Advantage India

HYDERABAD: Australia will head to Bangalore with a degree of uncertainty after their bowlers failed to make a mark and none of their main batsmen, save for Michael Hussey really looked on top of the situation. When both teams decided to end play early, Australia were 127 for two in the second innings after they were given a stiff target of 434.

The biggest gainer on the day was Australian skipper Ricky Ponting, who remained unbeaten on 58. Ponting’s dismal Test average in India is 12.28. Australia’s lynchpin and star batsman over a decade, Ponting will want to wipe-out this blot in his CV. Last time, it was Adam Gilchrist, who played the pivotal role in Australia winning a Test series on Indian soil in 35 years. Ponting flew in for the last Test in Mumbai where he made 11 and 12 on a crumbling wicket as India won by 13 runs. 

Ponting scored his first four boundaries off medium-pacer Manpreet Singh Gony. However, it was his battle with the spin duo of Piyush Chawla and Pragyan Ojha that was eagerly anticipated. While, Ponting has shown the ability to play spin with a degree of comfort in other countries, he has failed to read Indian spinners over the years. In the first innings, Chawla had cleaned him up with a googly. 

This time, Ponting looked surer of his approach to the spinning ball. He glided Chawla to the fine-leg boundary. Two overs later, he lent into the drive and sent the ball past mid-on for his second boundary. However, it was against Ojha that Ponting really cut lose.

On two occasions, he danced down the wicket and hit sixes back over the bowlers head. Ponting also cut confidently. In all, the Australian skipper hit seven boundaries and two sixes. Along with Michael Clarke, Ponting put on 75 runs for the third wicket in an unbeaten stand.  While Chawla and Ojha don’t present the kind of threat Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh do, the time spent in the middle will go Ponting some good.

For the home side the good news came in the form of Yuvraj Singh and Wasim Jaffer.
Yuvraj struck a belligerent 113 with seven sixes and as many boundaries, while Jaffer hit 93 for the Indian Board President’s XI. It also meant that the Australian bowling attack is yet to make an impact going into the first Test.

The hosts piled up 292-4 in their second innings before skipper Yuvraj declared 50 minutes after lunch to set the tourists an improbable victory target of 434 in a minimum of 53 overs.

Yuvraj and Jaffer, excluded by the selectors for the first two Tests of the four-match series, vented their frustration on the hapless bowlers. The pair put on 200 for the third wicket as the home team, resuming at 110-2 with an overall lead of 251 runs, hammered 130 runs in the two-hour morning session.

Yuvraj hit off-spinner Jason Krejza for a six to reach 50 and also brought up his century with a six over mid-wicket against left-arm spinner Clarke. Yuvraj and Jaffer were severe on rookie Krejza, effectively ending the Tasmanian’s hopes of playing the first Test by plundering 63 runs from his six overs before lunch.