Rampaging Slater leads Australian riposte

Unlike most Aussie batsmen, Slater used his feet to telling effect and he handled the Indian spinners with ease. Though the Indian spinners briefly threatened to halt the Aussie run-riot, it was too good to last.

Debutant off-spinner Harbhajan Singh made a fine impression getting an early success but Slater treated him the way Sidhu handled Robertson by repeatedly stepping out to loft the ball to the boundary and on a couple of occasions for hugesixes. Nerves got the better of Harbhajan who in his brief stint at the bowling crease suggested that he had the talent to succeed if given the time to establish himself.

Australian captain Taylor’s miserable run continued as he edged behind, trying to cut Kumble and Blewett was beaten by Harbhajan’s fine delivery — his eighth ball in Test cricket — which deceived the batsmen as it drifted away from him to uproot the off-stump even as the batsman was expecting the ball to turn into him.

Harbhajan missed a fairly simple caught and bowled chance offered by Slater when the batsman was on 70.

Mark Waugh after initial hesitancy, showed why he is considered a fine batsman of spin bowling and with debutant Lehmann too batting without any pressure, it was the bowlers who were under pressure.

The absence of strike bowler Javagal Srinath was sorely felt as Harvinder Singh and Ganguly proved easy meat for the Aussie bowlers.

Harvinder failed to get any movement and on a wicket which had nothing much to offerfor the seamers, he erred in length and tried to bang the ball in and received severe punishment in the hands of Slater. With no pressure from the seamers, Australia’s 50 came in just 38 minutes off nine overs, with Slater contributing 42 and Taylor six.

There was a brief interruption of 9 minutes due to light drizzle just before play was to commence after tea but when play resumed, Australian batsmen continued to dominate though India managed to grab two wickets during this session.

There was another interruption due to rain which lasted 20 minutes.

Mark Waugh had a slice of luck when on 37. He played defensively to Raju and the ball went past his pad and touched the stumps but luckily for the batsman, the bails did not fall.

Slater who looked set for his maiden century fell against the run of play. Harvinder who was brought into the attack more in hope than with any conviction induced the batsman to play a casual pull shot to the one which was drifting down the leg side which resulted in thebatsman gloving a catch to wicket-keeper. Slater’s 91 had 15 fours and two sixes and he was largely instrumental in Australia ending the day on a happy note.

Earlier in the morning, India stretched their innings to 424, adding 134 runs for the loss of six wickets.

Tendulkar continued his dominance of the Aussie bowlers with an array of shots that left the bowlers wondering with no clue as to containing the maestro. Just after he had surpassed Sunil Gavaskar’s 172 which was the highest score by an Indian at this venue, scored against England, way back in 1981-82, Tendulkar fell to the persistent Adam Dale. He missed completely as he played across and was bowled for 177 which had 29 fours and three sixes.

Ganguly failed to prosper today, being trapped in front by Dale, without adding to his overnight score of 17. Kumble came up with an enterprising knock of 39 to help swell the total. For the record, Dale and Warne claimed three wickets each while off-spinner Robertson, recipient of hostile treatment bythe Indian batsmen, found success coming his way at last and ended with two for 58.

The wicket held no terrors for the batsmen but the spinners could dictate terms on the morrow, exploiting the third day’s wicket. Just one ball from Warne spun across viciously from outside the leg stump to beat Tendulkar all ends up but for the rest of the day, there were no alarms for the batsmen from the spinners. India’s hopes seems to solely rest on the success of Kumble tomorrow.