Score line: -
Australia 430-10 (149.5 overs, Mike Hussey 146 (276 Balls), Zaheer Khan 5-91)
India 360-10 (119.0 overs, Zaheer Khan 57 (121 Balls), Mitchell Johnson 4-70)
Australia 193-5 (68.0 overs, Shane Watson 32(67 Balls), Ishant Sharma 2-27)
Report Sheet of the Day: - Australia 48 % - India 52 %
Match-Report:-
Well…It could have been a great day for India had they fielded better; it could have been a great day for Australia too if they had dismissed the remaining two Indian tail-enders quickly and scored runs quicker in return. Neither happened, but India almost did what they wanted to: their tail hung around for a sufficient amount of time to eat up most of the opening session, then all their bowlers bowled beautifully to peg Australia back with some consistent, hostile & aggressive bowling. So they end up the day-4 on a relatively better note than when they started.
It was known to everybody that Zaheer Khan; Anil Kumble & Ishant Sharma can all annoy the hell out of the opposition; because They all have the ability to hang around and they can also play the boundary shots. So when Kumble & Zaheer walked out to bat; there was an air of buzz & expectation around the ground. Can Australian bowlers mop up the job in 30 minutes or less? Can both tail-enders hang around till lunch-if not lunch, then can they eat up sufficient time out of the first session?
They did just that. As Mitchell Johnson said yesterday in an interview, the Aussies were going to concentrate on bowling a normal line & length, like bowling to a batsman. I must say-that seemed to be working. Zaheer Khan kept playing and missing, Kumble kept staying shunted on the back foot; and looking to cover the line of the ball-which seemed to be the advice they had got from the dressing room. In between, Zaheer hit a stylish boundary and kept picking up singles whenever the shot missed a fielder. Kumble kept defending, mixed with some Chinese & French cuts; he was fast becoming the new obnoxious little weed for Australia.
Before this game, Zaheer was seen practicing extra hard to bat against Ishant Sharma, and bowling machine. Maybe that has now proven its worth. Zaheer duly completed his half-century, an extremely good effort. His was a steely innings, with very little no. of runs scored behind the Wk. At the other hand; Lee was replaced by Watson, who started bowling his usual in-cutters. Kumble was struggling a bit against that to hang his bat in front of his pad-and was duly given LBW when the ball hit him straight in front around the knee-roll on the off-stump. (9-343)
Zaheer meanwhile, marched on. He seemed to have got confidence in Ishant Sharma-who was intent on covering the line of the ball and defending with a dead bat. Because his first tendency is to stand tall & cover the line (just like Kumble bats); he usually struggles a lot against the Short-Ball (again, just like Kumble). He was hit on the grill by Watson, but kept battling on. And his determined knock was ended by the spin of Michel Clarke…it was a harmless ball, pitching as almost a Yorker, Ishant promptly misread the length, missed the ball, and had his middle stump knocked out. (10-360)
Job well done by the Indian tail, now the onus was squarely on the bowlers. When the Aussie openers came out, they seemed intent on defending and not risking their wickets, and it looked like a silence before the storm. Was the storm coming? Twat, twat, twat, Lunch !
After lunch, it was a strange Australia coming out to bat. Matthew Hayden wafted his bat at the first ball, very wide and immediately looked a player in tension. Zaheer was again moving it both ways, a phenomenon that he has mastered since his return to the Indian team last year. As the new SG ball doesn’t move too much, it was perhaps the effect of the cloud color. Ishant Sharma-at the other end was quite steady & tight. Australian batsmen seemed intent on avoiding an imaginary 5-th day collapse by the way the were playing. Simon katich seemed like he was given the sheet anchors role-supplemented by Hayden the aggressor. Hayden however, looked constantly struggling to attack the hostile bowling by Zaheer, and was perhaps a touch unlucky to be given out-he was a fairly long way forward, the ball hit him around the off-stump & kept swinging in-it was perhaps just clipping or even missing the leg-stump, never mind, Zaheer got his man again. Not surprisingly, a decision by Asad Rouf. (1-21)
It must be mentioned that umpiring in this game has been debatable in a big way. Asad Rouf has been The Bowler’s Umpire; he seems intent on giving anything that he thinks has a remotely fair chance of a dismissal. Grandpa Rudi Koertzen on the other hand, has been The Batsman’s Umpire; he has been steadfastly reluctant in raising his finger, sometimes even to straight-forward dismissals. And yet, both umpires so far, have ended up with their fair share of howlers. Let’s hope, day-5 doesn’t add onto those howlers.
