Mohali, Saturday 18 October 2008: It was Zaheer Khan to Matthew Hayden, again. The result is the same. An in swinging delivery from the left arm pacer crashed through the defence of the Big Matt only to rattle his furniture. Matthew Hayden has been dismissed three times in as many innings on this tour by c. He departed for naught with Australia losing their first wicket on zero.

Earlier, a great start by Sehwag and Gambhir combined with contributions from Sachin Tendulkar (88), Sourav Ganguly (102), MS Dhoni (92) and Rahul Dravid (39) put India on top as the hosts were wrapped for 469 in the first innings of the Mohali Test on Day 2. Dhoni was the last man to be dismissed, that too, unluckily. He scored 92. The world champs will have to hit back real hard if they have to pose any competition to their opposition.

After Sachin stole the limelight on day 1 and Ganguly in the first half of Day 2, it was captain courageous MS Dhoni’s turn to press the accelerator and turn on the heat on the already bruised Aussies. The stand in skipper came to the crease with a positive frame of mind and took the attack on the Australians from ball one to score 92 quick runs. His innings included eight hits to the fence and four massive ones over it. However, TV replays showed that the ball was way outside the off stump.

Prior to that, a fabulous innings came to an end when Sourav Ganguly perished to Cameron White in an attempt to up the tempo for India. He departed for a superbly knit 102. Ganguly got out when India’s scorecard read 435 but not before he put India in the driver’s seat. What initially looked like a trademark Ganguly shot – down the wicket to a spinner, ball high in the air, ended in Brett Lee’s hands at long off.

(Agency)