Building pressure: India waits for Australian skipper Michael Clarke to make a mistake. Photo: Sebastian Costanzo
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 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 after lunch at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium and he did so in style, theatrically removing debutant opener Murali Vijay's leg stump with a 150km/h thunderbolt and then, in his next over, coaxing a spectacled Virender Sehwag to balloon the ball onto a bail.
Australia, having wound up its first innings at a highly respectable 380, was suddenly cashing in on its investment in fast bowling rather than spin here, extracting its 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 that Mitchell Johnson would accompany Peter Siddle and Mitchell Starc in the Australian pace battery in Chennai, instead of Pattinson, due to 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 34-year-old reacted late to an express 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 was in strife but immediately after marching Sehwag, Pattinson was on the wrong end of a master class from the new arrival, Tendulkar. Thousands remained waiting in long 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 Australian quick to backward point for another four. He finished the over - the same one Sehwag had been outed 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 out of the attack.
At 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 Sir Don Bradman's career total a day earlier. It was also the highest score by an Australian captain in India and his ninth century in 22 matches since taking over the leadership from Ricky Ponting in 2011.
Already, he is seventh on the all-time 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 made the visitors' total look even brighter.
India's chief destroyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, wound up with career-best figures of 7-103 when he put a full stop on Australia's first innings.
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