Harbhajan, Laxman at it again

Was mercury first discovered and used in India, would anyone know? Just a stray thought that occurs, while watching the most mercurial team in contemporary cricket do one of their rapid switches -- Messers Jekyll and Hyde had nothing on this eleven, for sure.

On day one, the Indians had dropped catches, missed stumpings, made a bit of a meal of bowling changes, and watched Australia pile up the highest ever total put up at the M A Chidambaram Stadium in course of a single day.

On day two, the same team took every chance that came their way, raced through the seven remaining Australian wickets before lunch, then batted out two full sessions for the loss of just one wicket. In the process, Harbhajan Singh got yet another seven wicket haul (eight morally, if you add Steve Waugh to that list), and VVS Laxman played some 'very very special' shots off Warne and the rest, to race to an unbeaten 59 off just 68 balls at stumps.

Whatever next, guys?

Though the ball was 90 overs old, Ganguly refrained from taking the new ball -- very sensible too, given that he has only one seamer to take it with -- and tossed the ball to Sachin Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh, first thing this morning. Sachin, who had a brilliant spell late on the first evening, slipped immediately back into that form but more significantly, Harbhajan bowled as though completely unaware that he had been taken for over one hundred runs on day one.

This aspect needs emphatic mention, really. It is hard enough for a bowler to cope with sustained attack by one good batsman. In Harbhajan's case, it is calculated assault by an entire team -- a team, what is more, labelled the best in the game today. The Aussies have come up with the collective gameplan of going after the off spinner, of not letting him settle if they can help it. To absorb that pressure, to then turn it right round on the opposition, and to keep striking as he does, ensuring in the process that India does not even notice the loss of Anil Kumble, takes enormous 'bottle'. And you then need to double the praise, when you remember how he found himself involved in a chucking controversy, and dumped by the BCCI to fight that battle out on his own.

In the morning, Sachin applied the pressure, Harbhajan produced the wickets. Steve Waugh, seemingly rattled by the turn and bounce both bowlers were getting, went on one knee to sweep the off spinner, and took it on his pad. The ball bounced high, and seemed to be going back onto the stumps when he pushed at it with his open palm -- while the rest of the close in field was going up for an LBW, Laxman at slip spotted the palming and appealed, Das at short square joined in, and Steve Waugh was walking back, out to that rarest of dismissals, handled the ball.

To the wicket, Ponting. Much has been made of Agarkar's duck-scoring sequence in Australia and here in Bombay. Without as much of media attention, Ricky Ponting seems to be giving the Indian all-rounder some competition in that department. Mentally under pressure against Harbhajan, Ponting did a little dance down the wicket to the very first ball that he faced. Harbhajan -- who took him out in identical fashion in Sharjah in 1998 to start his domination of the middle order batsman -- bowled the arm ball first up, sending it through straight to beat the bat as Ponting played for the off break. Dighe collected, and whipped the bails off before Ponting could recover, to complete a superb dismissal.

Next up, Adam Gilchrist. A king pair in the previous game would, one assumed, have instilled some caution in the Aussie vice-captain. But here he went again, into a full-blooded pull-sweep at Harbhajan as he came round the wicket. Again, it was the arm ball, pushed through on a fuller length to defeat the sweep, Gilchrist played all round it, got it on the back leg, and was walking back for just one run. Australia, by then, had slumped to 344/6 -- a far cry from the situation when play resumed this morning.

That brought Shane Warne, with his new tonsured style, to the crease -- the leg spinner who, forgetting the wicket-taking race for a moment, is also involved in a neck to neck race with Glenn McGrath for most number of ducks scored by a contemporary Australian. Warne stuck it out for 23 balls -- and then Harbhajan pushed the arm ball through straighter and quicker, Warne misread it, pushed, got the edge, and Das at short square dived to hold a good catch. SS Das, incidentally, is filling the role played earlier by Dravid at that position, and in the process giving his spinners some much-needed support. Warne, meanwhile, walked back with his 23rd duck. Incidentally, that equals India's very own Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, and Warne now only has Danny Morrison, Curtley Ambrose and Courtney Walsh ahead of him here.

