Johnson leads clinical Australia to victory

It took Australia only 48 minutes on the fourth day to wrap up New Zealand's final four wickets and claim a 149-run win in the first Test at the Gabba. Mitchell Johnson finished with his first five-wicket haul in Tests and Stuart Clark ended up with four victims as New Zealand's collapsible tail lived up to its reputation and they were bundled out for 177.

The match finished so early - it was not yet 11am in Brisbane - that it gave the satisfied local spectators plenty of time to head off for a Sunday brunch. They had filed into the stadium knowing that a long day was improbable but the swiftness of the finish was still rather startling.

New Zealand began the day needing 184 runs for victory with six wickets down but the already unlikely scenario became completely unfeasible when they lost Daniel Vettori and Ross Taylor to Johnson for the addition of 18 runs. Vettori fell in almost identical fashion to the first innings when he drove to point and Andrew Symonds jumped to take a one-handed catch above his head.

Taylor followed in Johnson's next over when he drove at a ball that moved across him and edged behind to Brad Haddin for 75. When Clark added Iain O'Brien, who lobbed a simple chance to Michael Clarke at point, the score was 9 for 164 and the only remaining points of interest were whether Johnson would collect his fifth and Chris Martin would make his 24th Test duck.

The answers were yes and no. Martin managed to squeeze a single off Clark - and then watched as Tim Southee pounded a pair of sixes straight down the ground - but his bat returned to near hologram status when he was bowled from the first straight ball he received from Johnson. The stumps rattled, Australia celebrated and it left Johnson with 5 for 39, match figures of 9 for 69, and the Man-of-the-Match award.

He was perhaps fortunate to receive the honour ahead of Simon Katich, whose unbeaten 131 was a matchwinning effort on a pitch where only two other batsmen posted half-centuries. Johnson was Australia's leading wicket-taker on the tour of India but he was still pleased to return to more familiar and friendly conditions after the lifeless surfaces he had encountered recently.

"It is good to get back on a bouncy fast track," Johnson said after the match. "I felt pretty good over in India. I just try and hit the deck as hard as I can and that's what I did out here, so I'm feeling pretty good about my bowling at the moment."

The challenge for the fast bowlers will be greater on a flatter pitch at the Adelaide Oval, where the final match of the two-Test series begins on Friday. Australia will likely squeeze the offspinner Jason Krejza into the side while New Zealand have serious questions over their batting and could bolster the line-up by including Peter Fulton.

Vettori made the difference

Bangladesh came close to clinching their first Test victory against New Zealand but, despite being in control for the majority of the match, the hosts slipped to defeat by three wickets in Chittagong. Mohammad Ashraful, the Bangladesh captain, said that his team played "really well" but added that New Zealand's ability to avoid their first-innings mistakes made the difference during their chase of 317.

"We had a pretty good chance of winning and, on an individual level, I thought Shakib Al Hasan bowled and batted wonderfully well, Mushfiqur Rahim made runs in both innings and Tamim Iqbal got starts in both innings," Ashraful said. "The difference between the two sides was Daniel Vettori who was brilliant with the bat and ball. Also they [New Zealand] planned their second innings really well and did not repeat the mistakes they did in the first innings."

Unlike his counterpart Vettori, who took nine wickets and scored two vital half-centuries, Ashraful had a poor match, scoring 2 and 0, and fell to Vettori in both innings. "I have played match-winning knocks in most of Bangladesh's big wins in one-day cricket but it hasn't happened for me in Tests yet. I tried my best but wasn't successful," Ashraful said. "There is another Test in this series and I will continue to try and hopefully it will happen in the future.

New Zealand began the day needing 172 to win with eight wickets in hand. At one stage they needed 101 with only five wickets remaining but Vettori steered his team home with a calm 76. Jamie Siddons, the Bangladesh coach, felt that the visitors had "learned their lessons pretty well" after being dismissed for 171 in the first innings.

