On the 4th day, resuming from scratch, Sehwag and Vijay played the first hour very well. Sehwag as usual utilized the new ball and the pace to hit few fours. In addition to missing the nice chance to score a hundred, he also got out caught by Haddin on the leg side. The ball pitched on the leg stump, he tried to glance it, got outside edge. He was out for 92 off 107 balls with 10 fours and a huge six.
The first man to go was Vijay, leg before to Watson. He missed a good opportunity to score his mainden half century by 9 runs. Dravid's poor form continued in the 2nd innings of this test as well. He was caught behind of Watson, another break through by Watson. He scored just 3. Sehwag and Tendulkar added 10 before Sehwag was caught behind of Lee, his only wicket in the innings. India were struggling at 142 for 3.
Laxman and Tendulkar played very slowly adding 21 runs in 12 overs. The 4.11 runs per over rate during the first wicket partnership (116 in 28.2 overs) was brought down 3.46, but it was important that they don't lose wickets.
But against the plan, Laxman got out by a beauty from Krejza. The ball pitched on outside the line of off stump and turned well. Laxman tried defend it forward but the ball went in the gap between pad and bat and uprooted the leg stump. Both Krejza and Laxman were surprised. India were 163 for 4 and needed big partnership from Dhoni and Tendulkar. With the overall lead of 249 runs, one more wicket would put India on trouble.
When Tendulkar was batting, Haddin threw his gloves at the ball to send the ball to leg slip. Tendulkar checked it with umpire to see whether it is allowed. Both the umpires discussed and awarded 5 penalty runs. Few minutes later, Krejza pluged the skin of the ball, which is not allowed as per ICC rules. The ball should be given to umpires and they will do it. Otherwise, the involved player will be accused of ball-tampering. Umpires talked to Ponting and gave the feedback and warned them.
Unexpected favor happened for Australia and luck favored them. In the last over before tea, Tendulkar pushed the ball to covers and ran for a single. By the time he realized that Dhoni did not come for the run he was in mid of the wicket. It was easy for White to throw the ball to Haddin who remove the bails. Big blow for India with score on 166 for 6. The overall lead was 252 and another 50 runs for with 4 wickets would give a great chance to Australia to equal the series.
In tea time, the umpires warned Ponting about the lower over rate. Aussies were 10 overs behind and had to bowl 25 overs in an hour and fifteen minutes. If they don't bowl, Ponting could face a suspenion for a test match. So, he decided to bowl the part-time bowlers Hussey and Clarke in addition to Krejza and White.
India went to tea with more pressure and Australia went with lot of condience. Australia needed the four tail-enders wickets as quickly as possible to start chasing and equal the series. But the poor selfish decision by Ponting gave a chance to Indian team.
Harbhajan Singh once again provided the life for India. He scored another wonderful half century, his fourth against Australia. Dhoni reached his 50 which was crucial to the Indian total. He played sensibly picking singles and twos sweeping the part time bowlers. One over of White added 13 runs to India which actually gave confidence to Dhoni and Harbhajan. They added 108 runs 27.2 overs.
Dhoni trying to sweep got the edge and it was a good catch by Hussey. The score was 274 for 7. Harbhajan followed him after a 12-run partnership with Zaheer. He was bowled by Watson through a straight quicker delivery which hit the off stump.
Zaheer and Mishra were bowled by Krejza for one and zero respectively. India were bowled out for 295 and with 86 runs lead, Aussies were set a target of 382 runs in 92 overs. With two more overs left in the day, Aussies scored 13 runs in the first over bowled by Zaheer. Hayden scored a boundary and Katich scored two fours. Ishanth Sharma bowled 3 balls in the 2nd over and umpired checked the light meter. They asked the batsman whether they want to play or go and they wanted to go.
On the last day, Aussies require 369 runs in 90.3 overs with all the 10 wickets in hand. One mistake by Ponting, put Aussies behind and India ahead. Both the teams have good chance of winning. Aussies would chase the total because it does not matter whether they lose 1-0 or 2-0. But if they win, they will equal the series. It is still a good batting wicket, but playing on the fifth day and scoring at 4 runs per over will always be difficult. The Indian has a very good bowling attack--both pace and spin.
Scoreboard at the end of Day 4:
Toss: India
India 1st Innings 441 all out in 124.5 overs (Sehwag 66, Vijay 33, Dravid 0, Tendulkar 109, Laxman 64, Ganguly 85, Dhoni 56, Harbhajan Singh 18 not out, Zaheer 1, Mishra 0, Ishanth Sharma 0, Extras--9 (b 4, lb 2, w 1, nb 2), Lee 16-2-62-0, Johnson 32-11-84-1, Watson 20-5-42-1, Krezja 43.5-1-215-8, White 10-1-24-0, Katich 3-0-8-0)
Fall of Wickets: 1-98 (Vijay, 17.5 ov), 2-99 (Dravid, 18.4 ov), 3-116 (Sehwag, 22.3 ov), 4-262 (Laxman, 68.4 ov), 5-303 (Tendulkar, 82.5 ov), 6-422 (Dhoni, 116.4 ov), 7-423 (Ganguly, 116.6 ov), 8-437 (Khan, 122.3 ov), 9-437 (Mishra, 122.4 ov), 10-441 (Sharma, 124.5 ov)
Australia 1st Innings 355 all out in 134.3 overs (Hayden 16, Katich 102, Ponting 24, Hussey 90, MJ Clarke 8, Watson 2,Haddin 28, White 46, Krejza 5, Johnson 5, Lee 1 not out, Extras--28 (b 12, lb 3, w 2, nb 6, pen 5), Zaheer 28-8-68-1, Harbhajan Singh 37-7-94-3, Ishanth Sharma 26-8-64-2, A Mishra 23.3-5-58-2, V Sehwag 18-2-38-0, Tendulkar 2-0-13-0)
Fall of Wickets: 1-32 (Hayden, 6.5 ov), 2-74 (Ponting, 17.1 ov), 3-224 (Katich, 70.6 ov), 4-250 (Clarke, 84.4 ov), 5-260 (Hussey, 89.5 ov), 6-261 (Watson, 91.4 ov), 7-313 (Haddin, 115.5 ov), 8-328 (Krejza, 126.1 ov), 9-347 (White, 133.2 ov), 10-355 (Johnson, 134.3 ov)
India 2nd Innings (lead by 86 runs) 295 all out in 82.4 overs (Sehwag 92, Vijay 41, Dravid 3, Tendulkar 12, Laxman 4, Ganguly 0, Dhoni 55, Harbhajan Singh 52, Zahher 6, Mishra 7, Ishanth Sharma 1, Extras--22, Johnson 14-4-22-0, Lee 10-3-27-1, Krejza 31-3-143-4, Watson 15.4-2-42-4, White 2-0-15-0, Hussey 4-2-3-0, Clarke 6-1-29-0)
Fall of Wickets: 1-116 (Vijay, 28.2 ov), 2-132 (Dravid, 32.5 ov), 3-142 (Sehwag, 35.1 ov), 4-163 (Laxman, 47.1 ov), 5-163 (Ganguly, 47.2 ov), 6-166 (Tendulkar, 49.5 ov), 7-274 (Dhoni, 77.1 ov), 8-286 (Khan, 79.2 ov), 9-288 (Harbhajan Singh, 80.1 ov), 10-295 (Mishra, 82.4 ov)
Australia 2nd Innings (382 runs in 92 overs) 13 for no loss in 1.3 overs (Hayden 5 batting, Katich 8 batting, Extras--0, Zaheer 1-0-13-0, IshanthSharma 0.3-0-0-0)
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