India Culture, Business, Sports and Food. Get all the buzz in India now

Day 1^st  Earlier in first inning, batting first Australia made 430 runs which includes skipper Ricky Ponting’s 123 runs and Mr. Cricket, Hussey’s 146 runs. It was Ponting’s maiden century on the Indian soil and he again fell victim to Harbhajan Singh. On day one Australians had made 254 for four. It was pace man Zaheer who took the prized wicket of Hayden. The second wicket was taken by Ishant Sharma who sent back Katich for 66 of 149 balls. Fourth wicket was of M. Clarke who was declared LBW on Zaheer’s bowling.

Day 2^nd The Second was clearly the day of M. Hussey as he completed 146 runs of 276 balls and put his side in a commanding situation. He was bowled out by Zaheer Khan. Ishant Sharma took the wickets of S. Watson (2), B. Haddin (33) and debutant C. White (6). Zaheer Khan completed his five-wicket haul by taking the remaining two wickets of B. Lee (33) and M. Johnson (1). Both the experienced Indian spinners could not create pressure as they were inconsistent in their line and could not even exploit the inconsistent bounce. When the play of the second day was called off Indian openers had made 68 runs without loss. Sehwag was batting on 43 while G. Gambhir was on 20.

Day 3^rd When the play resumed on day third, Indians were in a commanding position but two early blows by B. Lee and M. Johnson put them into defensive mode. Gambhir was sent back by Lee for 21 while Sehwag by  Johnson for 45. Tendulkar, Laxman and Dhoni could not do well and departed cheaply. It was Dravid, Ganguly , Harbhajan and Zaheer who resisted the Australian bowling attack. Wickets of Dravid (51) and Harbhajan (54) were taken by Watson while Ganguly (47) was victim of Johnson. Till the end of the day three India had made 313 runs at the loss of 8 wickets.

Day 4^th On day four Zaheer completed his half century. Indian team could add only 47 more runs and was all out for 360. Indian bowlers dominated in the second inning as none of the Australian batmen could make big totals. At the end of day four Australian had lost its 5 wickets for 193 runs. Harbhajan has taken the wickets of Katich(34) and Hussey(31) while Ishant had sent back Ponting (17) and Clarke (6). Hayden (13) was sent back by Zaheer.

Draw On the fifth day it had become clear that the test is heading towards a draw.  At the score 228-6 Australia declared its inning giving the victory target of 299 to India. India could not get a good start as it had lost Sehwag and Dravid at the score of 24. the attraction of the day was Tendulkar as crowd was waiting to see him surpassing Brian Lara’s  record of 11953 runs. But he could not do it as he fell victim to debutant spinner Cameron White. Gambhir(29) was bowled out by Johnson. Because of the bad light play  was called off when the 10 overs were remaining to be bowled. And with it first test between India and Australia was declared to be draw.