First test,Eye opener

We want follow-on, chanted the Swami Army from the stands behind the cover boundary. Unfortunately for them,India were already in their second innings and 81 for six chasing 292. A Test match that had swung this way and that through its first three days had stopped fluctuating on the fourth. Australia had seized the moment and clung on with a vice-like grip.

At the start of the day,Australia were leading by 230 with two wickets in hand. The match was perhaps tilting the home sides way,but not by much. A quick tail mop-up would leave the Indians an eminently chaseable target.

Australia had only added 18 to their total when Hussey,who held the greatest threat of extending their lead to dangerous proportions,was caught behind off a corker from Zaheer Khan. Having finished celebrating that wicket,the Indian openers probably switched into visualisation mode for the chase.

But they would have to wait a while to strap on their pads,as James Pattinson who looked more technically accomplished than some of Australias top order and Ben Hilfenhaus put on 43 for the last wicket. They were helped by some shoddy fielding as well. With Australias lead at 254,Zaheer dropped Pattinson after he had puffed in from fine leg to just about get his hands under a miscued hook off Umesh.

After the ball popped out of Zaheers hands,India had to watch as their target swelled to nearly 300. Later,MS Dhoni said that his side hadnt been deflated by the last-wicket stand,but somewhere in their collective psyche,doubts must have cropped up. Since last years Boxing Day Test at Durban which they won,India had reached 300 just three times in 19 Test innings away from home.

All too predictable

This time,they needed 292,and didnt even get close. Both openers fell in predictable fashion. Virender Sehwag slashed hard but straight to gully; Gautam Gambhir,feet nowhere,poked indecisively at a ball angled across him and edged into the slips.

Ben Hilfenhaus and Peter Siddle had taken the first two wickets. It was only appropriate that James Pattinson took the third,for the three were well and truly hunting in a pack. All of them attacked the corridor,derived assistance from the wicket,and tested the halfway length only when they looked for the effort ball that would jump towards the batsmans ears. Pattinson eventually got Man of the Match for his match haul of six wickets and lower-order contributions in both innings,but any of the seamers could have bagged the award.

Pattinson sent back Rahul Dravid with a full ball slanted in from wide of the crease,with a little bit of inward movement accentuating the angle. It was a delivery that Dravid would normally keep out. But an unusually wide gap had formed between bat and pad,and the ball roared through to bowl him for the second time in the match and third counting his first innings dismissal of a no-ball.

VVS Laxman was next to go. Just like they did in the first innings,the pace trio played on his patience,offering him no width,nothing on his pads,and nothing to drive. He took 20 deliveries to get off the mark in the first innings,before a Siddle outswinger consumed him. Here,he scored 1 off his first 13 balls and flicked his 14 th uppishly,straight to Ed Cowan at square leg.

Technical issues

Virat Kohli lasted just one ball,LBW to one from Hilfenhaus that came back a fraction. In two innings,the Australians had already discovered two technical issues in his game the hard,thrusting hands that make him vulnerable to balls that leave him outside off stump and the front-and-across initial movement that forces him to play around his front pad.

When Dhoni joined Tendulkar at the crease,occupants of the press box idly wondered if the duo would stage a rerun of the Tendulkar-Nayan Mongia partnership against Pakistan in 1999. Like Mongia,Dhoni was the wicketkeeper. Tendulkar certainly looked in form,driving beautifully through the V,and the circumstances were pretty similar to that epic,near-miss chase at Chepauk.

But Tendulkar went soon after tea,and the book of fairytales slammed shut. Dhoni and the lower order resisted for a while,with Ravichandran Ashwin batting defiantly for 30,Zaheer and Umesh Yadav chancing their arm briefly and Ishant demonstrating his willingness to get behind the line and defend to stay not out.