Boxing Day Test - MCG

[Donny]

At lunch, it's 4/396.

Ponting is 162 n.o. and needs 11 more runs to become the highest scorer in a calendar year by an Australian.

26 more will take him past Tendulkar and Gavaskar and into 3rd. place behind Viv Richards and Michael Vaughan.

[Donny]

Ponting moves on relentlessly.

He moves on to 178 n.o. and becomes the highest scorer in a calendar year for Australia.

Australia is 4/431.

[Donny]

Katich (29) is out. Kumble has 3/129.

Ponting is 182 n.o. and Australia lead by 71.

Steve Waugh comes to the crease.

[Donny]

Ponting goes to 198 n.o. and, with 1413, moves past Gavaskar and into 3rd. place for runs in a calendar year.

Vaughan is 2nd. with 1481 so that one is a bit down the track.

THe lead is 93.

[Donny]

That's it !! His third double century for 2003.

[Donny]

Waugh goes for 19.

That's 6/502 with Ponting on 226 n.o.

Kumble has 4/157.

[Donny]

Ponting gets his highest Test score as he moves on to 243 n.o.

The lead is 166.

[Donny]

Kumble gets his 5th. - Lee for 8.

Ponting goes to 250 n.o. then Bracken gives a return catch to Tendulkar.

The lead is 176 with 19 overs to come.

[Donny]

A wonderful innings comes to a close.

Ponting is stumped for 257 from Kumble's bowling. He has 6/176.

[Donny]

With a deficit of 192, India began badly when an appeal for a catch behind was successful against Chopra. 1/5.

[Donny]

Sehwag clips Lee off his legs and Williams takes a blinder at square leg.

2/19.

[JLC]

I was pretty close as i thought a lead of around 200 an hour before stumps.

Australia and in particular Brett Lee can have another crack at the Indians tomorrow with a relatively new ball. The key will be creating pressure by slowing down their scoring as Laxman Ganguly and Tendulkar are al stroke players and love scoring quickly.

I think by about 5 oclock tomorrow the series will be tied at 1-1

jlc

[Donny]

Ponting 's double-hundred puts Australia in charge

The Wisden Bulletin by Chandrahas Choudhury


Ricky Ponting's restrained and mature 257, his second double-century in successive Tests, was the highlight of the third day at the MCG, one that went almost perfectly for Australia. First, batting much more cautiously than they did on the second day so as to deny India any chance of coming back into the game, they ground out a lead of 192 in two-and-a-half sessions. Then, in what was a dramatic change of pace and mood in the game, they whipped out Akash Chopra and Virender Sehwag late in the day to leave India 27 for 2 at stumps. Australia's gradually ascending dominance, culminating in the dismissal of a pair who had put on 141 in the first innings, overshadowed the lionhearted effort of Anil Kumble, who took 6 for 176 in 51 overs.

Ponting's double-century was the third of a remarkable year, one in which he averages almost 100 in Tests, and his name was the common thread in a series of partnerships that completely took India out of the game. Ponting's double-century here appeared much more inevitable than the one at Adelaide, where he attacked the Indian bowling relentlessly and often chancily. His approach was closer to that adopted by Rahul Dravid in the second Test: he knew he was in command of the bowling, and set himself the task of batting as long as possible. He entered yesterday with the score at 30 for 1, and by the time he was out late in the day, Australia were 555 for 9.

Indeed, Australia's tactics were markedly different from that of the day before, when they attacked with gusto and piled up over 300 at great speed. On a pitch with uneven bounce, and with batting becoming steadily more difficult, they realised that ensuring a sizeable first-innings lead was more important than scoring quickly, and set about grinding out that advantage. They added 79 runs in the first session for the loss of Damien Martyn, and 84 in the second for the loss of Simon Katich. (As a measure of comparision, they made 114 runs between lunch and tea yesterday, and 158 in the last session.) The last session yielded 88, as wickets fell in a flurry, but by this time the advantage was sizeable.

India watched the game slip away from them slowly over the course of the day, though they would not have been too displeased with their morning's work. Not only did they remove Martyn, caught behind off Ajit Agarkar for 31, they also sent Steve Waugh back to the pavilion retired hurt.

Waugh came out to another standing ovation, but what followed was anticlimactic. He left his first ball alone, and then, as Agarkar dropped the next ball short, turned his back on the ball. His head was pointed in the direction of third slip as the ball hit him painfully on the elbow, and after an examination from the physio, he decided to go off.

Waugh was replaced by Katich, and if India could have claimed another wicket at this juncture, they would have got into the tail. But Katich hung around to add 64 for the fifth wicket with Ponting, before he was caught off bad and pad by Chopra off Kumble (437 for 5). Waugh now returned, with an arm guard over his left forearm, though he was never at ease during his innings of 19.

But Ponting at the other end was dominant, and as he neared his double-hundred he came down the pitch to Kumble for the first time in the day and hit him over the infield for boundaries in successive overs. He got to the landmark with a push on the leg side off Ashish Nehra, and celebrated exuberantly before raising his broad bat with the lime-green handle to the packed house.

Ponting lost Waugh soon after tea, lbw padding up once too often to Kumble (502 for 6). India steadily worked their way through the tail thereafter, with one end kept up all through the afternoon by Kumble.

