Kumble restrains Aussies after Hayden’s ton

Dec 26:  India’s skipper Anil Kumble led from the front on Aussie soil by picking up a five-wicket haul to restrict Australia from reaching a big score after opener Matthew Hayden (124) scored his 28th century and shared a 135-run opening partnership stand alongwith Phil Jacques (66) on the first day of Boxing Day Test in Melbourne Cricket Ground on Wednesday.

Southpaw Hayden slammed his 19th century with a total of 28 at home surpassing Sir Donald Bradman’s world record of tons on home soil and also skipper Ricky Ponting in the 100th Test at the MCG and also the 100th for Ganguly.

Australia ended the day on 337-9 with Anil Kumble striking for his team with important dismissals as the opening Test of the four matches Test series is evenly poised on day one.

Electing to bat, Australia openers Hayden and Jacques got off the blocks very quickly and added 135 runs with the help of some fine shots and quick running between the wickets.

Both the openers defied Zaheer’s threatening opening spell with consummate ease and went on to frustrate the Indian seamers by rotating strike and to keep the scoreboard moving. The left-handed duo negotiated the first session quite well and took the team’s score to 111 without loss at the end of the first session.

Hayden’s spirited effort came off 183 balls with the help of only nine boundaries. He played with utmost confidence and was never hesitant of in penalising the odd bad delivery.

Hayden was much playing along the ground even as the spinners avoided pitching up to him. The left-handed duo of Hayden and Jacques looked all set, when the Indian skipper came up with denting blow as he lured out Jacques and was stumped easily by vice-captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Kumble (5-84) and Zaheer (3-93) shared three wickets together in the second session to push Aussies back.

Zaheer then removed the dangerous customer Australian skipper Ricky Ponting with a superb delivery that moved away after pitching to remove his off stump. Kumble came back to trap Michael Hussey lbw as Australia fell from 135 without loss to 165-3.

Hayden’s got out on a somewhat soft dismissal as he checked his stroke to offer an easy catch to Rahul Dravid at mid-on off Zaheer, while Michael Clarke smacked one outside the off stump off RP Singh to give a hard catch to VVS Laxman at second slip.

Gilchrist top-edged while attempting a slog over long-on and was caught at point for 19. Kumble completed his five-wicket haul that included the wicket of dangerous Andrew Symonds, who scored a quick-fire 35 off 42 balls that included five boundaries.

Brett Lee was trapped in front after playing forward to a straighter delivery for 0 before Brad Hogg edged Zaheer Khan to slip for 17. Rahul Dravid caught Brad Hogg off Khan in the final overs.

Stuart Clark smashed 21 runs from 17 balls with fellow tailender Mitchell Johnson to see through the final overs. Earlier the visitors included two spinners, playing Harbhajan Singh apart from Kumble, while Zaheer and Rudra Pratap Singh took the slots of pacemen.

Australia skipper Ponting preferred left-arm fast bowler Mitchell Johnson over speedster Shaun Tait, while Brett Lee led the bowling attack along with Stuart Clark. Left-arm wrist spinner Brad Hogg is the lone spinner in the side.

SCOREBOARD

Australia First Innings

Phil Jaques st Dhoni, b Kumble 66 Matthew Hayden c Ganguly b Khan 124 Ricky Ponting b Khan 4 Mike Hussey, lbw b Kumble 2 Michael Clarke, c Laxman b R. P. Singh 20 Andrew Symonds, c Dinesh Karthik (sub) b Kumble 35 Adam Gilchrist c Tendulkar b Kumble 23 Brad Hogg c Dravid b Khan 17 Brett Lee lbw b Kumble 0 Mitchell Johnson not out 10 Stuart Clark not out 21.

Extras (5lb, 1w and 9nb) 15

TOTAL: (for nine wickets) 337.

Fall of wickets: 1-135, 2-142, 3-165, 4-225, 5-241, 6-281, 7-288, 8-294, 9-312.

Bowling: Zaheer Khan 22-1-83-2 (1w, 8nb), R. P. Singh 19-3-77-1, Harbhajan Singh 20-3-61-0, Saurav Ganguly 3-1-15-0 (1nb), Anil Kumble 25-4-84-5. Sachin Tendulkar 1-0-2-0

TEAMS

India: Anil Kumble (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly, Wasim Jaffer, Zaheer Khan, MS Dhoni, VVS Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, RP Singh.

Australia: Ricky Ponting (captain), Adam Gilchrist, ML Hayden, Michael Clarke, Brad Hogg, Michael Hussey, Andrew Symonds, Phil Jaques, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Stuart Clark.

Umpires: Mark Benson, England, and Billy Bowden, New Zealand.

TV Umpire: Steve Davis, Australia. Match referee: Mike Procter, South Africa.