"They [New Zealand] planned well, didn't play any unnecessary shots and made us [work] for every wicket," Siddons said. "They batted with discipline and didn't give us any chances. Hopefully our guys can learn a bit from that, especially our top-order.

"Having outbatted them and bowled so well in the first innings makes me happy. Everything's looking good with young guys like Mehrab [Hossain jr] and Shakib, and we'll get Ashraful and Zunaed (Siddique) to play well. I need all the guys to play well in the one game but at the moment we are a little inconsistent."

Siddons praised left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak's performance in the second innings. Razzak bowled 50 overs and took 3 for 93. "He tied up an end beautifully for us and bowled at two an over," Siddons said. "He stretched the game out which you have to do when you have 300 on the board. He made them work very hard for their runs. He got a couple of wickets but we didn't quite get enough from the other end."

Siddons hoped that his team would be able to catch New Zealand "on the hop" in Dhaka where the pitch "stays low and plays tricks". The second Test begins on October 25 at the Shere-e-Bangla Stadium.

Harbhajan apologises for Ravana act

Under attack for taking part in a TV reality show dressed as mythological character Ravan, cricketer Harbhajan Singh apologised and vowed “never to do anything that could hurt religious sentiments of any community”.

"I apologise if my actions have hurt anybody. It was not my intention to hurt sentiments of anyone which includes members of my own community," the off-spinner told reporters in Chandigarh.

"It will be my sincere endeavour not to repeat such things in future," said Singh, currently playing in the first Test match against Australia at Mohali.

Shakib helps stretch lead to 258

Shakib Al Hasan once again stepped up for his team, this time with the bat, as Bangladesh seized the advantage on the third day of the first Test against New Zealand in Chittagong. The day started with Shakib bagging the best innings haul by a Bangladesh bowler to restrict New Zealand to 171, before his first Test half-century helped his team to 184 for 8, a formidable lead of 258.

Overnight on 155 for 9, Daniel Vettori started with the intention to reduce the deficit, but Shakib bowled Iain O'Brien through his legs to hand his team a 74-run first-innings lead. Bangladesh then began their second innings far more positively than their first. They looked to score runs and kept their run-rate above three for most of the morning. It was in direct contrast to the first innings, where the run-rate hovered around one for 40-odd overs.

After the early loss of Junaid Siddique to Kyle Mills for 6, some excellent spin bowling by Daniel Vettori and Jeetan Patel choked the runs, which led to a spree of wickets before lunch. Patel had Rajin Saleh caught in front of his stumps by bringing the ball back from well outside the off stump. In the next over, Vettori claimed the prize scalp of Mohammad Ashraful, who got an outside edge to a ball he was trying to dispatch over mid-off and was brilliantly caught at point by Aaron Redmond.

The hosts were reduced to 48 for 4 when Patel took the wicket of first-innings hero Mehrab Hossain jnr just before lunch. After the fall of Tamim Iqbal - the only batsman to reach double figures among the top five - soon after the break, Shakib joined Mushfiqur Rahim at the crease with his team facing the prospect of being scuttled for an embarrassingly low total.

Just as Vettori had done the previous day, Shakib looked composed from the beginning. He hit the bad balls to the boundary and pushed for singles from the good deliveries. He put on a valuable 56 with Mushfiqur and 48 with Naeem Islam, two stands that could prove vital. He was finally caught by Ross Taylor in the slips off Vettori for a well-compiled 71. He hit 12 fours and faced 151 balls.

The hosts ended the day at 184 for 8, a lead of 258. Vettori finished with 4 for 39 and Patel 2 for 52. Before the day began, chasing between 250 and 300 might have seemed beyond the New Zealanders, but the pitch began to lose its venom as the day progressed. The ball stopped turning and didn't bounce as much as it did on the first few days. The cracks didn't open up in line with expectations, and the lack of turn and bounce was why Vettori used fast bowlers Jacob Oram, Kyle Mills and O'Brien in the final session of the day. However, the heat made it difficult for them to bowl long spells, with the temperature hovering around 37º C.

