Match evenly poised after Virender Sehwag's fifty

Riding on a brutal yet swift counter attack by Virender Sehwag, India raced to 110 for two at stumps, in reply to visitors' challenging first innings total of 428, on the second day of the first Test at the PCA Stadium here.

At the end of day's play, Rahul Dravid was batting on 21 and nightwatchman Ishant Sharma was on zero.

Sehwag batted in a manner only he is capable of and was also dismissed in a manner which is pretty similar to some of his earlier dismissals.

He smashed the Aussie bowlers to all corners of the park scoring 59 in 54 balls with the help of 10 boundaries before Mitchell Johnson banged one short but ball arrived late on Sehwag as he had closed the face of the bat. It was Michael Clarke who took a dolly at extra cover.

Sehwag with this 23rd Test half-century, now, has 50 plus knocks in 11 consecutive Tests and also shares the world record for most of number of 50s with Gautam Gambhir and Vivian Richards. Courtesy Sehwag's blistering innings, India trail by 318 runs.

Sehwag stamped his authority as he hit Ben Hilfenhaus over third man, punched Doug Bollinger through covers, steered Mitchell Johnson to deep thirdman and heaved Nathan Hauritz over extra cover for boundaries that made the pitch, which till then seemed a difficult one, look easy to bat on.

He added 81 with Gautam Gambhir (25) in only 13.2 overs before the latter fell leg before to a Johnson delivery that kept low.

Earlier in the day, India were dealt a 'Paineful blow' as rookie wicketkeeper-batsman Tim Paine scored a gutsy 92 to defy the Indian bowlers from wrapping the Aussie innings quickly.

Paine, who was dropped on nought by the Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni off Zaheer Khan yesterday, cashed in on the opportunity as he shared three important partnerships of 53, 82 and 54 runs with Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson and Ben Hilfenhaus respectively. That helped Australia bat for 151.4 overs and reach a score which looks imposing on a slow track.

Playing only his third Test, Paine showed a lot of composure on a difficult track as he hit 12 boundaries in his 196-ball knock. He was unlucky to miss what would have been a well deserved maiden Test ton, being caught by VVS Laxman in the slips off Zaheer.


Zaheer, easily the most potent among Indian bowlers, finished with figures of five for 94 in 30 overs -- his 10th five-for in Test matches. Harbhajan got three for 114 but was far from his best. Ojha finished with one for 113 but his figures were heavily damaged in the second session mainly by Johnson who played a little cameo scoring 47 off 66 deliveries with help of five fours and three sixes.

It has been a difficult Test match for Dhoni both as a captain and a player. He was pathetic behind the stumps as both the catches he dropped proved costly. Watson scored 126 after being dropped on 37 and Paine hit 92 after getting a life on zero.

Dhoni's helplessness in not being able to take the second new ball before 147th over also proved crucial in the context of Aussie innings. The reason for being late was Ishant Sharma's absence from the field yesterday.

Ishant had to field for 48 overs today before he was allowed to bowl again.

After a sedate a first session that saw only 71 runs scored of 29 overs, Johnson-Paine duo added 82 runs in 22 overs. The Australians scored 95 runs in the second session losing only two wickets.

Johnson, chanced his arms and was successful taking Harbhajan and Ojha to cleaners. As Paine anchored the innings from one end, Johnson simply plonked his frontfoot and heaved the deliveries over long-on.

Earlier, a dogged 53-run partnership between Shane Watson and wicketkeeper batsman Tim Paine in the morning session set it up for Johnson to have a go at the Indian bowlers in the post-lunch session.

At lunch, Australia were 295 for six, after centurion Shane Watson became the only batsman to be dismissed during the session.

The star for Australia on the first day, Watson was finally dismissed by Harbhajan Singh after scoring 126. His 458-minute vigil ended when Harbhajan got an odd ball to bounce and the batsman didn't commit fully on the frontfoot.

The resultant bat-pad catch was taken by Gautam Gambhir standing at forward short leg. Watson hit 10 boundaries in his 338-ball innings.