Aus show some tailent

The third ball of Ishant Sharma’s second spell wreaked havoc in the Australian camp on Friday. Bowling his seventh over — 21st of the innings — the pacer hit the deck short of length. The ball crashed into Phil Hughes’s helmet. Three deliveries later, the left-hander was bowled for 45. But more than the scalp, India had sent across a clear message. That the nature of wicket would ultimately lure the batsmen into committing harakiri.

By the time the visitors came to terms with this fact, the scoreboard read 136/7 before the tea break. In other words, India’s quest for a historic whitewash over Australia got off to a fruitful note before some gritty batting by Peter Siddle and James Pattinson helped them reach a modicum of respectability with a total of 231/8 at stumps on Day One of the fourth Test.

In fact, the manner in which Siddle and Pattinson batted over a period of 71 minutes would have made the entire Aussie top order cringe. For they had thrown their wickets away. This after stand-in skipper Shane Watson called it right at the toss. Michael Clarke (out with a back injury and already on his way home) had won the toss in each of the previous Tests. Siddle, who was involved in a 53-run stand with Steve Smith, then added an undefeated 43 with Pattinson as Australia avoided the ignominy of getting bowled out on Day One. On a day the line-up fell like pack of cards, Siddle held fort for almost 158 minutes.

R Ashwin, with figures of 30-17-40-4, was the wrecker-in-chief even as Ravindra Jadeja (2/34) and Ishant Sharma (2/35) made regular inroads. Ashwin’s best ball of the day was his favourite ‘carrom ball’. It left Mitchell Johnson without his stumps. So stunned was Johnson, playing his first Test of the series, that he enquired with the square leg umpire if he had indeed been bowled.

The dry Kotla wicket, which started turning from the first session itself, is likely to develop more cracks. And don’t be surprised if this one gets over inside four days.
David Warner started with a duck on his ‘adopted’ home pitch. The Delhi Daredevil was expected to lead by example on a track he knows pretty well. Ed Cowan showed a lot of promise before gifting his wicket to Ashwin. His departure opened the floodgates as Jadeja and Ashwin rocked the Australian boat. One could say that more than the Indian bowlers, it was poor stroke selection coupled with impatience that reduced Australia from 106 for two to 136 for seven in the space of 21 overs.

@shekharluthra