Score line: -
India (1st innings):- 469-10 (129.0 overs, Sourav Ganguly 102 (225 Balls), Mitchell Johnson 3-85)
Australia (1st innings):- 268-10 (101.4 overs, Shane Watson 78 (156 Balls), Amit Mishra 5-71)
India (2nd innings):- 100-0 (23.0 overs, Virender Sehwag 53* (71 Balls))
Report Sheet of the Day: - Australia 12 % - India 88 %
Match-Report:-
So, it’s official. Australia have messed up big time (for once) with the bat and now the Indians have rubbed it in. As the 3rd day started, I started wondering how many more the dropped catch of Mike Hussey will cost India. Although the last time this happened-Hussey went on to add another 144 runs as India suffered big time in Bangalore-I just had a funny feeling that Hussey just can’t do that again.
Australia though, needed another Hussey-150 atleast, to even get close to the Indian total. So, as the 3rd day began-every Aussie supporter started thinking positively-claiming another classic Hussey knock. Hussey though, started off well, both He and Watson started in a positive fashion-putting away loose balls from Mishra & Zaheer for maximum. Zaheer was again getting appreciable reverse-swing.
MS Dhoni though, as a captain has a tendency to bowl his bowlers in shorter spells. He quickly gave the old cherry to Ishant Sharma, and straight away it was apparent that he was hurrying both the batsmen. Watson for a couple of time used his pace intelligently to steer the ball to the 3rd man boundary. But Ishant, finally rewarded India with their most prized wicket they could have hoped for, snaring Hussey just after the master completed his 50 (and was looking good for lot more). The ball was on a good-length, Hussey shaped to steer it to point, but just at a precise moment it swung away from him (a little bit reverse), result: a nice edge to Dhoni who completed an easy catch. (5-130)
The man who could have pushed Australia close to 400 was gone and they were now staring down the barrel. What has been more surprising for this game has been the static feet of the Aussie batsmen. Hayden, Ponting, Clarke, and Haddin-all good players who have been pinned to the crease have struggled. Harbhajan & Mishra capitalized by bowling beautifully flighted, classic Off-spin & Wrong-one respectively (Haddin & White both were bowled-nothing can be more satisfying for a spin bowler) to put Australia in a potentially humiliating position at 7-167.
Then came the partnership that somewhat saved Australia’s face. Brett Lee struggle initially against both spinners, but then settled down. By then Shane Watson had suddenly become a senior batsman. He didn’t try to shield Lee-who has improved his batting against the spinners, playing for NSW. Lee immediately started stepping out against the spinners. While Watson, was staying fully back in his crease (A tactic which Damien Martyn so successfully employed in 2004-05). Both strung together a healthy partnership.
After tea, Dhoni changed tactics. He again gave the new ball to Ishant Sharma. Who this time, seemed rather ruffled & out-of-focus (probably by not getting a potential LBW against Watson). He made a mistake by pitching it short-and Watson cashed in. Indian supporters were just beginning to relive the partnership between Symonds & Hogg-before Harbhajan produced a wicket out of nowhere. He bowled an off-break, but with the seam pointing towards mid-wicket rather than fine-leg. Result? The ball drifted away from Lee-but didn’t turn back in. Lee groped fro it, lunging full forward and playing for an off-break. The ball took the edge & Rahul Dravid at 1st slip did the rest. (8-240)
Then, it was Amit Mishra show. He bowled a flipper, which didn’t turn enough, and Watson was LBW. (9-262) And Peter Siddle’s short but painful stay at the crease was ended by another well disguised wrong one. Siddle cluelessly lunged forward, and was comprehensively stumped. (10-268)
A 5-for for Amit Mishra which will give headaches to both the Australian Team management & Indian selectors.
A follow on was never on. Dhoni would have done it if India had got a lead of close to 300. But with only 201 behind-there was every chance of someone “waking up” from the Aussie top-4, and playing a long innings against some tired bowlers. So, sensibly-India decided to bat again, and make Australia bat in a hopeless situation.
Indian openers & Australian fielding started off in contrasting fashion. While it was all aggression and alertness on behalf of the Indian opening pair of Virender Sehwag & Gautam Gambhir-Ricky Ponting’s “aggressive” tactics were once again on view. As soon as one boundary was hit by Gambhir in the 1st over, one sweeper was out, with one less slip. A short-while later there were 4-boundary riders on view with one or no slips at all. Perhaps, it was inevitable considering the huge lead for India. But it surely would have made sense to give his bowlers some chance of getting the batsmen out. Both batsmen are aggressive, they are not only boundary hitters-they are pretty swift between the wicket and can play a lot of innovative shots. As expected, Ponting’s “new-age aggressive, and we’re the only ones taking the game forward”-approach failed spectacularly. India are now sitting pretty with 300-run lead with all 10-wickets in hand with 2-days of play still left.
In the end…India holding the game in full command. They have all the aces. For the declaration part-India will want to score 250-atleast to pile on the agony on Australia. To do it quickly, they will need atleast one from Sehwag or Gambhir carrying on for another session atleast. Both Sehwag & Gambhir won’t get a better opportunity to score a Test Hundred against Australia. India, ideally should score 300 runs before declaring. 100-in the morning session, and then another quick 100 in the afternoon by promoting someone like Dhoni up the order. Australia on the other hand can do two things:
(1) Sit back & try to save boundaries with their “new-age aggression”.
(2) Try & get Sehwag & Gambhir out early in the morning. That will go a long way towards slowing India down.
Some observations:-
(1) Brett Lee & Peter Siddle started getting appreciable Reverse-swing late in the evening. But too little, too late unless they bowl an excellent spell in the morning.
(2) Johnson, as expected has proven ineffective against the right-handers. He is just not swinging the ball into them (something he successfully did when Australia toured India for 7-OD matches last year). Unless he does that, he will be spanked. He remains a good bowler to Left-handers though.
(3) Peter Siddle is again the man to watch out. Meanwhile, Virender Sehwag will be jumping up & down at the prospect of facing White & Clark tomorrow morning.
(4) And while on swing, here’s a curiosity: at some point in the telecast, they showed the Indian ball alongside an Australian one that had weathered the same number of overs. The former was almost perfect—very smooth, very shiny down one side, and very rough on the other [clearly, the team has learnt to work on the ball as a unit, as the Pakistanis did in their pomp]. The Aussie ball in contrast was scuffed all over—clearly, little care had been taken to work on one side. A curiosity that a team that is otherwise known to put considerable thought and effort into best practices is lacking in this vital aspect.
Pitch: - Remains quite dry. It will be interesting to see pitch crumbling a bit more on the next few days in full sunshine. Lee & Siddle have already started getting reverse-a sign of pitch getting increasingly abrasive. Zaheer & Ishant’s grin widening. The pitch is getting slower but it’s not too slow like Bangalore yet, but the bounce is remaining sharp-a thing Indian spinners will relish. I will save my observations for the end of the 4th day.
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