Australia's new fast bowling star James Pattinson continued his meteoric rise with a man-of-the-match all-round performance in the first Test thrashing of India in Melbourne on Thursday.
Australia's new fast bowling star James Pattinson continued his meteoric rise with a man-of-the-match all-round performance in the first Test thrashing of India in Melbourne on Thursday.
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Pattinson, just 21, has made a huge impression in his three Tests this season and picked up his second man-of-the-match award with six wickets for 108 and two unbeaten knocks of 18 and 37.
PIC/AFP
In three Tests, the youngster from Victoria state quick has captured 16 wickets and impressed with his resolute batting at number nine.
Pattinson said it was a dream come true to play cricket for his country.
"I wasn't even born when (Sachin Tendulkar) started playing cricket, so to go out there and bowl against him and have some success against their batsmen is unbelievable. And to get a win is even better."
Pattinson, who put the experienced Indian batsmen on the back foot with his aggressive bowling, said his natural game was to attack.
"It's just the way I play cricket, it's the way I've been brought up," he said.
"I like to attack it, I like to go out there and do my own stuff. It's not a conscious effort (to intimidate), it's just the way I play."
Pattinson said he also placed a heavy emphasis on his batting to consolidate his place in the Australian team amid a fast bowling injury crisis.
"Nowadays, the way cricket's going, you need to be able to bat towards the end," he said.
"You've seen so many valuable partnerships from the last two in many games of cricket, so it's something that I put a big emphasis on in the nets and practising trying to get as many runs as I can for the team, because it does help."
Pattinson and Ben Hilfenhaus frustrated India's efforts to wrap up the Australian second innings with a last-wicket stand of 43, which only made India's winning chances even more difficult.
"It does put the game back in our sort of favour and their opening batsmen didn't really want to be stuck out there too much longer, which they did," Pattinson said.
"It was big for us and it's just good that I can help out with the bat."
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