After woeful Day 3, India stare at record chase

If India have to win, they need a further 493 runs. They have all wickets intact and have made six runs in the eight overs they batted in the last 34 minutes on Day Three. If that happens, they will go way past the record highest chase of 332 here at the MCG, beyond their own highest chase of 406 at Port of Spain against the West Indies long back in 1976, and top even the world mark of 418. For a draw, their batsmen just need to play out the last two days—180 overs or 12 hours or six sessions or whatever they want to call it.

Laxman may have to replay his 281, Rahul Dravid his previous Adelaide double ton, Sourav Ganguly his recent Eden knock, and Sachin Tendulkar may have to choose from his select pieces from that pack of 35 hundreds. If any two of the superstar quartet are able to make that happen, it will be a game at the MCG.

Considering what was seen of the Indian batting yesterday, forcing a draw would be a huge ask—but it may not be impossible. Rahul Dravid today remained just as stingy in run-scoring like yesterday—he’s not out on 3 from 30 balls while Jaffer was on 2 at stumps—but what’s more pertinent was the fact that he looked more comfortable on the 22 yards this time around. There were no ooohhs and aaaahs, no hits-and-misses, just plain solid defence, knowing where the off-stump was.

Australia have been content with repeating their tactics—Brett Lee bowling quick and straight, Mitchell Johnson at the other end teasing with a slightly wider angle. But Indian openers have been up to it in this biggest ever test of patience. Having used the light roller during the change of innings, Indians have had a hard look at the surface. The pitch has developed some rough and thus may stay a bit low. Hogg might be more effective here than Clark or Lee.

Australia taught enough lessons with their batting and running between the wickets—they scored 351/7 before declaring their unusually drab second innings. They looked content to graft and give ample rest to pacers after temperatures soared to 30 degrees centigrade. The only time India seemed to attack was when Matthew Hayden got out after his 47 from 54 balls with six fours. He heaved Harbhajan Singh straight down long-off where Sourav Ganguly took the catch. The off-spinner got to his 250th wicket in grand fashion, with his second scalp in four balls, when Ricky Ponting opened the face of the bat to Dravid at first slip.

Michael Hussey got his eye in and then went to grab a bite along with Phil Jaques with Australia at 135/2. Jaques came back after forty minutes of break, travelled from 49 to 51 in the first ball he faced to record their 50-run partnership, and got out.

Clarke then walked in, and though Hussey went soon after, Symonds proved to be an able ally as their partnership yielded 82 runs. Symonds also struck two sixes in his innings of 44. Clarke played a more sedate knock to reach his half century off 82 balls, and also chipped in a few in the eighth-wicket stand of 45 with Adam Gilchrist.

The Australian declaration came teasingly towards the end when Hogg, with an unbeaten 34 that contained two sixes, and Lee caused more frustration for India.

The Indian bowlers looked bored today, with nothing happening in their favour. Zaheer spent the entire day managing his no-ball problems that cost him and India an early Symonds wicket. Harbhajan alternated between bowling the loop and the quicker one without much use of his fingers and so, without much effect. Kumble again made an effort but today it stayed just that.

The bowling wasn’t good enough this time around in contrast to the last performance. Hopefully, that contrast will be there in batting too—in a positive way—tomorrow and the day after.

Scoreboard

Australia, 1st Innings: 343

India, 1st Innings: 196

Australia, 2nd Innings

(overnight: 32/0)

P Jaques c & b Kumble 51

M Hayden c Ganguly b H Singh 47

R Ponting c Dravid b H Singh 3

M Hussey c T’dulkar b RP Singh 36

M Clarke st Dhoni b Kumble 73

A Symonds lbw b Khan 44

A Gilchrist c RP Singh b H Singh 35

B Hogg not out 35

B Lee not out 11

Extras: (3lb,13nb) 16

Total (7 wkts,88 overs) 351 decl

Fall of wickets: 1-83, 2-89, 3-139, 4-161, 5-243, 6-288, 7-316

Bowling: Khan 20-2-93-1, RP Singh 16-1-50-1, Kumble 25-2-102-2, Harbhajan 26-0-101-3, Tendulkar 1-0-2-0

India, 2nd Innings

R Dravid batting 3

W Jaffer batting 2

Extras: (1nb) 1

Total: (no loss, 8 overs) 6

Bowling: Lee 3-1-4-0, Johnson 2-1-2-0, Clark 2-2-0-0, Hogg 1-1-0-0

Day 3 data:

HAYDEN JOINS 8000 CLUB:

• Matthew Hayden became the fifth Australian and 18th batsman overall to score 8000 runs in Test cricket during his knock of 47 on Friday

• Hayden, who made his debut against South Africa at Johannesburg in 1993-94, took 13 years and 299 days to reach the mark

• Getting there in 92 matches, Hayden also set an Australian record of fastest 8000 runs in this form of cricket. Ricky Ponting held the previous record of 165 Tests

• Allan Border (11174 runs in 156 Tests), Steve Waugh (10927 runs in 168 Tests), Ricky Ponting (9515 runs in 116 Tests) and Mark Waugh (8029 runs in 128 Tests) are the other Australians with 8000 or more runs

KUMBLE gets RECORD:

• Anil Kumble equalled Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan’s world record of most caught and bowled dismissals in Test cricket when he caught Australian opener Phil Jaques off his own bowling

• It was his 31st such dismissal in 122 Tests. Muralitharan has the same number in 118 Tests

Harbhajan’s 250:

• Harbhajan Singh became the fourth Indian and 29th bowler overall to take 250 wickets in Test cricket. The off-spinner reach this mark in his 61st Test match when he dismissed Ricky Ponting on Friday

• Anil Kumble (591 wickets in 122 Tests), Kapil Dev (434 in 131 Tests) and Bishan Singh Bedi (266 in 67 Tests) are the other Indians in the 250 list

Sixth 50 for jaques:

• Phil Jaques’s 51 off 103 balls with five fours was his sixth consecutive score of fifty-plus in Tests. He becomes the seventh Australian after Jack Ryder, Dogh Walters, Greg Chappell, Allan Border, Mark Taylor and Michael Hussey and 22nd batsman overall to score six or more fifties in consecutive innings

• West Indian Everton Weekes and Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Zimbabwean Andy Flower shared the world record with seven consecutive fifty-plus scores in Tests