After the day's performance, Bangladesh look favourites for a second Test win, but with the pitch easing out, New Zealand would hope conditions stay the same for their fourth-innings chase.

We are in good position to win from here: Mishra

Leg-spinner Amit Mishra's maiden five-wicket haul on debut put India in a commanding position by the end of the third day's play of the second Test against Australia in Mohali on Sunday.

By close, India had raced to 100 for no loss with an overall lead of 301 runs with Virender Sehwag unbeaten on 53 and Gautam Gambhir batting on 46, after Australia were bowled out for 268 despite a valiant 78 from Shane Watson, his maiden Test fifty.

India chose not to enforce the follow-on despite a 201-run lead, with signs of wear on the Mohali surface becoming all too evident after the spinners' first innings exploits.

Haryana spinner Mishra's 5-71 capped off India's splendid display with the ball on day three, which began with Ishant Sharma nailing overnight batsman Michael Hussey (54) seven overs into the day.

Hussey, who reached a well-compiled half-century — his 10th — was sent back after being troubled frequently by the tall right-arm paceman, with the bowler beating the left-hander often before finding an edge that was easily taken by captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Harbhajan Singh, who went wicketless on the second day, bowled Brad Haddin through his defence for nine before leg-spinner Amit Mishra castled Cameron White with a classical googly for his third wicket in the innings with the Aussies staring at a massive deficit at 174-7.

Tendulkar puts India on track

The lead-up to this Test had been full of distractions - Anil Kumble's injury, the players still fighting like children over who brought forward moral victories from Bangalore, the unseasonal rains in Mohali raising doubts over the match going the distance. Around a quarter past one on the first day more distractions were about to unfold. When Rahul Dravid played Brett Lee onto his stumps, the Test sort of took a back seat and another aside started: Sachin Tendulkar's progress towards Brian Lara's record.

It was a pretty edgy hour and a quarter - so edgy it was surreal - that followed, during which Tendulkar made his way to the record and India lost two more wickets. What followed immediately after was more distraction from Test-match cricket: fire-crackers went off at the PCA Stadium and continued for three minutes. The Australians rushing to congratulate Tendulkar was expected but when it happened it felt unreal coming from a team that plays its cricket hard.

There would be other milestones to follow, too: Tendulkar would go past 12,000 runs and Sourav Ganguly past 7000. But when Tendulkar bats as he did for the next two hours, distractions don't matter. Effortlessly, he brought people back to the actual game and, with Ganguly's help, India into the match.

India had a confident, brisk start on a pitch conducive to one; the bounce was true but not big and there was no sideways movement. The immediate assessment was a total close to 500 would be par for this track. Gautam Gambhir and Dravid looked to put India on the way, but failed to score centuries - crucial for both of them, for different reasons - that appeared there for the taking. This was a pitch on which a batsman, once settled, would kick himself for not reaching three figures.

Gambhir is due a big score. He has done well since forcing his way back to the Test side following his limited-overs success, and has been a good foil to Virender Sehwag at the top. He has scored 427 runs in nine innings on comeback, against tough opposition and in trying conditions, but his best has been 72. That he gets starts points to his form - perhaps the best of his career - but he also leaves the team in a spot of bother by not converting those starts into big innings, as he did today and during the first innings at the PSS in Sri Lanka this summer. In 19 Tests Gambhir only has one century, against Bangladesh. That should be enough to rile and inspire him.

The way he batted in the first session today, it seemed certain Gambhir would end that century drought. For some reason, despite being an excellent rotator of strike in limited-overs cricket, he got bogged down when the field spread and the bowling became accurate. Having eased to 25 from 39 balls, Gambhir slowed down. He went into lunch on 53 from 90 balls and in the next hour or so he faced 50 balls for just 14 runs.

If this was uncharacteristic, so was Dravid's innings. Instead of the patchy starts he's had recently, Dravid began, instinctively speaking, the way he did when at the top of his game. But this was his 11th score between 30 and 100, to go with one century, in his last 15 Tests. When scoring was made difficult, Dravid didn't seem to show the kind of patience one associates with him. Once he went after a delivery wide outside off stump, and missed. In his prime Dravid would have left such deliveries alone for the next half hour; today, he went for the next delivery and failed to connect properly. Three overs later he went to cut another wide one, which was marginally too full, and chopped it onto his stumps.