It is amazing what a defeat, and pressure, will do to a player. Jason Gillespie had played a magnificent hand in Calcutta, supporting Steve Waugh in a classic rescue act and throughout, batting with admirable composure and calm good sense. Neither of those adjectives, though, applied to the ungainly heave he attempted to a well flighted ball from Harbhajan, the ball going high off the top part of the bat for Ganguly at mid on to take a fine running catch. That made the third duck of the morning.

At the other end, Mathew Hayden was batting as if there had been no interruption from the previous day. The same solid defence, the same calm demeanour, the same shot selection and imperious execution. Into the 190s by then, the opener seemed for the first time to worry about the supply of partners drying up -- thus, he gave Sairaj Bahutule the charge, with the score on 379/8, mishit the ball, and Harbhajan, fielding at deep midwicket, appeared to first lose sight of the ball, and by the time he got it covered, was in no position to cling on.

Immediately thereafter, a flowing drive produced 3 runs that got Hayden to a double century which, in terms of value to the Australian team, was worth at least as much again. Throughout the innings, he had been the dominant player in every single partnership, and had single-handedly ensured a measure of respectability to the Australian score. The Indians on the field acknowledged by running up to shake his hand, while those packing the stands stood up to applaud loud and long.

What he needed was partners. What he didn't need was silly cricket -- and that is what Colin Miller provided as he, like his peers, went for a huge hit at Harbhajan. By this point, the offie had taken to floating the ball right up, giving it lots of air and loop, making those heaves from off to leg very risky. This time round, the ball went straight up in the air, and down the throat of Bahutule at square leg.

With McGrath at the other end, Hayden -- in with a chance to become the 14th Australian to bat through an innings -- attempted to loft Harbhajan over the straight field. But this time, his waltz down the track was anticipated, the bowler held it back just that touch, and Hayden as a result got a lot of elevation without the required distance, for Ganguly to hold well and end the innings on 391 -- the Indians doing very well to keep Australia under 400, given the situation at start of play.

Harbhajan Singh ended with 7/133 off his 38.2 overs -- a remarkable effort, giving him 24 wickets thus far in four completed innings this series. Incidentally, only twice before have Indian bowlers produced three successive hauls of five or more wickets -- Javagal Srinath, who had 5/46 and 8/86 against Sri Lanka in February 1999, then 6/45 against New Zealand immediately thereafter. And before that, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, with 6/64 and 6/117 against England at the Wankhede in 1984, following up with 6/99 in first innings of the next Test at the Ferozeshah Kotla.

Kulkarni and Bahutule toiled without really impressing, while Tendulkar turned in a spell of 16-1-35-0 that turned the screws on the Aussies and allowed Harbajan the luxury of attacking at the other end.

Lunch was taken early, and India began its reply on an interesting note. Ramesh, normally the aggressor, began as if he had done some hard thinking -- or someone had done some straight talking to him. Studiously ignoring everything outside off, resisting the temptation to throw his bat into airy drives, focussing on getting behind the line and playing each ball on merit, he seemed content to remain the junior partner, while SS Das, usually the quieter of the pair, looked to attack from the word go.

Both batsmen weathered the early spell by the two Australian pace bowlers and once they found their feet, upped the tempo gradually to stitch together a nice partnership of 123 for the first wicket. Ramesh's play was characterised by lovely use of the wrists on the on side, while Das -- much to everyone's surprise -- flashed into the hook and pull each time McGrath tried the bouncer. Das, again, seemed to have learnt some lessons from Laxman, as he began dancing down to Warne from the leg spinner's first over on, even playing an inside out cover drive that Laxman had executed so well in Calcutta. Another significant aspect of Das today was the way he repeatedly knelt down to hit both Warne and Miller from off to leg, sweeping with confidence and a lot of power and, on one occasion, blasting Miller from well outside off to the midwicket boundary for a six.

Both got to their individual half-centuries and for once, Ramesh's wicket was actually against the run of play. He had been countering Warne by playing late and using his wrists to guide the turning ball out on the on side. One such shot saw his front foot go too far forward to a ball of fullish length -- the batsman got the thick inner edge, onto his pad, for Ponting to hold at silly point, and walked back evidently disappointed with himself.

