At best, Australia looked spin-retarded against Board President's XI, but Michael Hussey, the lone exception, believes his teammates will overcome the handicap when the actual Test series begins.
Their free-scoring flair stifled, as many as nine Australian batsmen fell to either Piyush Chawla, Pragyan Ojha or Yuvraj Singh in the first innings, and it was the 96-run stand between Hussey and Stuart Clark that spared Australia the embarrassment of a follow-on.
Hussey, however, sees no reason to panic.
"I think some of us played them pretty well. Ricky (Ponting) and (Brad) Haddin played well yesterday [Friday] and Stuart Clark too did a great job today [Saturday]," the left-hander said.
"Besides, (Mattthew) Hayden is also a great player of spin bowling. It's just that he has been out of the game for a while and maybe needed this time before getting back to form in the first Test," he explained.
"It's not too much of a concern. We need to spend some time in the middle and rest would be okay," added the middle-order batsman.
Hussey admitted Australia were lucky to escape the follow-on and praised Clark's determination.
"I was not that hopeful but Clark played really well and showed lot of confidence and application.
"Towards the end, I was trying to take as much strike as possible, thus protecting him. But he showed lot of application today," Hussey added.
Asked what was his strategy against Chawla and Ojha, Hussey replied, "It depends on situation. Both the spinners were bowling well. We lost too many quick wickets and that brought a lot of pressure on us.
"But at the end, I must say that the knock was pretty rewarding. It was all hard work but still very rewarding," he added.
Asked if the batsmen benefited from assistant coach Greg Chappell's tips on how to play the spinners, Hussey said, "It's not like that. All the batters are different and have different approach. We don't want to complicate things, rather focus on sticking to the basic and the game plan."
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