Mighty Australian’s crushed

Ricky Ponting stated before the start of the series that the Aussies were going to play a brand of cricket - “aggressive and new age”. Now at the halfway mark with the series standing at 1 - 0 to India, Ponting might have to eat his words.

India started strongly with both Virender Sehwag and Gautam Ghambir providing good starts, twice, and then the midddle order did the rest.

Sachin Tendulkar became the highest run scorer in Test cricket and Sourav Ganguly crossed the 7000 runs mark scoring a century along the way.

Mahendra Dhoni’s contribution was invaluable, his two half centuries helped put the game out of the Aussies reach and earned him man-of- the-match.

When it was India’s turn to bowl a new hero they found in debutant Amit Mishra. He became the sixth Indian to take five wickets on debut.

The Australian batting failed, twice, in a beauty of a track. The pressure of 469 runs in the 1st innings was mammoth. The Indian bolwers did their job and kept a tight leash throughout. The shot selection of some of the Aussie batsmen left a lot to be desired.

The tables have turned. It’s Australia’s turn to come up with the answer which eluded them in this match and get the formula right for the next two Tests.