da 888： The second day of the first Test between India and Australia began ina rush of glory for India’s spinners
da imperador bet： Anand Vasu28-Feb-2001The second day of the first Test between India and Australia began ina rush of glory for India’s spinners. As rushes go, this one lastedpretty long. Resuming on 49/1 off 16 overs Australia were soon in allmanner of strife at 99/5 off 30.2 overs. Not to worry, Steve Waughwill play a captain’s knock and save Australia, right? Not really. Hewas one of those five wickets. With the captain dismissed the onusfell fairly and squarely on the broad and young shoulders of AdamGilchrist.Responding to the call of the Baggy Green Cap, the Australian vicecaptain played an innings that people in India will remember for sometime to come. In the presence of Matthew Hayden (119), who appliedhimself with determination, Gilchrist (122) cut loose. Incidentally,Gilchrist’s 100 off 84 balls is the fastest century by any batsman ina Test against India, the previous best being 85 balls by Clive Lloydof West Indies at Bangalore in 1974-75. Propelled by the two southpawsAustralia chalked up 349, a lead of 173. In the 30 overs that Indiahad to see off, they lost both openers Shiv Sunder Das and SadagoppanRamesh while managing 58 runs.Earlier in the day it was Punjab offspinner Harbhajan Singh who hadthe Australians dancing to his tune. In the ninth over of the day, thePunjab offspinner struck a double blow that pegged the confidentAussies back. After having Langer (19, 53b, 2X4) edging to RahulDravid at first slip off the first ball of the over, Harbhajan sentback Mark Waugh with the very next ball. Giving the ball good loopHarbhajan got the ball to drift in to the right hander from outsidethe off and turn sharply off the wicket as well. Going back, MarkWaugh turned the ball around the corner only to see Ganguly at legslip snap up a sharp catch. So captain courageous arrived at thecrease on a hat-trick.This set the stage well for a classic Steve Waugh rescue act. Thatwell might have happened if Waugh had not closed the bat early on aRahul Sanghvi delivery that was well flighted, dipped and turned ashade off the wicket. As the ball struck the pad and went to RahulDravid at slip, umpire David Shepherd lifted his finger. Steve Waughwas less than happy with the decision but there wasn’t much anyonecould do about it.Enter Gilchrist. Cutting the ball with great power when there waswidth on the off side, the Australian stumper vexed the Indianbowlers. Anything on the stumps was half swept, half heaved over theon side to the fence. When the spinner gave the ball a bit of air inthe hope of coaxing a mistake, Gilchrist simply got under the ball andsent it sailing over the ropes for six, not once, not twice, but fourtimes. With Gilchrist on song at one end, Hayden too found his voice.Although nowhere near as aggressive, Hayden wasted no time when theopportunity to score runs presented itself.When he was finally caught behind off the bowling of Javagal Srinath,Hayden (119, 283 mins, 172 balls, 18 fours and 1 six) had already laidthe base for a more than respectable total. Gilchrist too fell shortlyafter. His efforts yielded 122 runs off just 112 balls and included 15hits to the fence apart from the four shots that cleared the ropeswith ease. The pair’s 197-run association surpassed the earlier recordfor the sixth wicket for Australia against India. Tom Veivers andBarry Jarman held the record till today, putting on 151 at Mumbai in1964.To add insult to injury Shane Warne smacked the ball around the parkfor a 37-ball 39 (2 fours, 3 sixes) before being caught brilliantly inthe deep by Tendulkar off the bowling off Sanghvi.In their second essay India made a shaky start and were still behindby 115 runs, losing reticent opener Das (7 off 50 balls) and his moreflamboyant partner Ramesh (44, 84 balls, 7 fours). Ramesh, who reachedthe milestone of 1,000 runs in his 13th Test, looked good for his 44but was eventually dismissed by Gillespie who had the southpaw caught atsecond slip trying to play away from the body. Nightwatchman NayanMongia defended well before being struck on the gloves by Gillespie.The India stumper went off the field soon after and Tendulkar came outto the middle and safely negotiated the last five balls of the day.
