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

Indian Bowlers If Australian debutant off-spinner Jason Krejza was the star of the day two, it were all the four main Indian bowlers who dominated on day three and turned the match into their favor. All the four main Indian bowlers, Zaheer, Ishan, Bhajji and Mishra bowled tight and ‘planned’ spells and kept the Australian batsmen constantly under pressure. They denied the ‘much needed opportunity’ to the Australians to retain the Border-Gavaskar trophy. Australians squandered the advantage of a 155-run partnership between Opener Simon Katich (102) and Michael Hussey (90) as they lost the remaining wickets at regular intervals.

Turning Point Indian played both attacking and defensive game on day three with the motive to put pressure on the opponents. It was Zaheer Khan who opened the flood-gates for India when he trapped Simon Katich leg before wicket. Simon made 102 runs. Earlier Katich had been dropped at first slip by Dravid off Ishant when he was at 94. Katich accepted the favor of lady luck and completed his third century. The next to go was M. Clarke (8) who was caught behind off Ishant Sharma. The turning point of the inning was the dismissal of Hussey and the credit goes to M. Vijay who with his perfect throw from the silly-point to wicket-keeper Dhoni found Hussey short of his crease.

Spinners Rest of the work was done by the Indian spinners’ due of Harbhajan Singh and Mishra. Harbhajan Singh did not give any chance to the Australians to score a fast rate and gave a big blow to them when he dismissed Shane Watson (2) a few minutes after Hussey’s departure. Wicket-Keeper Brad Haddin and Cameron White tried to present some resistance and added 52 runs for the seventh wicket. Mishra got Haddin caught by Dravid when he was on 28. Harbhajan Singh put an end to White’s ‘heroism’ when he got him caught by Sehwag. After Haddin’s departure rest of the Australian inning was folded up within 10 minutes as second new ball played a crucial role in their dismissals. Krejza was trapped leg-before-wicket by Sharma on 5 while Zaheer caught Johnson off Mishra on 5. Brett Lee remained not out. All the Australian team got out at 355 giving a lead of 86 runs to their opponents. Though Zaheer could get only one wicket in the first inning but his disciplined bowling on day third played a decisive role. He along with Sharma built a great pressure on their opponents that was exploited by all the Indian bowlers.