Hussey without a fuss

BANGALORE: Virender Sehwag may have a reason to be unhappy with the Bangalore weather on Friday but Anil Kumble must have retired to the team hotel happy after the second day’s play of the first Test against Australia. A sudden cold breeze followed by an unexpected downpour cut short Sehwag’s passage into yet another half century but India were spared of the tension of facing the Australian pacers for too long in the worsening light.

Both Indian openers came out — rather came in — hale and hearty from the fickle weather on Friday evening after Sehwag unleashed a flurry of boundaries to help his side a give strong reply to Australia, who ended their first innings at an impressive — if not formidable — total of 430. Sehwag hammered seven fours in a highly entertaining innings of 43 (off 55 balls) and took India — in the company of fellow opener Gautam Gambhir — to 68 for no loss but a couple of other players were the real stars of the day.

Mike Hussey finished the job that Ricky Ponting ventured out to do on the first day. The 33-year-old Western Australian piled on the agony of Indian bowlers with an innings full of character to lead Australia’s surge in the Test. He was the last man out with a score of 146 (276b, 15x4, 1x6) but he was involved in 264 of the 430 runs the visitors made on a difficult Chinnaswamy Stadium wicket.

India got the needed breakthrough early on in the day, when Shane Watson was out on day’s third over but Hussey ensured that the Indian bowlers did not run with away with the game.

The left-hander showed an infinite patience and a ravenous appetite for runs as he stitched together a couple of half century partnerships to give respectability to his side’s total. At the crease Hussey may not be poetry in motion but he showed enough elegance, eloquence and intelligence to survive on a difficult pitch and testing conditions.
He raised his ninth century to ensure his Bradmanesque average remained in tact.

The other hero of the day was India’s spearhead. Zaheer Khan exhibited a never-say die spirit and proved that he enjoys bowling not just with new ball. In an incisive spell of reverse swing, he breached the defences of Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson and the impregnable Hussey to record his sixth five-wicket haul. The feat complemented the efforts of Ishant Sharma who bowled with a lot of fire and aggression to justify his reputation of being India’s  bowling sensation.

Nine wickets for pacers have proved that the Indian skipper may have erred in judgement by not going with an extra pacer but his worries must be elsewhere. At a time when there is a clamour for the heads of the seniors, the Indian skipper went wicketless for 43 overs. But more than that, he must be worried that Australia have won every Test in which Hussey had scored a century.