4th Test: Ind v. Aus: Day 3: India lead by 86 runs depsite Katich century!

The tactics played by Dhoni and the Indian team paid off well at the end, though Gavaskar and Shastri criticised them earlier.

I would agree with Shasthi in saying that ICC should change the rules in terms of field set on the off side as it is in leg side.

The third day which was thought to be a Australian day, turned out to be India's day. Resuming the day from 189 for 2 with Katich on 92 and Hussey on 45, both of them played very slowly and consumed lot of balls to score runs.

Australia, in a do or die position to equal the series should have taken the initiative early in the day to dominate the little bit of negative bowling. I won't call it completely negative becasue both Zaheer Khan and Ishanth Sharma were bowling on the off stump with 8 men covering the field. The batsmen couldn't play against it on the leg side because all the balls were bowled on the off stump.

Dravid dropped a lolly pop catch--a typical slip catch in the 2nd slip for Hussey. One of the turning points in the match. It was the third over of the day and Ishanth invited Hussey forward for a drive, which took the edge and flew to 2nd slip.

A steer to third man boundary helped Katich to reach his first hundred of the series. He played 69 balls in the day to add another 10 runs to his overnight score. He was trapped leg before by Zaheer

At lunch, Aussies were 231 for 3, added just 42 runs in the 24 overs. Ishanth picked Micheal Clarke through a beauty, a typical fast bowler dismissal. The ball pitchd on the middle and off, swung away. The ball took the outside edge and went straight to Dhoni.

The real turning point came in the form of another run out by Vijay. He was standing in silly point. Hussey played between covers and point. He started to run, but Vijay stopped the ball extending his right hand and saw Hussey was running. He threw the ball to Dhoni immediatley who pushed it to the stumps. The television replays showed that Hussey was out of the crease and given out. Outstanding fielding and prompt action from Vijay and Dhoni. He was out for 90 off 229 balls with 8 fours.

Watson played forward of a flight delivery from Harbhajan, but the ball went back to stumps. Watson turned back to stop it, but it was too late and the ball removed the off stump bail.

Three quick wickets put India back in the game especially with low scoring rate. From 231 for 3 at lunch, they lost 3 wickts in the span of 30 runs.

At tea, Australia were 275 for 6 in 102 overs scoring just 86 runs in 53 overs.

Mishra picked his first wicket by bowling on the leg stump and turning it. Hadding played forward with the pad. The ball turned well, missed the pad, but clipped the bat and went to Dravid in the slip. Hadding out for 28 and Aussies were 313 for 7.

Ishanth trapped Krejza leg before and then the last two wickets were when the batsmen tried to slog and add runs to the board. White hit it over long on and was caught by Sehwag for 46. Johnson was caught by Zaheer at long on.

India had to play one over to finish the day and Sehwag negotiated it with Johnson without scoring runs. India will start fresh with 86 runs lead.

Scoreboard at the end of Day 3:

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) 0 for no loss in 1 overs (Sehwag 0 batting, Vijay 0 batting, Extras-0, Johnson 1-1-0-0)

Zaheer Sledges Oz! Ricky Responds!

Zaheer was declared man of the match for the first test match played in Bengaluru aka Bangalore. Zaheer picked 5 wickets in the first innings which helped India to restrict Australia for 430. He dismissed Hayden in the first over of the series for a duck and dismissed Michael Clarke in the last over of the first day.

He was involved in a crucial 80-run partnership with Harbhajan and then another 31-run partnership with skipper Kumble for the 9th wicket. Most important thing was he played out 121 balls which took 189 minutes. This irritated Oz and delayed the 2nd innings batting of Aussies. This also reduced the lead to 70 runs as against the expected lead of close to 200.

In his partnership with Harbhajan, they both played 22 overs and 12.3 overs with Kumble. He scored 57 not out with 7 fours.

During the 2nd innings, he provided the break through by sending Hayden back again.

He was declared man of the match though there were two centurions--Ponting and Hussey. During the interview, he said:

"... I have not seen any Australian team play such a defensive cricket. This is good for us."

Ricky reponded saying, "I do not know what he meant. We played aggressive cricket. We provided challenging total. We played positive cricket. You have to ask him what he meant."

When asked Zaheer, he said, "They score 4 runs per over as an average but in this gave they have scored at an average of 2.87. This tells that they have played defensive cricket. They couldn't get us (me and Harbhajan) out."

Well, he has opened up a controversy and we have to wait and see how Aussies are going to respond.