Australia pegged India back towards the fag end
of an intriguing day after India had moved on to a position of strength courtesy
a fine middle order partnership between Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar.
Virender Sehwag who had scored a fine century in the previous three day warm
up game was selected for this clash ahead of Southpaw Yuvraj Singh and he began
the innings from where he left off at Canberra. The opening hour saw some stout
defending by Wasim Jaffer combined with some delightful stroke play by
Sehwag as India raced to 57 for no loss in sixteen overs. However, Johnson got
one to rise up sharply and accounted for the wicket for Sehwag and soon after
Jaffer who had been peppered by Brett Lee earlier by some express bouncers was
tempted into going for an expansive drive and was caught behind by Gilchrist.
India were 59/2 at that stage and the match had Deja-vu written all over it.
However, Dravid and Tendulkar consolidated the innings from them with each of
them crossing the half century mark before tea.
Dravid looked back to his normal elegant form as he played some lovely cover
drives while on the other hand, Tendulkar was as immaculate as ever as both
of them combined to take India near the 200 work. At that stage, Ricky Pointing
brought back his two main strike bowlers in Mitchell Johnson and Brett Lee after
Clark and Tait had been dispatched to all parts of the ground by the two best
batsmen in the Indian line up. It was Lee who got the vital wicket of Tendulkar
who was once again a victim of a poor decision. Poor decisions have haunted
India all through the series and Tendulkar was adjourned Leg before wicket by
umpire Asad Rauf when replies showed that the ball would clearly go above the
stumps.
In hindsight, that wicket might well prove to be the turning point of the match
as India slipped down from 198/2 to 284/6 in the final session courtesy some
loose shot selection by the Indians and some fabulous fast bowling by evergreen
paceman Brett Lee. Soon after, Ganguly and Laxman perished to Lee and Johnson
respectively the latter through an extremely loose shot under the circumstances.
In the meanwhile, Dravid had moved on to 93 before playing a tired shot off
the bowling of part timer Andrew Symonds to hand the Aussies the initiative
in the last session of day two.
India end day one in the third test of the latest edition of
the Border Gavaskar India Australia test series at 294/6 and will be
hoping that Mahendra Singh Dhoni can pull up a strong partnership with
the last recognized batsman in Irfan Pathan to give India the advantage in this
crucial series deciding test. Don't miss a single moment of this epic test series
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