On the second day of the third Test match between India and Australia in the 2008 season, India reached a mammoth total of 515 for the loss of 6 wickets at tea. In the post-lunch session, Australia sent 3 Indian batsmen back to the pavilion and they would be satisfied regarding their performance, but for the huge 278 run partnership between Gautam Gambhir and VVS Laxman which indicated that the damage to the Australian aspirations was indeed history.

Laxman’s play

Laxman was not out for 160 at tea and this was his highest score after he had made 167 runs in 1999-2000 at Sydney against Australia. Due to this remarkable scoring, Laxman kept on pushing the game out of reach of the Aussies. Simultaneously, he became the second Indian batsman after Sachin Tendulkar to scored 2000 runs against Australia in the Test matches. This was Laxman’s sixth Test century against Australia. He played remarkably well against the pacers Mitchell Johnson and Brett Lee.

Australian bowling

Australia found the going so tough that Ricky Ponting himself had to bowl. This was the first time when he was bowling after the 2005-06 South African tour. It was surprising that Shane Watson was not offered bowling during the first three hours of the second day. In his first over, Watson took the wicket of Gambhir. It so happened that Gambhir attempted to guide a ball to third man. However, there was an inside edge and the ball moved from his leg over the stumps. When Gambhir was out, Sourav Ganguly came to bat. Ponting quickly asked the left arm wrist spinner, Simon Katich to bowl to Ganguly. It was also astonishing that earlier in this series Ponting had not permitted Katich to bowl to Ganguly. The reason was that in the previous season’s Test series Brad Hogg had dismissed Ganguly four times and the styles of Hogg and Katich are similar. The tactic of introducing Katich in the attack was very successful and Ganguly was caught by Ponting at short cover. The next batsman, Mahendra Singh Dhoni pulled directly down the pitch and Katich even had a hand on it. However, Dhoni could not be sent back to the pavilion and only a boundary was saved. If Katich had not stopped the ball, it would have hit the umpire Aleem Dar’s head and hence the umpire shook the bowler’s hand thankfully.

Australian wicketkeeper

Brad Haddin is having a tough time in the wicketkeeper’s position in this series. When Laxman was batting on 134, he had a thick edge on Watson’s bowling. Matthew Hayden was fielding at first slip and the ball was very near to Haddin. Even if Haddin wouldn’t have dived, he could have caught the ball. However, he didn’t move and this was his most obvious blunder. After some time Haddin got a similar opportunity and he didn’t make a mistake and caught it. However, Australia’s misfortune was that the victim was Dhoni on 27 and not Laxman.