Debutant leg-spinner Amit Mishra picked up two key wickets as India pushed Australia into a corner on the second day of the second Test here on Saturday. Mishra, 24, sent back Simon Katich (33) before dismissing Michael Clarke (23) off the penultimate ball of the day to reduce the visitors to a shaky 102-4 on what still seemed a good batting wicket.
His efforts with the ball came after Sourav Ganguly hit a century and Mahendra Dhoni an attacking 92 to take India to 469 all out in the first innings. At stumps, Michael Hussey was on 37 with five fours. "We are in a very good position at the moment," Ganguly said at the post-match press conference.
"The bowlers have done their job well. Mishra was impressive considering the wicket has not started to turn as yet. We hope spinners will get more purchase as the match progresses." It was Zaheer Khan again who gave the home side the crucial breakthrough when he cleaned the off-stump of opener Matthew Hayden for a duck off just the third ball of the Australian innings.
It was the third time in the series that the left-arm paceman claimed Hayden cheaply after dismissing him twice in the drawn Bangalore opener. Australian captain Ricky Ponting fumbled around for nearly half an hour for his five runs before being trapped leg before by a sharp incutter from new-ball bowler Ishant Sharma.
Katich looked in good touch, reading both the seamers and the spinners well until he misjudged Mishra and gifted him his maiden Test wicket. His 65-ball knock contained six fours, including three of them off Sharma. Australia would have been in deeper trouble had Dhoni taken a simple catch of Hussey off Harbhajan Singh when the batsman was on 25.
Earlier, Ganguly hit eight fours in his patient 225-ball knock and shared a 109-run partnership with Dhoni, who hammered eight fours and four sixes in his entertaining 124-ball innings. Ganguly, set to retire after the four-Test series for the Border-Gavaskar trophy, reached his 16th Test century with a four to the square leg fence off leg-spinner Cameron White.
The 36-year-old former captain was out soon after reaching his century, holing out to Brett Lee at long off to give White his first wicket of the match. "It was a very satisfying knock though not my best," Ganguly said. "But any century against Australia is special. I had to work hard for my runs today because field settings were such. I tried to be patient and score off loose deliveries."
Dhoni, leading the side in the absence of injured captain Anil Kumble, was severe on debutant fast bowler Peter Siddle, pulling him over fine leg for the first six of the innings. Dhoni's fiery knock was brought to an end by Siddle, who trapped him leg before with a searing inswinger, while Zaheer was run out by Lee.
White said bowling to the in-form Indian batsmen was not easy. "It was pretty difficult to bowl to the Indian top-order in conditions familiar to them," he said. "The first half tomorrow is going to be crucial as it will dictate which course the game takes." Australia paceman Mitchell Johnson finished with 3-85 while Siddle also picked up three wickets for 114 runs from 28 overs. The Mohali Test will be followed by matches in New Delhi and Nagpur.
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Scoreboard India 1st innings:
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G. Gambhir c Haddin b Johnson 67
V. Sehwag c Haddin b Johnson 35
R. Dravid b Lee 39
S. Tendulkar c Hayden b Siddle 88
V. Laxman c Haddin b Johnson 12
S. Ganguly c Lee b White 102
I. Sharma c Katich b Siddle 9
M. Dhoni lbw b Siddle 92
H. Singh b White 1
Z. Khan run out 2
A. Mishra not out 0
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Extras: (b4, lb10, w5, nb3) 22
Total: (all out) 469
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Fall of wickets: 1-70 (Sehwag), 2-146 (Dravid), 3-146 (Gambhir), 4-163 (Laxman), 5-305 (Tendulkar), 6-326 (Sharma), 7-435 (Ganguly), 8-442 (Harbhajan), 9-469 (Zaheer), 10-469 (Dhoni)
Bowling: Lee 24-5-86-1 (w5, nb2), Siddle 28-6-114-3 (nb1), Johnson 27-4-85-3, Watson 24-3-71-0, Clarke 7-0-28-0, White 19-0-71-2.
Overs: 129.
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Australia 1st innings:
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M. Hayden b Zaheer 0
S. Katich b Mishra 33
R. Ponting lbw b Sharma 5
M. Hussey not out 37
M. Clarke lbw b Mishra 23
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Extras: (lb1, nb3) 4
Total: (for four wickets) 102
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