Ricky Ponting came, and instantly he looked refreshingly positive. He played some good strokes, and looked immediately full of intent-with a clear target in his mind. Unfortunately for Australia, he got out against the run of play; his leg-side flick ending up straight into Laxman’s hands at short-straightish-mid-wicket position. It was smart field placement from Mahendra Singh Dhoni (acting Captain in Kumble’s absence), and some good-purposeful bowling by Ishant Sharma. Round-1 to India. (2-49)
Harbhajan Singh, meanwhile, was looking more and more relaxed & confident. He had already troubled Ponting with some sharp off-breaks, and by now was giving the ball a lot of air, changing the pace intelligently. Katich, was looking more like a racing car with punctured wheels. He finally showed a willingness for urgency, lofting a loopy ball by Harbhajan to the long-off boundary…but it was Harbhajan, who won the battle, having katich already dropped at short-leg in his bowling, he bowled a quick off-break around good-length, katich played it with a lunge forward-was fooled by the length, playing with hard hands and lobbing up a tame catch to Laxman at silly-point. (3-99)
Ishant Sharma meanwhile, was impressing everyone by his working up of Clarke. He squared him up on three successive outgoing balls, while Mike Hussey was already playing his game at the other end. Clarke’s strange innings was ended by Sharma, with another smart Off-Cutter-which bounced, Clarke played early & looped up a tame catch to Virender Sehwag at mid-off. (4-115)
Harbhajan was by now using Loop, Turn, bounce, Pace and everything he could get from an abrasive surface-he was having a fantastic duel with Mike Hussey, almost a battle within a battle. Hussey was reading Harbhajan’s off breaks well-Harbhajan too learned from his mistake in the first innings and was looking a lot more threatening from round-the-wicket. When he bowled a good flighted off-break on off-stump, Hussey quickly slog-swept him for four-Round-1 to batsman.
But Harbhajan won the battle. He bowled a top spinner, just on a good length and angling on to hit the top of off-stump. The ball-to Hussey’s dismay, came in after pitching as he shaped to leave the ball-and the middle stump was rattled…a quality spinner working over a champion, and defeating him. (5-128)
Someone has said, “Attack is the best form of defense.” Brad Haddin, & Shane Watson almost saw that it was too difficult to defend, and started to accumulate runs quickly. They kept playing the big shots, capitalizing on India’s shoddy and at times clueless fielding. And finally, brought Australia back on the declaration mode. Watson survived a dead plum shout by Zaheer, the ball was delivered from round the wicket, continuing with the angle, and was hit below the knee-roll just on the off-stump. A decision given by whom? No prize for guessing-Koertzen. So, after a see-saw day, Australia finally ended up thinking back on declaration terms-but a touch too late, India on the other hand-frustrated on a lost opportunity.
In the end…Australia might just rue the period with Simon Katich batting, when they could (and should) easily have scored an extra 30-40 runs which would’ve given them a precious extra time to bowl at the Indians. Indians, were left to rue at “What might have been”, had it not been for their poor batting on the 3rd day & shoddy fielding in the whole game. Looks like Australia might have a crack at India tomorrow with 80-odd overs to bowl. A draw should be a near certainty-especially with Australia’s thin bowling line-up & lack of a quality spinner. Unless of course-India collectively lose their heads.
Pitch: - Looks an abrasive surface. But it is slow enough for the batsman to stand on the back foot against bowlers like Stuart Clark. Lee and Johnson should be the key tomorrow, unless Clark bowls a spell of his life. The pitch is very rough, so reverse swing will come into play as early as 20th over. But it’s not difficult to hang around if you are willing to wait for bad balls, and have a good defensive technique. The odd ball is keeping low, but shouldn’t be a decisive factor because the pitch is getting slower with every session.
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