I couldn’t catch much of the match today and therefore keeping it short. Australia played as well as they possibly could on this pitch to post a steep total of 499 for the Indians to chase. Phil Jacques once again did well at the top and Clarke also chipped in with a fine fifty. Jacques is turning to be very interesting player to watch as he has been consistently delivering.

Ricky Ponting continues to be Harbhajan’s bunny. Though Harbhajan picked most of the wickets, I still feel that he is looking very ordinary with the ball and still is no where close to what he was bowling a few years ago. Nevertheless, I would want to stick with this eleven for the series.

I really liked what I saw of Zaheer Khan today especially the spell when Symonds was around… bowled his heart out and hit the right length to bowl at this pitch. I am disappointed that the Indians didn’t bowl many short deliveries… or did they bowl any at all? A series back, they were peppering Pakistan in an overdose, on a completely lifeless wicket!

Australia batted beautifully today and is at a formidable position. India would have to battle for a draw… and the only way they can do it is to play positively with a mind frame of trying to get close to the target and not defend for life in the next 2 days.

I am at complete loss of words watching the opening pair of Dravid and Jaffer play exactly in the same manner as in the last innings. Once again, no attempt to steal singles was made by these two. One can only hope that they did that to play off the day but I really don’t think so. In a similar situation yesterday, Australia scored about 40 odd runs… it simply shows that if you play positively in this track and look for runs by going at it, the pitch becomes a lot easier to bat on. Clarke’s bowling today was a bit tricky but there were plenty of avenues to milk runs.

It can be safe to say now that the Indian bowlers with their limited talent has made most of it and delivered their best efforts. It would be fair to say that they have done pleasingly well against the world best batting side.

I must mention that today Ponting once again showed the world why he is the best captain in world cricket today. Boycott’s claims that Ponting having a great team is definitely not a reason alone for his brilliant captaincy. His argument on Vaughan being the best is absolutely senile to say the least. Ponting always looks hard to win and his declaration today shows that. Even if most captains were aggressive, they would normally look to reach the psychological round magical figure of 500 and then declare… no not Ponting, cold figures that make sense is the only concern for him. He wanted to have enough overs to make early inroads and as much time in the next 2 days for his bowlers to uproot India. His field placements are always interesting, served a purpose and more often worked but never has back-fired to my memory.

I still have faith in the Indian batting line-up to get through the test. There is no lack of ability or talent in the 7 batsmen. If they simply play naturally, they can save this game. So far, many of them with the exception of Sachin and Sourav, seem to have entered the field with some pre-conceived notions and it shows by their rather curiously un-natural approach.

High points of the day:

Puppy power – pup wakes up and plays a good innings. All the Australians with the exception of Ponting chipped in and that took them to a good total.

Zaheer has truly improved over the years.

The old ball looks more dangerous than the new.

The mystery of Rahul Dravid since he relinquished captaincy now gets more puzzling. Will tomorrow be the day he gets back his focus remains to be seen?

All in all, a stiff proposition for team India. A loss for them is on the wall. Am gonna be up at 4 a.m tomorrow for this.