Michael Clarke scored a vital knock of 130 © Getty Images
Australia were bowled out for 380 in the morning session of Day Two of the first Test against India at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. Michael Clarke top-scored for the visitors with a vital 130 off 246 balls.
India's bowlers toiled hard for a good hour-and-a-half before finally getting rid of Clarke before lunch.
This was before the Australian skipper, along with Peter Siddle, ensured that India did not get the early breakthrough and defied the spinners some more after starting the day on 103 not out. Siddle was also solid in his defence against Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, who were MS Dhoni's first-choice tweakers.
Australia's run rate had dropped slightly since the start of the day to below three runs an over. Clarke and Siddle had set up camp in the middle and looked in no mood to budge.
Dhoni eventually used all five of his bowlers in the first hour of play, but to no avail. The duo soon brought up their 50-run partnership.
Eventually, at the stroke of the 11th hour of the day, Clarke played his first aggressive shot of the morning as he tried to lift Jadeja out of the park straight down the ground. But he could only find Bhuvneshwar Kumar at long off.
Siddle didn't lose too much time in following his captain back into the comfort of the pavilion after nicking Harbhajan Singh to Virender Sehwag at first slip, who finally latched on to a catch after dropping a sitter on Day One.
The catch also gave Harbhajan a much coveted wicket in his 100th Test.
Mitchell Starc (3) became Jadeja's second victim after the Saurashtra lad found timber. James Pattinson (15 not out) stuck around for a while along with Nathan Lyon, as the lunch break was delayed by half-an-hour to give India time to pick up the last wicket.
Ashwin then obliged to take his seventh of the innings as Lyon (3) flicked him off his legs only for Virat Kohli to take a sharp catch at leg slip.
Brief Scores: Australia 380 (Michael Clarke 130, Moises Henriques 68, David Warner 59; Ravichandran Ashwin 7 for 103) vs India.
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First Published: February 23, 2013, 11:46 am