At this point Australia had taken three wickets, only one of them earned. A fourth followed, amid the frenzy around Tendulkar, but Mitchell Johnson should consider himself lucky to dismiss a quality batsman like VVS Laxman with a leg-side ball that didn't deserve a wicket. Suddenly India had lost three wickets for 13 runs and were in danger of getting bowled out for a below-par total on a good batting track.

Thankfully for India Tendulkar, once he'd acquired Lara's record, batted with fluency. There was nothing circumspect about the way he played after tea. Ganguly took the initiative, but it was Tendulkar who showed Australia how hopelessly unhelpful the pitch was on the first day. There was no discrimination: no bowler nor shot escaped Tendulkar. Ganguly, in distinct patches of quietness and aggressive intent, was solid throughout. The difference in India's approach after tea was clear: the first time Tendulkar faced the new ball he deposited it to the cover boundary.

Australia were reduced to being honest witnesses who relied on the batsmen's mercies and mistakes. And a mistake is what they drew from Tendulkar towards the end of the play. As a result, while they didn't have any say in the way the game progressed, they ended the day pretty much even. India need a big partnership tomorrow morning to take a clear advantage. And tomorrow, there won't be as many distractions from Test cricket.

Clark to miss second Test

Australian pacer Stuart Clark, nursing an elbow injury, lost his race against time and would miss the second Test against India, paving the way for rookie Victorian right-arm fast bowler Peter Siddle's debut here on Friday.

Clark, who sustained the injury in the first Test at Bangalore, did come for the practice session but could still feel the pain, which prompted the team's think-tank to rule him out and blood Siddle in.

"Stuart Clark bowled about 30 balls yesterday and still had the elbow pain, which which he had sustained in the first Test. Consequentially, he is ruled out of this Test. Peter Siddle will make his debut tomorrow," a spokesman of the Australian team told reporters.

"(Physio) Alex Kontouris will continue to monitor Stuart Clark's progress in the coming days," he added.

Clark's stifling accuracy has often straitjacketed the Indian batsmen and his absence would surely ease the pressure on them in the Mohali Test.

Twenty three-year-old Siddle has not played any Test or ODI so far and despite his abundant talent, the youngster might find it a baptism by fire when he bowls at what is arguably the most illustrious middle order batting line-up in contemporary cricket.

Siddle, however, can take heart from the fact that his captain Ricky Ponting has full faith in him. Ponting does not read too much into Siddle's inexperience and believes the rookie would not let him down.

"A lot was made of our experience leading to the first Test but if you look at the performance of those guys there it was very good. So that will be there when you play your first game.," Ponting said.

"Siddle will make his debut and he is a very lively right-arm fast bowler from Victoria. He is a very simple bloke and enjoys bowling. He would enjoy the contest of bowling to the Indian top order. There are some very good players in that top order and I'm sure he is up for the challenge.

"He keeps it pretty simple and is a good exponent of reverse swing as well. Hopefully in this game if he can find the rhythm early and nicely, it would be surplus," Ponting added.

Asked if Clark's absence would be a disadvantage for his side, the Aussie skipper said, "I don't think so. Eleven players would be giving their best for Australia and we know that we are competitive against any side in the world."

Fitness worries and weather take centrestage

After the attritional cricket in Bangalore, where one team dominated much of the contest and the other refused to give in, Mohali - where the pitch isn't as slow as Bangalore - holds the prospect of a more lively encounter. Both teams will, however, need to rework their plans of attack to land the first punch in the series.

The challenge for Australia will be not only to get into a commanding position against India, like they did in Bangalore, but also to close out the match, which they failed to do in the first Test. All of their batsmen, however, with the exceptions of Matthew Hayden and Michael Clarke, made runs: Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey scored maiden Test centuries in India, while Shane Watson and Brad Haddin allayed concerns about an untested lower-middle order. Their fast bowlers, Mitchell Johnson and Watson in particular, showed that inexperience in Indian conditions was not a hurdle that couldn't be cleared.