Kumble bowled not only with great heart - something often said of him - but also with great skill and guile in an overseas Test match, something he has been accused of being incapable of. The great change discernible in his bowling over the last year, especially in this series, is that of his stock ball. Previously it used to be the topspinner that hurried on to the batsman after pitching, but now it is the googly, which is slightly slower, and not only turns into the right-hander but also bounces. It is a wicket-taking ball: Waugh was out believing the ball would turn the other way, and Katich beaten by the extra bounce to be caught off bat and pad. Ponting was Kumble's final victim, charging down the wicket, missing, and being stumped for 257 (555 for 9). Both men had put in magnificent efforts on the day.

Australia were bowled out for 558, at just the right time for them, and India were left with the task of seeing out 11 overs before stumps. It was not to happen, though Chopra could consider himself unlucky to be given out caught behind off Nathan Bracken when the ball actually brushed the top of his back pad (5 for 1).When Brett Lee dismissed Sehwag, flicking uppishly and caught brilliantly at square leg by Brad Williams, Australia were jubilant (19 for 2).

Lee would have fancied his chances of a second wicket when Sourav Ganguly emerged at No.4, in a effort to ensure that Sachin Tendulkar was available to India on the crucial fourth day, but Ganguly batted with great composure, before nearly giving it away in the dying stages with a couple of inside-edges past his stumps. He lived to fight another day, but India will be hard-pressed to save this game from here.

[Newelly]

I think Australia will need to bat again but for less than 100. It will be sad testament to Australia's reserve bowling stocks if they can't hold India to under 300 in this second innings.

[Donny]

Indians on the ropes

By Jon Pierik

RICKY Ponting confirmed his greatness and joined Don Bradman as the only men to score three double-centuries in a calendar year as Australia sandpapered India to the point of oblivion yesterday.

Resuming on 125, Ponting's outstanding year continued when he went on to amass a career-high 257 in more than 10 hours at the crease as the hosts replied with a patient 558 - a first innings lead of 192.

The Australians must win this confrontation to even the series heading into the Sydney finale this week and are now primed to do just that.

At stumps on day three, the Indians had already lost openers Akash Chopra (4) and first-innings centurion Virender Sehwag (11) to be 2-27 - still 165 runs from making the Aussies bat again.

In a sign that Sachin Tendulkar is struggling mentally after his poor run this series, brave skipper Sourav Ganguly opted to shield the Little Master and send himself out in the key No.4 slot last night.

With the MCG wicket starting to provide some sharp turn and indifferent bounce, the tourists face a difficult task to protect their 1-0 lead.

"I think the bounce will get a lot more variable," Ponting said last night.

"It will keep getting slower and I think it will start staying down a lot more.

"That's why it was vital for us to get as many as we did today.

"We are in a good position now." Ponting's game-breaking dig added to his 206 against the West Indies in Trinidad earlier this year and then career-high of 242 against India in the Adelaide Test.

Only Bradman, during the 1930 Ashes series, had previously achieved the feat.

And it's doubtful whether he ever batted any better than the 29-year-old did in the past two days.

Marathon-man Ponting also became just the fifth batsman to notch successive double-centuries in 126 years of Test cricket and now has the fourth-highest Test score ever at the MCG.

Along the way, he usurped Matthew Hayden's record of 1391 runs to become Australia's leading run-scorer in a calendar year - with the possibility of another knock to come.

The Tasmanian has 1472 runs at 98.1 this year, the most by any batsman in the world.

Beginning the day at 3-317, 49 runs behind, the Australians adopted the mantra of death by a thousand cuts in grafting themselves into a position of authority.

This wasn't a typically dashing effort by the world champions.

Rather, it was a matter of going about their business in a calm and composed way as a fighting India slowly slipped away.

While the batting was steady, the morning session was set alight when Steve Waugh was struck a nasty blow on his left elbow by paceman Ajit Agarkar and was forced to retire hurt.

Striding on to the hallowed turf to a standing ovation at 12.15pm, Waugh let Agarkar's first delivery slip by before the following four minutes left the crowd of 33,256 stunned.

Next ball, the retiring champion seemed to freeze as he failed to offer a stroke to a shortish delivery and was dealt a bruising blow on his arm.

It's rare to see the tough-as-teak skipper show any pain but he clearly was not right after the hit, with Ponting immediately calling for assistance from team physiotherapist Errol Alcott.

The bruised area swelled into a size of a golf ball and forced a reluctant Waugh to leave the ground.

After having his arm iced, the skipper emerged just over two hours later at the fall of Simon Katich's wicket - again to a standing ovation.

Wearing an arm guard and extra strapping, he survived a desperately close lbw shout by Anil Kumble second-ball back and, in some pain, went on to make a stodgy 19 before misreading Kumble's wrong'un.

Waugh was later taken to hospital for a precautionary X-ray and was cleared of any bone damage.

The most impressive trait of Ponting's break-out year has been his stern-faced determination to graft when the runs have slowed.

In previous years, he would have tried to force the issue with a bold stroke - and perhaps lost his wicket.

Now he remains as calm as a professional sniper, shooting down the opposition with a series of deadly bullets.

As India's attack tightened, Ponting added just 11 runs in 70 minutes around the lunch break but this did not faze the captain-in-waiting.

He went to lunch on 162 and maintained his composed frame of mind in the afternoon in a gritty 64-run union with Katich.

Finally, with the tail falling away after tea, Ponting was lured into an outlandish charge at Kumble and was stumped - giving the leggie his well-deserved sixth wicket.

Earlier, the second new ball soon induced Damien Martyn's wicket when he drifted across the crease to a full delivery from Agarkar and provided a thin edge behind.