Indians bounce back at Hobart

The partnership between the two came handy as the first seven wickets had fallen for 162 runs. The two got their heads down and attended to the depressing situation with diligence, placing the ball between gaps and flicking and cover driving with elan.

Earlier, the top order had virtually crumbled and the team was in a state of bother when Sachin Tendulkar (36), Virender Sehwag (30), Saurav Ganguly (5) and Aakash Chopra (46) departed in quick succession in the afternoon session to give the hosts a firm control of the game.

Tendulkar looked in good touch during his 69-minute stay at the wicket but he hooked Damien Wright straight into the hands of Martin Love at deep fine leg for a 45-ball 36.

Sehwag also took only 28 balls to move to 30 with five fours when he hung his bat loosely at a delivery from Shaun Tait to be caught by wicketkeeper Wade Seecombe.

Ganguly made only 5 and was out when he played away from his body and was caught at gully off Matt Nicholson, the most impressive of all home bowlers.

However, Aakash Chopra batted with such caution that only 46 runs came from 140 balls in 203 minutes. But he rushed from the non-striker’s end for a non-existent run and was run-out.

Earlier, Deep Dasgupta (21) who resumed with Chopra at the start of the day on 37 for 1, became the first batsman to be out when he was ruled leg before wicket to Simon Tait.

Patel and Kartik shared the crease for the remarkable partnership but were out without any addition to the total after tea.

Patel, who also hit eight fours, was caught in the slip cordon when he flirted with an away delivery off Nicholson and Kartik was run out after facing 55 balls.

Australia’s fast bowling hope Tait took three scalps but went for 72 runs in his 16 overs. Nicholson was the most impressive of the lot, taking four for 25 in 21 overs.

When the hosts came out for their second knock, India struck almost immediately, getting rid of openers Chris Rogers (2) and Michael Hussey (7) through purposeful bowling of Irfan Pathan and Laxmipathy Balaji who added one more important scalp of Martin Love (11) when he had him clean bowled. (PTI)