A day Vinay Kumar won't forget

A seagull flew across the pitch as David Warner faced up to Vinay Kumar. Warner could have smashed it, but instead withdrew from the crease giving Vinay a pause.

It was as generous Warner was going to be.

My Indian friends mock Vinay’s lack of pace. Even I’ve compared his bowling to that of Damien Martyn. Others suggest that he might want to step up the pace as he was picked as a seamer and not a spinner. More than one said he was slower than Dhoni. And some even suggested he might have moved ahead of Dravid and Laxman in the retirement race.

It was all pretty harsh. But compared to Warner hitting his fourth ball in Test Cricket back over his head, every single attack from cricket fans would have meant little.

Warner treated Vinay like someone who’d dated his sister twice, before dumping her when she refused to put out. Warner often walks around the crease like a thug from a 1950s throwback film, but when Vinay was bowling it was more like a Frank Miller anti-hero.

It wasn’t like Warner was soft to the others: his mid-off sweep to Yadav was an elbow to the throat, and the violent slog to Ishant Sharma was a call back to earlier disagreements. Zaheer Khan was providing more than a few boundaries while Cowan’s job was simply to clap at the non-striker’s end and try not to run Warner out.

But Zaheer, Ishant and Yadav weren’t in their first Test. Zaheer is one of the best bowlers on the planet. Ishant is now quite experienced. And Yadav might be new, but has enough pace to hit someone later on and feel better about himself.

Vinay is simply a medium-pace bowler in his first Test. And the fourth ball he ever bowled was dispatched with such effortless thuggery that you could have forgiven him for crawling up in a ball and shaking. It wasn’t even a bad ball, or even a ball that hinted at being bad, it was a perfectly well-placed and delivered ball that was sent back over his head for six.

After another decent delivery disappeared over midwicket for a boundary in his third over, Dhoni pulled Vinay from the attack.

When he came back on, Warner humped him straight over mid-on for another boundary. Vinay’s zinc cream was fading; he was looking much like Michael J Fox in those weird scenes where Marty McFly is disappearing altogether in Back to the Future.

The next ball Warner played a horrendous heave-slog-biff-wallop-bang hit that sailed away for six. It was Warner’s hundred. Everyone looked at Warner, it’s doubtful anyone noticed Vinay.

This second spell only lasted for one over. Earlier in the day Vinay had made five.