India pick pace,cautiously

Ishant hadn’t even been part of India’s original 13 for the match. The first session had seen two declarations – one overnight,with the Chairman’s XI seven down and 54 behind India’s first innings total,and the other after India made 90 for two in 30 second innings overs.

Set 145 to win,the home team were 100 for no loss in 30 overs when the handshakes and back-slaps commenced. It turned out that the two teams had agreed to bat for 30 overs each on the final day.

India lost Virender Sehwag,caught in the slips off a Peter George delivery that left him a touch,and Ajinkya Rahane,caught behind off left-arm seamer Josh Lalor,within their first ten overs.

Following that,the spinners came on,allowing Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma to milk them around the field in an unbroken stand of 76 before the time for a declaration arrived. When India took the field,to bowl to two men who had just been left out of the Australian Test squad,there were enough signs to suggest they had settled on their pace attack for Boxing Day.

Zaheer Khan and Ishant opened the bowling,Umesh Yadav came on as first change,and neither Abhimanyu Mithun nor Vinay Kumar got a bowl.

Zaheer,as expected in this sort of match,bowled within himself,sending down five overs for 13 runs and beating the two left-handed openers a couple of times with balls that shaped away from them. Ishant sent down four overs,and his run-up and delivery stride didn’t betray any sort of discomfort in his ankle. Umesh was sharp and tested the middle of the pitch against Usman Khawaja,a man who loves the pull.

The spinners,however,bowled the bulk of the overs,18 in all. Ravichandran Ashwin,as always,kept asking questions of the batsmen,making them defend and causing both to inside-edge sliders in the direction of mid on.

Ojha unlucky

Pragyan Ojha,meanwhile,was perhaps the unluckiest of the Indians not to get a wicket. He played cat-and-mouse with both openers,teasing them with flight and changes in pace. With the score reading 55 for no loss,Khawaja mistimed a sweep,hitting it uppishly in the direction of midwicket,where Ashwin dropped a sharp chance diving forward.

In his next over,Ojha beat Khawaja in the air,getting one to dangle enticingly and then dip. For an instant,it looked like the batsman had no idea what length the ball would drop on,but he survived,the ball trickling down to long on off the inside half of his bat.

Against Hughes,Ojha seemed to sense that the batsman was playing his trajectory rather than his length. Twice in one over,he caught him on the crease with the quicker one,rapping him on the pads first time and getting the other to squirt off the inside edge to fine leg.

With no wickets to show for his efforts,and with Ashwin getting four in the first innings and possessing greater batting credentials,this might well have been Ojha’s last spell for a while yet. But in case Sydney throws up a dry wicket,he might have just earned himself a look-in as the second spinner.

Brief scores: India 269 & 90 for 2 decl (G Gambhir 42 not out,R Sharma 38 not out; P George 1/12,J Lalor 1/16) vs CA Chairman’s XI 215/7 decl & 100 for no loss (U Khawaja 56,P Hughes 42)