Happy headache for Australia as Stoinis proves fitness in style

It was said in jest, and with every intention that it was within the earshot of its recipient. Marcus Stoinis had just gone past Marnus Labuschagne's bat for the umpteenth time in a matter of 15 or so minutes. And as he walked back to his mark, he wondered out aloud to Andrew McDonald and Daniel Vettori whether they should start getting 'worried' about Marnus at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

To his credit, and probably in his defence, Stoinis had bowled a nearly unplayable mini-spell to Australia's No.4, one where he'd seemingly trapped Labuschagne in front on one occasion by beating him on the inside-edge of the bat. He'd also then beaten the outside-edge and tickled the outside part of the right-hander's off-stump. It was a rather newish-looking Kookaburra, which Stoinis surmised to be around 5-overs old. And on this the humid October evening in Chennai, helped with an intermittently refreshing gust of wind, the muscular seamer was getting the ball to obey his commands.

Much to Labuschagne's chagrin over his own struggles with coping with this highly challenging ordeal. There was a 5-ball period in the midst of this burst from Stoinis where the ball and bat seemed so out of sync that you might have temporarily forgotten who he was bowling to. Surely this wasn't the most technically sound batter in the Australian camp being shown up in such vulgar fashion. Not surprisingly, the Western Australian was enjoying his spell, even ensuring that his rather generous biceps were released from under the sleeves to soak in his dominance with ball in hand.

Soon enough, Stoinis was done, having beaten Labuschagne's outside-edge one final time, before putting his cap on, facing backwards of course, and walking away.

The 'worry' in the lead-up to this 40-minute Stoinis stint with the ball late in the evening on Thursday (October 5) ironically was more around him and if he'd be able to bowl at all. Coach McDonald had revealed earlier in the day about how Stoinis