This is nothing but a master stroke by the little master Sachin Tendulkar who registered his 39th Test ton at the Adelaide against Australia in the final match of the Border-Gavaskar series. It was a special ton as supposedly, it is his last Test match on Australian soil, and naturally he had to score. Moreover, his unbeaten 124 finally guided India to grip its hand on the first day with 309 for five.
At the stumps of the opening day both team would be satisfied as it is not Sachin’s batting but also Sehwag’s blistering fifty along with Laxman’s watchful half century that give boost to Indian innings and on the other half taking five wickets by the host also puts them in an even-even spot of the match.
India after winning toss opted to bat but lost the first wicket of Irfan Pathan who was promoted up the order as Wasim Jaffer completely failed to display anything in the previous three Test instances. Jaffer was replaced by off-spinner Harbhajan Singh. Pathan though looked solid with those two boundaries but Mitchell Johnson done the trick in removing the southpaw while he edged a simple catch to Adam Gilchrist.
However, Sehwag with some blistering knocks kept the score board moving but Dravid this time didn’t came as impressive and fell to Johnson scoring only 18 of 55 ball. Along with Sehwag he added 48 for the second wicket.
India were at 82 for 2 when the little maestro came to the crease and showed his intention straightway by attacking all the frontline bowlers especially the specialist spinner Brad Hogg.
Two wickets just in the post lunch session by both Brett Lee taking Sehwag (63) and Hogg who sent Sourav Ganguly (7) back to the pavilion brought the Aussies back to the game. Nevertheless it is the Sachin’s shining that dominated the entire day and entertained the whole crowd with 10 splendid boundaries and three lofty sixes.
Further Laxman’s 51 in a 126-run stand with Tendulkar added perfect recipe to the first day of Adelaide. Lee was the man to take Laxman’s wicket when the batsman pointed a ball to the wicket keeper Gilchrist, who had already dropped Laxman once when he was on 40.
This is an excellent chance for India to level the series while trailing 2-1.
The teams:
India: Anil Kumble (capt), MS Dhoni (wk), Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, RP Singh, Ishant Sharma.
Australia: Ricky Ponting (capt), Adam Gilchrist (wk), Matthew Hayden, Phil Jaques, Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey, Andrew Symonds, Brett Lee, Brad Hogg, Mitchell Johnson, Stuart Clark.
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