Ind-Aus: Johnson attacks, Ind on backfoot

Agencies

Mohali, 02 October 2010: Australian wicketkeeper Tim Paine registered his maiden Test fifty and along with an aggressive Mitchell Johnson, pushed up the scoring rate after lunch, giving his team a chance of going past 400 on day two of the first Test at Mohali on Saturday. The star for Australia on the first day, Shane Watson was dismissed by Harbhajan Singh after scoring 126. His 458-minute vigil ended when Harbhajan got an odd ball to bounce and the batsman didn’t commit fully on the front-foot.

 

The resultant bat-pad catch was taken by Gautam Gambhir standing at forward short leg. Watson hit 10 boundaries in his 338-ball innings. Having hit eight on Friday, the opener added two more to his tally of boundaries. The 10th boundary that he hit - an on-drive off Pragyan Ojha - helped him reach his personal best Test score of 124, surpassing the previous best of 120 against Pakistan, earlier this season.

 

Only 71 runs were scored off 29 overs in the first session on Saturday. Paceman Ishant Sharma was back on the field after limping off on Friday with a pulled hamstring but since he was out of action for a considerable amount of time, having left the field in the 37th over, he wasn’t allowed to bowl in the first session.

 

 

That is precisely the reason why skipper Dhoni didn’t have the option of taking the second new ball which was already due. The nature of the pitch remained same as it was on Friday, with the ball keeping low and the odd-ball skidding through. With lack of bounce and not much turn on offer, it was a tough first session for the Indian bowlers as Watson and Paine blocked everything that came their way.

 

With ball being 100 overs old and turning very soft, it wasn’t really difficult to defend. However, they found scoring difficult in the first session. Normally a free-flowing batsman, Watson’s innings consisted of 51 singles and 13 twos. Paine, who is playing only his third Test, was cautious to begin with but with passage of time played some strokes.

 

He has already hit five boundaries in his 109-ball innings; two which stood out during the session were a square cut off Zaheer and another cut shot off Harbhajan - both executed with perfection. The 53-run sixth wicket partnership came off 161 deliveries. The visitors will be looking forward to a score of 350-plus, which will be considered as a challenging first innings score on a dicey track.

 

Harbhajan, who got the only wicket of the session, had figures of two for 96 from 40 overs to show for his efforts. Ojha, who also bowled 40 overs, didn’t get any wickets but gave away only 57 runs. Zaheer, India’s most potent bowler in the match so far, has figures of three for 65 from 22 overs.