At last the much hyped india -australia series kicked off and to what a start.after australia won the toss and elected to bat first on what seemed to be a good wicket .neither team gained upper hand during any session but for brief moments india was on top thanks to the amazing bowling of the ever so improving young lad ishant sharma and a tidy zaheer khan and australia looked to be cruishing when ponting started to flow and katich complemented.


It all begun when matthew headyen read a zaheer khan delivery wrongly and got caught behind in the very first over that brought ponting to the middle and the australian captian eager to make a statement by scoring runs and setting his poor record in india straight.the rivalry ishant sharma-ricky ponting started from where it left and again ishant seemed to be winning the race but ponting sticked there and applied himself barring few anxious moments he did a pretty good job on the other end katich was rock solid in his defence and the indian seamers were kept at bay.australia closed the first session one wicket down with both ponting and katich got there eye in.


The second session started to some tidy bowling and already the pitch was easing and the turf would be ideal to bat in these two sessions. india continued to employ two spinners randomly but it is ishant sharma who provided the breakthrough for the indians and just when australians looked to take things in to their hands india pulled back.then camethe ever so consistent michael hussey the centurion in the match aganist the board presidents -11 team .india continued to employ with its two spinners stategy and in the mean time ponting looked all set to bring up his hundred.which he eventually did an amazing innings by ponting keeping in mind his poor performance in india this innings would set the tone for many more to come in this series.


In the third session it seemed indian spinners are not effective and then harbajan who looked so ordinary during the day got his man finally to his shame ricky ponting got out to harbajan singh leg before wicket.ponting played amazingly well for his century.that brought michael clark to the middle .it was not untill the last over of the day things seemed to be good for australians.india took the new ball and just when skipper anil kumble wanted a wicket to put matters on par zaheer khan provided the important breakthrough of micheal clark trapped infront leg before wicket.and australians ended the day on score 254-4.both india and australia would be happy with their show with indians wanted a better performance from their spinners and australia would be very satisfied with one wicket less
SO AS IT PANNED OUT BOTH THE TEAMS ARE ON AN EVEN PAR ON DAY-1.