After the Australians declared at 505 for eight on the second day of the tour game,then reduced the Board Presidents XI to 143 for six,a few doubts about Indias fringe players were dispelled. The pitch that seemed dead for one-and-a-half days,with three visiting batsmen helping themselves to centuries,came alive in the afternoon,as the Aussie quicks ran through the batting. In exposing the hosts bench,Ricky Ponting & Co also showed they have come prepared to take on the Indians in the Test series. BP XIs first fifty-run partnership came for the seventh wicket between Piyush Chawla and Sreesanth the former looking to make amends for his woeful bowling with the bat,scoring an unbeaten 64. The chase began with Gautam Gambhir flicking one nicely off his legs to raise hopes of a resounding reply. But his stay was over in 10 minutes,as a Ben Hilfenhaus delivery jumped awkwardly and got his gloves on its way to wicket-keeper Tim Paine. The other Test batsman in the side,Cheteshwar Pujara,got a taste of what to expect at the highest level. Pujara did tackle the rising ball well but was cleaned up by an over-pitched Mitchell Johnson delivery from round the stumps. Peter George picked up Shikhar Dhawans wicket with his first delivery on tour and the remaining recognised BP batsmen walked in and out without really disturbing the tally. The abysmal batting was matched only by the bowling the exceptions to the norm in both cases were in the morning and the evening. Ponting and his deputy Michael Clarke departed in the fourth over of the day within a space of five deliveries as Pragyan Ojha converted his stock bowling options into wicket-taking ones. Muted celebrations The next procession came when the Aussies were on the brink of crossing 500 Sreesanth and part-time spinner Dhawan skimmed through the tail but a deluge of runs in between meant there were muted celebrations. Except,of course,when Sreesanth jumped,folded his hands and followed it up with a loud thank you after getting his first wicket. He dismissed Paine,caught behind,but his marginal improvement of getting the ball more in the line of wickets was hardly encouraging. Jaidev Unadkat and Umesh Yadav never looked threatening,while Chawla struggled to find his length and loop. It was Ojha again who exposed the gaps in the batsmens defence and closed the spaces to score. Relief to the BP team came from the visitors as Marcus North retired after scoring 124 with 19 boundaries and two sixes and added 167 runs stand with Paine. North and Paine came to the wicket at about the same time,but the left-hander was more prolific,racing away to his century in 110 balls,while Paine was content in occupying the crease.
