India produced a perfect performance in the art of defensive cricket to take control of the fourth and final Test against Australia here on Saturday. Banking on a game plan that had the sure touch of captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indians managed to shut out Australia for 355 in the first innings to gain a handy 86-run lead.
At stumps, the hosts were none without loss in the second innings.
Having seen their attacking tactics fail to have an impact on the visitors on Friday, Dhoni decided to try and stem the run flow. After all, the Indians have a 1-0 lead and it is up to the Australians to force a result. Lose the battle but win the war — was the mantra.
The pacers kept the ball consistently outside the off stump to an 8-1 field throughout the morning session and a good part of the post-lunch one. The move paid off. The Australians lost their wickets in trying to break the shackles.
Simon Katich converted his overnight half-century into an hundred, 102 to be precise, but then he could add only 10 runs to his account. That despite spending more than an hour and a half at the crease.
The ever-reliable Michael Hussey kept the scoreboard ticking, but his dismissal, to a brilliant piece of fielding by Vijay, after lunch proved to be the turning point.
Dhoni, however, will have to thank his bowlers, especially Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma, for executing his plan to perfection. The two seamers bowled an inspired opening spell of 18 overs to stymie Hussey and Katich. In fact, Zaheer’s stamina was amazing as he continued to bowl till the lunch break after changing ends.
The left-arm pacer was unlucky not to get more than one wicket, that of centurion Katich. But his was a work-horse performance for a spell of 28-8-68-1. Lending good support to him was Ishant, who generated good pace with the second new ball as well. Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra also helped in applying the breaks.
Dhoni’s trick of using the first ball till the 125th over also paid rich dividends as on a slow wicket, it made strokemaking even more difficult. Yet, there was no justification for Australia’s poor run rate — 166 runs in 85 overs.
They could score only 42 runs in the first session and the scoring rate was marginally better (49) in the second when the field was spread as the spinners came on.
It was only when the lower-order pair of Cameron White and Brad Haddin showed some decisiveness that the scoring rate improved, fetching them 75 runs in the evening session.
Katich had a reprieve early in the day when Rahul Dravid dropped him off Ishant Sharma in the second over. The left-hander was on 94 then. But he hardly capitalised on it as Zaheer got him lbw with a huge in-swinger that struck him on the toes with 15 minutes to go for lunch.
The fall of Clarke, Hussey, and Watson in the space of 10 overs then effectively broke the Australians’ back.
Ishant Sharma had Clarke, beating him with pace for a caught behind dismissal. But the more crucial dismissal came when Murali Vijay Krishna ran out Hussey. The batsman pushed Harbhajan on the off and took off for a run, but Vijay, at silly point, showed remarkable reflex to come up with a one-handed stop and flick the ball back to the wicketkeeper. Dhoni, too, showed sharpness in quickly reaching out to the ball and breaking the stumps.
Harbhajan then claimed his 301st wicket when Shane Watson leaned forward to defend, only for the ball to roll on and disturb the timber.
From 229 for two, the Aussies had lost four wickets for 37 runs and were still trailing by 175 runs.
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