Although India's batsmen played out the fifth day to secure a draw in Bangalore, the match was really saved on the third evening because of plucky batting from Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan. Their batting, however, isn't a major worry since most batsmen made contributions at some stage of the Test. India's biggest problem is the fitness of their captain Anil Kumble. He had a poor match in Bangalore, where he bowled 51 overs without a wicket, and struggled with a shoulder injury. He bowled during an indoor net session on Thursday but will decide on his participation in the Test only on the morning of the match.

The build-up to the first Test in Bangalore was unusually quiet. By the end of the match, however, tensions were simmering: Zaheer said the Australians were defensive; Ponting brushed aside the comments; and Kumble was writing indignant columns in response to media speculation about his future. Normal service, it seems, has been resumed.

Mohali is like my home ground: Brett Lee

Media back home may have dubbed Sourav Ganguly a 'serial offender' but Australian speedster Brett Lee insists his team-mates have no issues with the abrasive left-hander and said they have not lost their respect for Anil Kumble either despite the India captain's mundane show in the Bangalore Test.

Though no more at the helm of Indian team, Ganguly continues to rub the Australians wrong way and the Aussie media dubbed him a "serial offender", accusing him of indulging into delaying tactics in the Bangalore Test to ensure that India walked away with a morale-boosting draw in the series opener. Lee, however, didn't find anything grossly wrong with Ganguly.

"See, he has got a role to play in the side. I mean he plays his game and obviously has a job to do. We play the game our way. We play a Test match to win it. But of course there was lot of doubt about the light thing (in Bangalore)..." Lee said.

Lee also made it clear that despite Kumble's lacklustre show in the Bangalore Test, the Indian captain remained a great bowler in the eyes of the Australian batsmen.

"Look, he has got 600 Test wickets. We respect him both as a captain and also as a class bowler. He is a great bowler, who has been around for long and we will treat him just the way we would treat a great bowler," Lee said.

Despite leading the side to the draw, Kumble was flayed for his lacklustre bowling and unimaginative captaincy in the Bangalore Test.

The Indian skipper was so hurt by the comments about his lack of fitness and demand for his retirement that he hit back, rather uncharacteristically, at his critics and vowed to make a mark soon in the series.

The Bangalore Test also witnessed occasional sparks fly around and both India pacer Zaheer Khan and Aussie wicket-keeper Brad Haddin were fortunate to escape a reprimand after their on-field brawl there.

Lee, however, believes not a single player from the either side overstepped the line in the first Test. "I think the first Test was definitely played in the right spirit. There was lot of passion and controlled aggression. A few words were exchanged indeed but that was well within the right spirit. You cannot take away the passion, after all we are not playing tiddlywinks," Lee argued.

"We'll play the game fairly and squarely," he added. Oozing charm and welcoming the media with the 'Sat Sri Akaal' greeting, Lee, who donned the Kings XI Punjab colours in the Indian Premier League, said the second Test would be quite a home match for him.

"It's going to be a home game for me. It's a great place and hopefully the wicket will have enough carry, especially because this is traditionally a bouncy track. In Bangalore, it was pretty low and slow. The pitch here looks pretty hard and hopefully there will be enough carry for the young pacers," Lee added.

He said it was disappointing not to win the first Test but felt the team should be happy with their game in Bangalore.

"I mean it was really disappointing not to win there, for we came out to win the match. But in hindsight, we can be happy with the way we played and created chances. Personally, I'm really happy with the way I bowled. I mean you look at the scoreboard and you don't see too many wickets (against my name) but I'm happy that I created chances. I would be pretty confident going into this Test," Lee said.

Almost inevitably, Lee was asked to comment on Sachin Tendulkar overtaking Brian Lara as the highest run scorer in Test in the Mohali match and the Australian said he was looking forward to bowling to the master blaster.

