SOURAV GANGULY PROVES HIS PERFORMANCE BEFORE RETIRE-16 CENTURY
Retiring stalwart Sourav Ganguly notched up his 16th Test century while stand-in skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni missed the mark by a whisker before their bowling colleagues landed late blows on Australia to put India in the box seat on day two of the second cricket Test in Mohali on Saturday.
Finishing the day at 102 for four wickets is hardly what Australia captain Ricky Ponting would have fancied and Michael Hussey (37) would have a crucial role to play tomorrow if the visitors are to avoid follow on and wipe out the arrears.
Sourav Ganguly (102) struck his 16th century in his 111th Test -- which has already seen him cross the 7000-mark -- and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (92) fell just eight runs shy of his ton as India's first innings ended with 469 runs on board.
Australia needed a good start to their reply but by the time their innings was into its eighth over, opener Matthew Hayden (0) and captain Ricky Ponting (5) were cooling their heels in the hut with the score reading 17.
Zaheer Khan stretched Hayden's bad patch by pegging back the off-stump with his third delivery and Ishant Sharma, not to be left behind, had his bunny again in Ponting, who had survived a leg before appeal before his luck ran out.
Australia had barely weathered the crisis when Amit Mishra claimed his first Test victim in Simon Katich (33), castling the left-hander who looked well set, and then removed Michael Clarke (23) with the last ball of the day.
The visitors could have been in further trouble but Dhoni twice failed to pouch edges offered by Hussey. India resumed this morning on 311 for five and the grit and gumption that have replaced the flair and aggression in the final phase of Ganguly's career were on full display on Saturday.
The retiring left-hander, who will hang up his boots after this series, shunned extravagance in his single-minded devotion for another ton under his belt and nothing could really distract him.
He did pull Brett Lee for a four early in the morning but soon retreated into a cocoon, dealing only in singles and twos, settling for the hardwork rather than heroics.
Australia did manage to remove nightwatchman Ishant Sharma (9) with a clever field placing, with the lanky Indian fending Peter Siddle for a dolly at leg gully but Dhoni then joined Ganguly in the middle and their contrasting approach meant the run rate was revived while there was no immediate setback either.
Ganguly tip-toed his way into the 90s and then flicked Cameron White for a boundary that brought up his 100. Visibly relieved to have proved that he still has that hunger in him, the left-hander pumped his fist and acknowledged the applaud, elated to have done his bit, propping up the side and notching up a couple of individual milestones in the process.
The five-and-half-hours' vigil had probably sapped Ganguly and by the time he stepped out -- first instance of such rush of blood in an otherwise compact knock -- to hit White out of the park, he was never in control of it and managed only to hole out in long-off.
By then, he had added 109 runs with Dhoni and that Ganguly's 225-ball knock had just eight boundaries in it only underlines his hard work.
At the other end, Dhoni hardly looked liked the pea of the same pod. He took Australians by the scruff of their neck and battered them with some power-hitting.
The first ball he faced, from Lee, raced to the boundary and that was an ominous portent. Peter Siddle tried to rattle him with a bouncer but could only watch the ball sail over fine leg fence for the first six of the match.
On the other side of the lunch break, White was hoicked for the maximum that brought up Dhoni's fifty. Both Siddle and White were meted the same treatment again but with Harbhajan Singh (1) and Zaheer Khan (2) perishing in quick succession, Dhoni was running out of partners.
Siddle finally exacted some sort of revenge when he trapped Dhoni with an inswinger that seemed heading for leg but umpire Rusy Koertzen believed otherwise and Dhoni's dismissal also dropped curtains on India's first innings.
The eight boundaries and four sixes that flew from Dhoni's blade during his 124-ball knock provided the entertainment to the sparse crowd at the PCA Stadium. For the visitors, Siddle and Mitchell Johnson equally shared six wickets between them while White scalped two.
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