The pressure is on … due to a broadcasting rights dispute with the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Fairfax's photographic supplier Getty Images has been denied accreditation to the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series. So here is a Test Match recreation of the action in Chennai. Photo: Sebastian Costanzo
CHENNAI: If the Indians had forgotten about James Pattinson, they have been issued a firm reminder.
Two summers ago, the brash young Victorian made an instant impression against their all-star batting line-up, claiming 11 wickets in two Tests, most memorably rattling the stumps of Sachin Tendulkar in Sydney. In his first home campaign he announced himself as the country's charismatic new pace protagonist with 26 wickets in only four matches.
Injury has interrupted the 22-year-old's rapid ascent since, but three months after breaking down against South Africa in Adelaide, he was finally back in Australia's attack on Saturday and it was India again in the firing line.
It took only eight balls for Pattinson to strike in India's first innings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium and he did so in style, theatrically removing debutant opener Murali Vijay's leg stump with a 150km/h thunderbolt straight after lunch and then, in his next over, coaxing with more sheer speed a spectacled Virender Sehwag to play on.
Australia, having wound up their first innings at a highly respectable 380, were suddenly cashing on their investment in fast bowling rather than spin here, extracting their own treasures from a pitch with more red splotches than a teenager's face.
Pattinson had been ushered back from a rib injury last month via the Sheffield Shield rather than Australia's one-day international and Twenty20 series against Sri Lanka, a move team management made with an eye towards this Test. There were suggestions Mitchell Johnson would accompany Peter Siddle and Mitchell Starc in the pace battery in Chennai, instead of Pattinson, because of his good record in India.
But Pattinson, quite rightly, was rushed straight back to the top of the queue to take aim at batsmen he had tormented 13 months ago. Saturday's bizarre dismissal of Sehwag was the third time in three Tests that the fading bludgeoner had been his victim. On this occasion, the edgy 34-year-old reacted late to a 147 km/h delivery, chopping the ball down before it bounced up and landed right on his leg bail. Vijay, a few minutes earlier, had also played on.
At 2-12, India were in strife but immediately after marching Sehwag, Pattinson was dealt some perspective by the new arrival, Sachin Tendulkar. Thousands remained waiting in long, frustrating lines outside the ground as the 39-year-old walked to the centre. Those fortunate to be in the venue greeted him with ear-piercing adulation.
When he stroked his first ball, from Pattinson, to the cover boundary, they went bananas. The next ball, louder still, as Tendulkar neatly caressed the quick to backward point for another four.
He finished the over - the same one Sehwag had been dismissed in - with 12 runs to his name, guiding the last delivery to the third man rope for good measure. Pattinson, having ravaged the Indian top order, was swiftly taken off.
Chennai is Tendulkar's most successful Test venue. He has made five tons here before this match but only one in Tests at all for two years. By tea on day two, India had moved briskly to 2-84, with Tendulkar on 38 and an elegant Cheteshwar Pujara unbeaten on 33.
Earlier, century-maker Michael Clarke had been dismissed half an hour before lunch for 130, but not before surpassing Greg Chappell's Test aggregate of 7110 runs, having gone beyond Don Bradman's career total a day earlier. It was also the highest score by an Australian captain in India and, jaw droppingly, his ninth century in 22 matches since taking over the leadership from Ricky Ponting in 2011.
Already, he is seventh on the list of most Test tons by Australian captains, ahead of Ian Chappell (seven in 30 matches in charge), Lindsay Hassett (seven in 24) and Mark Taylor (seven in 50).
Clarke was eventually removed trying to loft left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja down the ground, where he was snapped up at long-off by Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Patient support from Siddle (19 from 94 balls) and a typical late-order cameo from Pattinson (15) made the visitors' total look even brighter.
India's chief destroyer, local hero Ravichandran Ashwin, wound up with career-best figures of 7-103 when he put a full stop on Australia's first innings.
No comments:
Post a Comment