"It would be nice if he does not get those 15 run in this series. But he is a world class player and deserves the honour...I love the challenge of bowling to the Little Master," Lee said.

India's attack best in a long time

Did the speedometer slip the quality checks? Sounds a little bitter but that was the joke during the India-Australia One-Day series. Many eyes turned beady when Rudra Pratap Singh and S Sreesanth clocked the high 140s constantly, the former nudging the pace meter up to 148 kph.

It has had Aaqib Javed, India's nemesis at Sharjah in the '91 finals, gushing over in praise.

"Of all the Indian attacks I have seen in the past, the present lot comes across as supremely skilled. I would go to the extent of saying that this attack is the best they have had in a long time," beams one of Pakistan's greatest exponents of swing bowling.

Not too long ago, he had suggested that India's new-ball bowlers would be better off eating meat. For now, Singh and Sreesanth seem to have altered his views.

What is more, he expects India to prepare seaming tracks for the razor-toothed series against Pakistan. We remind that Pakistan's bowling arsenal too looks piping hot, not to forget that Shoaib Akhtar is likely to be drafted in.

In this regard he says, "Both the teams have strong batting line-ups. From the look of it, India seem to be a better bowling unit this time. Sreesanth can mix high-velocity with movement, while RP and Khan (Zaheer) are different bowlers. Then you have variety in spin bowling in the shape of Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble. This should be one heck of a series."

He holds that it is the system that breeds fast bowlers and India, finally, seems to be embracing a different culture.

"India always had a flat-wicket mindset to minister to their spinners. It was quite evident in the country's domestic cricket. Somewhere down the line it had to change."

Furthermore he says, "Fast bowling is not only about pace. I remember Javagal Srinath was express. When in full rhythm, he too could hit the 145-150 mark. However, like RP Singh and S Sreesanth, he wasn't aggressive mentally."

Fast bowlers, he believes, should be nurtured at an impressionable age. He insists that Pakistan never invest on peace brokers who just turn up and roll their arm over. "It is not in our style," Aaqib says, "we goad our boys to run in hard, bowl with passion. Umar Gul and Sohail Tanveer are products of such a culture."

Aaqib finds it refreshing that the Indian cricket is drawing from a fresh pool of talent; he feels they are ready to take the country's cricket forward once the old guards stow away their kits.

Finally, how would he assess the captains (MS Dhoni and Shoaib Malik) from their brief stints in the job?

After a long pause he remarks, "Although both Dhoni and Malik have displayed commendable temperament, I have noticed that Dhoni has handled the high-pressure situations extremely well. It is not for nothing that India are the Twenty20 World Champions."

Clark battles injury ahead of Test

Stuart Clark's elbow injury continues to be a concern for Australia ahead of the second Test, which starts in Mohali on Friday. Clark will not bowl at Wednesday's training session and Australia will make a decision on his fitness for the Test only after seeing him in action on Thursday.

The inflamed right elbow joint troubled Clark during the first Test in Bangalore, where he regularly under-armed the ball in from the boundary and was restricted to 17 overs in the first innings. Although he did bowl during the second innings, the problem was still niggling Clark and Australia are keen to give him time to recover.

"He's not going to bowl at training tomorrow, just so we can maximise his recovery and give him the best chance to be able to play on Friday," Alex Kountouris, the team physio, told the Age on Tuesday. "We will see how he pulls up and if he feels okay we will play him."

The loss of Clark would be a major setback on the Mohali pitch, which has assisted seamers in the past. Should Clark be unavailable Australia would likely hand a debut to Peter Siddle, the inexperienced Victoria fast bowler who has impressed the squad on his first tour, or Doug Bollinger, the left-arm fast man.

Tendulkar and Laxman save the day

In time, the innings played by Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman today will be forgotten among their more glamorous conquests. It shouldn't be so; their contributions, though humble in purely numerical terms, are immense when seen in context - they helped India save the Test - and will rank among their more significant.

