AUS vs IND, 1st Test, Day 1

AUS vs IND, 1st Test, Day 1

 

India and Australia have resumed play after tea, with the hosts enjoying commanding position. 

 

Tea: Australia 170 for 3 in 51 overs

India were earlier able to finally make a breakthrough when Ponting became their third victim.


48.3: Ponting c Laxman b Yadav (62) Caught at slips! A deserved wicket for Umesh Yadav, his third in the match! He hurled down a back of a length delivery outside off and it shaped a tad away after landing. Ponting is caught inside the crease as has a tentative poke inside the line. The ball comes off the outside edge and Laxman at third slip makes no mistake.

Weather gods had earlier given way to some audacious stroke play from Ponting. He had earlier carted India's Zaheer Khan for a spectacular four. A pull shot with a Ricky Ponting trademark. Meanwhile, my friend just asks - Who said he was out of form?

Good news. Conditions better now and play will start shortly.

Rain stops play and it's LUNCH
Australia are 68 for two
Over 15.1: Another one for Yadav and Marsh departs this time- for a duck. Easy catch for Virat Kohli. Spectacular comeback by the Indians after an ordinary first hour. Ricky Ponting in the middle.

Over 13.1: Umesh Yadav strikes right after the rain break - simple catch for MS Dhoni behind the stumps. David Warner goes. That break worked like magic for the Indians.

Rain stops play
Just a passing shower, it seems. The players are already back on the ground, waiting for play to resume.

LIVE: As it happened...
Over 4: Ian Chappell believes that Aussie grounds are bigger than what it is in England and the likes of Ishant will be tested. Australia are 15/0  after the end of over four at the MCG.

Over 3: Big appeal from Zaheer Khan turned down. Commentators feel good decision to start with. Zaheer goes back on the balling mark. India's request turned down.  David Warner gets his fisrt boundary. End of an eventful over. Zaheer poses some questions, but not that serious. Warner survives.

Ishant Sharma has posed one or two questions but alas! India go without luck after the second over.
It's a good crowd at the MCG and it is a priviledge for Himanshu and Rajarshi to take you through the LIVE action. Billl Lawry on air ...with Ed Cowan and David Warner with the bat. Welcome folks with Zaheer Khan with the first over.
Three slips, a squarish gully and a point in place.
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The magnitude of this series is monumental. The rivalry is riveting as it goes deep into the roots from Bradman XI's 4-0 victory over Amarnath's team post-independence, to the latest 2-0 solicitation of Dhoni's army versus Ponting's soldiers in 2009 in India.
Lunch: Yadav makes early breakthrough
An impressive start from India's attack reduced Australia to 68 for two at lunch on the first day of the Boxing Day Test at the MCG.

Umesh Yadav took two for 25, dismissing David Warner (37) and Shaun Marsh for a duck, as the tourists began brightly.

India's bowlers were seen as the team's weakness heading into the tour, but 24-year-old Yadav proved anything but with two wickets in the space of seven balls.

The breakthrough came after a brief rain delay in the middle of the morning session and handed the tourists the early ascendancy.

Opener Ed Cowan made a cautious start to his debut as he reached the break unbeaten on 14, while Ricky Ponting was on 15 not out.

Lunch was taken a ball earlier than scheduled when the third and heaviest shower of the session swept across the ground five deliveries into Zaheer Khan's ninth over.

Zaheer and Ishant Sharma could consider themselves unlucky not to be rewarded for their efforts as they consistently troubled Warner and Cowan in particular.

Zaheer was the most threatening of the bowlers in the first half of the morning session with his lovely late swing missing Warner's outside edge on numerous occasions.

But despite a few near-misses, Warner was more prepared to take on the opening bowlers than the circumspect Cowan.

Warner broke the shackles with a cracking off drive for four off Zaheer at the start of the seventh over.

Cowan was more than happy to bide his time and was only on two off his first 27 balls.

It took until the 12th over of the day for him to play the first genuinely attacking stroke of his 61-ball innings, a glorious off drive for four off Yadav.

Incredibly, that boundary enabled Cowan to notch the highest score by an Australian opener on debut since Matthew Hayden hit 15 in 1994.

And it turned out to be the most expensive over of the morning, yielding 16 runs, as

Warner also hit a boundary and a magnificent six over square leg when Yadav decided to bounce him.

But Yadav responded with the very first ball after a brief rain disruption when he tempted Warner into a hook shot with another short delivery.

Warner only managed to glove the ball and lob it up to wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni for an easy catch behind the stumps.

Yadav's tail was up and the very next ball, Shaun Marsh survived an extremely confident lbw shout from the paceman.

The young paceman did not have to wait long before he got his man, though, and in his next over Marsh miscued an off drive and was caught by Virat Kohli just behind point for a duck.

That brought the under-fire Ponting to the crease and two balls into his knock a short Yadav delivery hit the former Australia captain in the neck and fell towards the ground before Ponting kicked the ball away from the stumps.

Yadav continued to test the out-of-form Ponting, who slipped over after he successfully dug out a yorker on the last ball of the over.

But Ponting brushed off the early nerves and produced a trademark pull shot for four from a poor Zaheer bouncer.
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Himanshu Shekhar and Rajarshi Gupta will take you through with all the action from the venue were the Test match first began way back in the year1877. The MCG is Australia's largest and ranks among the top ten in sheer size to accomodate the number of cricket loving fans. The 'G, as it is colloquially called, has also witnessed the 1956 Olympics and was the venue were Imran Khan hoisted the prized  World Cup in 1992.
A lot has been said about India-Pakistan as the biggest rivalry, but that more often than not, enhances the cultural shock and the historical background concentrated in it. When it's a Border-Gavaskar series, it's a battle of mettle, an unsettling roller-coaster which dangerously poked around a certain off-field issues to Ganguly's nervy reply of late arrival to the toss against Waugh, patching up layers of anger deep into the Aussie's skin.
It is like the end of an era this time for three of the Indian stalwarts Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman who would tour Oz probably for the last time together, that the world awaits to see them tee off with a fitting finale. Australia come off with an action-packed double drawn series against the Proteas and Kiwis.
The result would not portray the tainted picture, but let's face it, Australia after a monastic reign over the cricketing world for more than a decade are facing a huge turmoil since the departure of the legendary likes of Hayden, Warne and Mcgrath. With Ponting and Hussey in a do-or-die situation, the rookies under Clarke's patient captaincy would need to steel themselves. India last completed a practice match stereotyped series win against a depleted West Indies side. Playing with the correct blend of youth and experience this time, they shall hope to brim with much needed gutso and confidence Down Under.
Australia: David Warner, Ed Cowan, Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey, Ricky Ponting, Shaun Marsh, Ben Hilfenhaus, James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Peter Siddle, Daniel Christian, Brad Haddin

India: Ajinkya Rahane, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Abhimanyu Mithun, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, Zaheer Khan, MS Dhoni, Wriddhiman Saha