Steven Smith might be out of his crease, flashed the ball towards the striker’s end.
The paceman’s response drew a rather angry reaction from Smith.
Asked about the incident, Australia’s opening batsman Chris Rogers said: “He (Smith) knows he belongs. He had the confidence to say a few words. He knows he is one of the better players in the world.”
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Rogers, who came up with an innings of 57, said he was disappointed at not progressing to a bigger score. “It is frustrating. This is the third fifty in succession for me. As an opener you do all the hard work and to then get out…,” he said. “My feet were going well. But I snicked a ball that left me a little.”
On his 115-run association with Shane Watson — his fifth century partnership with Watson in Tests — Rogers said: “We enjoy each other’s company in the middle. We have a bit of a laugh. He goes at the ball pretty hard. I like them to come to me a little bit. We feed off each other.”
The 37-year-old left-hander said the Indian pace attack bowled well. “They had plans for each batsman,” he said. “They bowled short at me and Haddin. They didn’t bowl so much round the wicket this time.
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“There were a few Indian misfields and a dropped catch that helped us.”
On the pitch, he said: “There is something in the wicket if you bowl in the right areas. The odd ball goes quicker off the surface.” Rogers said Ishant Sharma was the toughest bowler to cope with, for him.
“The angle he bowls, he can swing it away from me, has the skill to straighten it. He was the biggest threat for me,” Rogers said.
Asked about him being constantly under the scanner, Rogers replied, “That’s the nature of the beast. At my age, there are going to be questions when I don’t make runs.”
He conceded, “I don’t know how long I can go. I do feel my age sometimes.”
Shami said he did not deliberately throw the ball because the batsman at the other end was Smith.
“It doesn’t matter who the batsman is. My aim is to get wickets,” he said.
Shami said he concentrated on line and length, and added: “The Kookaburra ball does not reverse [as much as] the SG ball. It reverses only a little. You need to use the new ball well and then bowl consistently.”
The paceman, who left the field briefly in the last session, said, “It’s a slight niggle on the left thigh. It’s nothing serious.”
On Ashwin keeping things tight, Shami said, “If somebody does that, it becomes easier to attack or bowl length from the other end.”