From then on, it was all Laxman. Das was 61, too, when Ramesh got out. He added another 23 in an unbeaten 88 run partnership that saw Laxman race to his 51 off just 52 balls.

It was an amazing display, really. Standing tall at the crease, Laxman repeatedly punched the quick bowlers through cover and point, generating astonishing bat speed with his wrists. To the extent that McGrath, brought back for a late spell towards close, was content in his last two overs to bowl a good foot and a half to two feet outside off, doing no more than keeping the ball out of the batsman's reach and not letting him score.

But the real duel was between Laxman and Warne -- and the former won the first leg with ease. An on-driven four was the first sign of the storm. In the next over, Laxman rocked back to blast one through point, then skipped down the track to straight drive successive fours. After that innings in Calcutta, he had told us that he had adopted that as his ploy -- "I will play shots off front foot and back, so that Warne can never figure which way I'll go next," he said. And he did just that here -- in the next over, again he was back driving through cover one ball, then skipping down the track to the line outside leg stump and straight driving successive fours for the second over on the run.

Warne was taken off. Colin Miller came on. Laxman wound up, and smashed him with a flicked drive over mid on for four. A ball later, he was rocking back and driving through cover, four. Then he went down on one knee, and slammed it back like a tennis player's forehand, through the straight field from line well outside off, four more to bring up his 50. And to celebrate, he rocked a long way back, shortened the length, and pulled over midwicket for three more.

The final session of play produced 104 runs, off 30 overs, for the loss of Ramesh. And India's 211/1 had come at the healthy rate of 3.29 -- the factor that, more even than the lack of wickets, should be worrying the Australian bowlers.

This is the interesting aspect about an in-form Laxman, as opposed even to an in-form Dravid, coming in at number three. At the fall of the first wicket, Dravid generally tends to defend initially -- which gives the bowling side, already on a bit of a high following the first dismissal, time and space to tighten things down further. Laxman, on the other hand, attacks. There will be times when that policy gets him out cheap -- but it is a risk worth taking, because when he gets it right, as he did today, he puts enormous pressure on the fielding side. The Aussies initially ringed him with three, four fielders around the bat. In just over three overs, that close cordon had been whittled down to two, then one -- and the bowlers had been forced back on the defensive. And that is hugely vital for a number three batsman -- the ability to not just halt an attack in its tracks, but to make it hunt for cover.

Even as the two not out batsmen gained in confidence, the problems for Australia increased. The Indian spinners had taken out seven wickets in the morning session in a little inside two hours, generating turn and alarming bounce. Jason Gillespie yet again bowled brilliantly, beating all the batsmen he faced with pace, bounce and variety, but remained wicketless. McGrath looked a shadow of his striking self once the Indian batsmen opted not to play at his favourite line outside off, however. And on the same track where Harbhajan and Tendulkar had got such lift and turn, over two full sessions, the two-pronged spin attack of Warne and Miller toiled hard, to return 1/73 and 0/64 respectively, the very few times they beat the bat being scant compensation for the battering they took at the hands of first Das and then Laxman.

India, at stumps, are in as strong a position as the Australians were in at the same time on day one. And we all know what happened this morning. Come the third morning, India too could slide -- but judging by the way this team has picked itself up, judging by the confidence the not out batsmen have been showing, indications are that day three could, for the Australians, be their hardest on tour yet.

Last evening, with 300+ on the board for the loss of just three wickets, Australia had a superb opportunity to bat India right out of this game. At the end of day two, the tables have been turned, completely. By collapsing in a heap this morning, the touring side has given the home team the gift of time, and overs -- 270 of them still remain in this game, and India can (at least theoretically) now focus on batting out all of day three and a part of day four, and looking to pile on a lead. Anything over 150, on a track that will take increasing turn as the game goes on and with Harbhajan establishing such mental ascendancy over the batsmen, could be fatal for Australia's hopes of retaining the Allan Border-Sunil Gavaskar Trophy.

The third day's play, one way or other, should decide the outcome of this Test.

Scoreboard

Commentary transcript:

Post lunch

Post-tea session

Adam Gilchrist in Real Audio - Day 2 -

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