Tendulkar is the elephant in the fourth-innings room. His repeated failures in the final leg of a Test have forced admirers to look towards Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag for a saviour. He averages 33.60 in the final innings with three half-centuries. His hundreds are so rare that they are easily recalled: Old Trafford 1990, Chennai 1999.

Tendulkar had started the tour of Sri Lanka needing 172 runs to break Brian Lara's record but after six innings he was still 77 short. He wasn't clueless against Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan, like some of his team-mates, for he often began confidently only to get out in unorthodox ways or to soft shots. It was the same in the first innings in Bangalore, when a spooned drive to short cover off a slower ball brought about his dismissal.

The situation when he walked out this morning hinted at India's bugbear: a calamitous final-day collapse. Sehwag and Dravid had been dismissed and 74.3 overs remained. Tendulkar received his routine rousing welcome from the crowd but the half-empty ground, on a day when he needed only 64 runs to become Test cricket's leading run-scorer, was perhaps a sign of the times. If this was 1998, the Chinnaswamy Stadium would have been packed, irrespective of it being a Monday.

Tendulkar did not face Stuart Clark in the first innings. When he did in the second, Clark had Haddin stand up to the stumps, a tactic he used successfully in Sydney. Tendulkar was immediately bowled on that occasion while coming forward but today he negotiated Clark primarily from his crease, using his wrists to open the face and steer the ball through point for his first boundary.

Mitchell Johnson operated with the first-innings trap in place: a slip, two men at short cover and a point waiting for the lofted drive or the outside edge. Tendulkar was able to slip right through it, square-driving his first ball from Johnson through point for four. He then fended a couple of short balls awkwardly towards leg gully but, when Ponting moved himself into that position, Tendulkar found other ways to counter that line of attack.

Apart from one ambitious appeal from Michael Clarke, the bowlers barely had a chance against him. His three-hour vigil spanned the decisive passage of play - the post-lunch session - and included partnerships with Gautam Gambhir and Laxman that virtually ensured India's safety.

The Australians don't sledge Tendulkar because they think it fires him up. Watson, though, had a go at Laxman after bowling several short balls. Laxman didn't respond but Tendulkar walked towards Watson and had a word. He was in a mood for battle.

Tendulkar's well-knit innings began to fray as the light deteriorated during the final session. He played out 11 balls on 48 and talked with umpires, presumably about the conditions. His concentration lapsed moments later and a lofted drive to cover gave the debutant Cameron White his first wicket. His contribution was immense but he had left the job of saving the Test, and the quest for the world record, incomplete.

Until then Laxman had batted in Tendulkar's shadow but now he was critical to India's chances. He had found scoring opportunities difficult against a strong leg-side field in the first innings. They remained hard to come by in the second for Ponting had two men at short midwicket, a leg gully, a silly mid-on, a conventional mid-on, and a square leg at various times but patience underlined Laxman's approach.

He wore down the fast bowlers with terrific defence and, once the fading light ensured only the spinners could operate, Laxman was at ease. Four men hovered around the bat - leg slip, first slip, silly point and short leg - for Clarke and White but Laxman's supple wrists and swift footwork nullified the threat.

Between them, Tendulkar and Laxman scored only 91 runs but they blunted Australia's attack for 268 balls and spent nearly six hours at the crease. Their gritty, unfashionably restrained efforts are the reason why the series is still level.

Injured Kumble may miss out rest of series

Indian captain Anil Kumble is not likely to bowl during Australia's second innings as he is suffering from a shoulder injury. He will probably miss the second Test starting from October 17 in Mohali. In fact there is a slim chance that he might be ruled out of the rest of the series.

Kumble, who usually bats at No. 8, dropped himself down the order to No. 10 after taking painkilling injections on Saturday, but didn't take the field when India came out to bowl.

Kumble had to take painkilling injections on Saturday night after he complained of pain in his shoulder. With Kumble approaching the end of his career this injury may just be another dampener. On what is a turning track, this injury could affect India badly as it may leave them with just one specialist spinner, Harbhajan Singh.