2nd Test

RP Singh's team-mates show their appreciation after he troubled Australia with early wickets in the second Test at the SCG


Australia steady after RP Singh's strikes

The Bulletin by Anand Vasu

January 2, 2008



RP Singh picked up two more early &two after lunch wickets after Australia chose to bat




After losing another toss and watching Australia's well-oiled batting machine get to work India had the briefest glimmer of hope as two wickets fell fairly cheaply before normal service was restored. At lunch on the first day of the Sydney Test Australia had scored at nearly four an over, and despite early losses finished on 2 for 95.

India's first problem was playing without their spearhead, Zaheer Khan, and the lost toss did not help matters. But, unlike in Melbourne there was some swing with the new ball and RP Singh proceeded to exploit this. RP, all of eight Tests old, was the senior quick bowler, and seemed to take the responsibility pretty seriously given that his company was Ishant Sharma, playing in only his third Test.

Phil Jaques should be well used to the ways of this Kookaburra ball, and his attempt to square-cut a ball that was short and wide, but got a bit big on him with extra bounce, only ended in a simple catch for Mahendra Singh Dhoni. With Jaques gone for a duck India had a sniff of an opportunity, but this also meant that Ricky Ponting was at the crease early on.

Ponting was keen to play his strokes, and even the early tentativeness, where he walked across the ball in exaggerated fashion, covering the line, did not lead to weakness. If anything, the inexperience of Ishant played into Ponting's hands as he played himself in with a couple of pulls, favourites among his horizontal-bat shots.

But just as Ponting was sending Anil Kumble the most ominous of signals there was a ray of hope as the hulking figure of Matthew Hayden left the middle. Squared up a touch by an RP delivery that was just short of a length, Hayden had a sniff and ended up edging. Sachin Tendulkar, all scraggly and bearded from having to deal with a nasty allergic reaction that did not allow him to shave, took a smart catch to his right.

At 2 for 25 Australia had given India the hope that things might not go too badly. With Ponting, and Michael Hussey, at the crease, neither of whom had scored big in the first Test, there was the hope that a few quiet overs could be slipped in. This hope proved to be unfounded as Australia ended the session without further damage, and their two batsmen moving steadily and strongly on, scoring at an overall rate of nearly four runs per over.

Ponting, who is always a candidate to get stuck in once the early nerves are out of the way, eased his way to 36, while Hussey snuck past with one run extra as Australia reached 2 for 95 at the lunch break. Hussey had barely played a shot in anger, and the introduction of both spinners, Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, well before lunch on the first day, seemed to neither surprise nor bother him.

This pitch at the Sydney Cricket Ground had a much truer bounce than the pitch on which the first Test was played, in Melbourne. A generous covering of green grass on the 22-yard strip offered little lateral movement, but suggested that wear and tear would not be as dramatic over five days as in the previous Test. However, things could look a lot different if India's batsmen have to do their thing once the opposition has put a big first-innings score on the board.