Australia come up with a fighting display
by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

Scorecard:India v Australia
Player:SC Ganguly, MS Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, M Vijay, JJ Krejza, ML Hayden, SM Katich, RT Ponting, MEK Hussey
Event:Australia in India 2008/09
DateLine: 7th November 2008

 

Australia ended day 2 at 189 for 2 still 252 behind with 8 wickets in hand. Simon Katich was closing in on his first hundred of the series with Hussey giving him good company. They are currently involved in a partnership of 115 runs. Earlier in the day India were all out for 441. Ganguly missing out on a hundred in his last test match.He made 85 and Dhoni made 56. Krejza took 8 wickets on debut.

Harbhajan gets 300 test wickets
Harbhajan got his opposite number Ponting clean bowled to get his 300th test wicket. In his 72 test match this is a great achievement. He is only the third Indian behind Anil Kumble and Kapil Dev. But he would know that he has a job in hand with his senior partner Anil not there with him anymore. He would seriously want to get some wickets tomorrow to get India in the drivers seat and win the test match to give a parting gift to Anil and Saurav.

Jason Krejza bags eight wickets on debut
Jason Krejza came back strongly on the second day. After getting thrashed for more than 200 runs on debut he came back strongly to rip through the Indian middle and lower order.He first started the day getting punished by Saurav and Dhoni but came back very well after lunch. He castled Dhoni, and then also Ganguly who missed out on getting a hundred in his last match getting caught in the slips. He then got rid of the tail very quickly. He wiil be very pleased as he joins a select band of players who have taken 8 wickets on debut though it proved very expensive. India lost their last 5 wickets for 19 runs to get all out for 441. They would have definitely preferred more than 500 especially with the way Dhoni and Ganguly were going before lunch.

Katich takes control
Australia started aggressively but Hayden was run out by a direct hit from M.Vijay and after Ponting was castled by Harbhajan, Katich took over. Katich has been in good form right through the series .He has been at ease against the quicks and the spinners and he has a good record against India. His foot work against the spinners and his shuffle and working the ball on the on side makes him a difficult batsmen to bowl to. With Hussey as solid as ever on the other end they struck a good century partnership.They rotated the strike and kept the scoreboard ticking at four an over.The spinners were totally ineffective. The last session was extremely profitable with more than 100 runs coming at the cost of just one wicket.Katich would want to get to his first hundred of the series as quickly as possible and then consolidate with Hussey.
On the other hand the Indian bowlers would want to get a couple of early break throughs and put pressure on the Aussies.They would want a lead of at least 100 to take control of the test match.