Related Links : India’s Tour of Australia 2007/08 : Scorecard
VVS Laxman’s attacking century brought fresh life for the Indian team on this tough Australian tour. His third test match hundred at the Sydney Cricket Ground led a spirited fightback from the tourists after they were taken for 463 runs by the Aussies after some crucial umpiring blunders. India in reply have closed the day at 216 for 3 with Australia pulling off a couple of key wickets towards the end which includes that of VVS Laxman’s.
The Indians were waiting for a fresh day in this second test match after a mentally draining first day’s play where the Aussies sprung back from 134 for 6 to end at 376 for 7. The eight wicket partnership between Symonds and Lee was further growing along with the latter helping himself to his fourth half century. Both the batsmen saw off the second new ball and Steve Bucknor’s poor umpiring came into play yet again. This time it was in the 12th over of the morning’s play when Bucknor dismissed a stumping appeal from MS Dhoni to a down the legside collection off Harbhajan. Symonds was the batsman again and his backfoot was clearly out of the crease. Bucknor didn’t even bother to go for the third umpire, Symonds already had two bad decisions going in his favour and was on 148. It was in the next over that India could finally break this partnership as Kumble caught Lee on his pads and for once Bucknor agreed with the Indian team! Lee made 59 (from 121 balls with 10 fours) in a partnership of 114.
Mitchell Johnson rubbed the salt on the wounds for the Indians with his strokeplay until Kumble brought an end to his cameo. Johnson (28 from 30 with 5 fours) holed out in the deep but not before taking Australia to 461 for 9. Kumble then didn’t waste much time in getting the last man Stuart Clark lbw to have Symonds stranded on 162 not out (from 226 balls with 18 fours and two sixes). Kumble finished with 4 for 106 to bowl out Australia for 463 in 112.3 overs just before the lunch break. The Indian openers – Wasim Jaffer and Rahul Dravid managed a tricky little phase of three overs without getting off the mark. After lunch, Jaffer was not able to survive long enough as he got yorked by a fast and swinging delivery from Lee. Jaffer was set up beautifully for the yorker after a series of short pitch deliveries. He lasted just 25 deliveries making 3. India’s no.3, VVS Laxman entered the scene confidently with happy memories of this ground. He took the attack to the opposition. In one particular over from Mitchell Johnson, Laxman collected as many four boundaries and a two to get a move along. Dravid at the other end was rock solid in defence, however, he didn’t do much in moving the scoreboard forward. Mitchell Johnson got him to edge one into the hands of the slips but was unlucky to have gone past the bowling crease.
Laxman batted gloriously getting full value for his sweetly timed shots because of a quick outfield. His partner was very subdued but at the same time kept one end intact. And the partnership blossomed into a big one. Laxman with his positive cricket raced away to a near run-a-ball 73 by tea and India looked good at 101 for 1 in 30 overs. In the last session, Laxman slowed down as he was looking for a hundred. Dravid started to play a few shots which did find the gaps. For one particular phase of play, Dravid wasn’t able to find a single run for 39 consecutive deliveries! There were a couple of let offs for batsmen with Adam Gilchrist failing to take relatively simple catches on both sides off the stumps. First he dropped a regulation outside edge from Laxman off Lee and then an inside edge from Dravid was put down off Stuart Clark. Both the batsmen made those mistakes count as their partnership brought back memories of the Kolkata Test.
Laxman soon brought up a wonderful hundred which came in just 127 balls and Dravid got to a hard earned half century which took him 158 balls. Dravid (53 from 160 balls with 9 fours) after all the hard work threw his wicket away playing a rash square cut to be caught in the slips off Johnson. That ended a massive stand of 175. Like always, once a partner departs in a long stand, the other partner also tends to join him soon back to the pavilion. That’s what happened to VVS Laxman as he played an uppish cover drive off Hogg to be caught at short extra covers. Laxman’s knock couldn’t go beyond 109 (from 142 balls with 18 fours). He fell at the wrong time too leaving a tricky 30 minutes or so for Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly to negotiate. India were in a spot of bother at 185 for 3 with two new batsmen in the middle. But the good thing was that both Sachin and Sourav were in good touch and the ball was old enough to do anything special. Ganguly towards the end gave nervous moments in the dressing room as he miscued a hook shot off Lee but was lucky to get away with that. India finished safely at 216 for 3 in 62 overs. Ganguly with a few streaky shots got to 21 from 27 (with 3 fours) while Tendulkar had a lusty blow off Hogg to get 9 (from 24 balls with a four). India are now behind Australia by 247 runs.