An excellent day of cricket.showed the beauty of india-australia clashes.india dominated the proceedings from ball one as it restricted australian batsmen succsessfully.this sets up for the final days battle which it turns out to be a definite seat edge thriller may be an australian victory or an indian victory or a draw no matter what the end result would be it would be one amazing day of cricket to make the matters simple it is about whether the out of form indian batting can resist the pace attack of australia on a detorioating pitch which by every ball becoming a graveyard for batsmen.
In the first session india consolidated its position by assuring it decreased the australian lead to less than 100 runs.zaheer khan displayed amazing grit and patience to bring up his half century.a well deserved effort considering the lights of sachin,laxman,michael clark,hayden who all failed to make a mark.this is by far zaheers best test innings.the indian top order has a thing or two to learn from his batting.anil kumble hang in there for some time before an incoming watson delivery got the better of him.and then ishant sharma ensured that he gave zaheer the support.but michael clark finally provided the breakthrough after a valuable partnership of 24 runs with zaheer and more than the runs he ensured enough time is
consumed.then australia came out to bat openers matthew hayden and simon catich both look to give australia the start they needed to buld a platform for a huge score and have a go at indians.but the indian pace attack had different plans zaheer bowled exceptionnaly well with the new ball he troubled matthew hayden through out his spell and finally got rewarded with the wicket of hayden who played across the line of the delivery and out legbefore wicket and giving zaheer his sixth wicket of the match.then came the centurion from the first innings ricky ponting who had to face the music of ishant sharma.ponting got away with a close legbefore appeal as the replays showed the ball missed the leg stump but not by much.but his stay at the crease was shart as ishant got his man to a regulation catch at silly midoff to laxman.australia two down.
Harbajan was brought in to the attack he got bounce,spin from the wicket which he lacked in the first innings and made full use of that as he got rid of simon catich.michael hussey came in to bat at number four and he stayed for some time at the crease but unable to score freely as the indians persisted with good line and attacking fielding and ensured that they did not give away easy singles as they did in the first innings.then harbajan cleaned up michael hussey with a beauty,doosra bowled to perfection.hussey let the ball go thinking it to be an off spinner but the ball turned in sharply and took the offstump.
The pair of haddin and watson ensured australia dont loose another wicket before the stumps and australia ended the day at 190-5 laeving india a lead of 260.
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