Ind Aus T1 Day 2 Stumps: Paine's Pushes Australia Past 400; Sehwag Departs After Blaze

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Sreelata YellamrazuOct 2 2010

If Australia found themselves on a precipice at the end of the first day of the first Test of the India Australia series in Mohali, there was no doubt they were in the ascendancy at stumps on the second day.

tim paine test cricket

Shane Watson continued to hold fort for a while, sharing a stand with wicket keeper Tim Paine, playing his first Test in India. However, the latter looked at relative ease and soon gathered up a force of his own, notching runs with sublime ease.

Watson was sent back for 126 by Harbhajan Singh on a rather arid day for wickets for India but it came after fifty-three run partnership for the sixth wicket. Paine then came to the forefront as the Australian low order began to seriously dent Indian ambitions.

Australia's score was 275 for six when Watson departed. But by the time Australia were done in the first innings, they were sitting on a hefty score of 428, through the cumulative efforts of Paine, Mitchell Johnson and Ben Hilfenhaus. Johnson has always fancied himself as something of an all rounder, proving to be a thorn in the flesh in similar situations when the opposition thought they held the upper had on Australia. The case was no different in Mohali.

Johnson struck a partnership with Paine's whose ever growing stature could threaten Brad Haddin's place. This partnership of eighty-two runs for the seventh wicket between Paine and Johnson in which the latter contributed forty-seven runs including three sixes completely changed the complexion of the firs Test until that point.

But Australia were not done yet when Johnson was sent home by Zaheer Khan, who snagged a five-for for his efforts, with the visitors' score reading 357 for eight. Ben Hilfenhaus took on the mantle of being a pain in the neck of the hosts as another handy partnership of fifty-four ensued between Paine and Hilfenhaus who remained unbeaten on twenty. Unfortunately for Paine, he fell to a virtually unplayable delivery from Zaheer with his personals core on ninety-two, and deserving of a century, after making the most of the early dropped chance gifted by the Indians, as they did Watson.

The Indians would not have appreciated the fact that not only were they stranded under the heat for as long as they did but also, had to face a gargantuan amount of runs they did not anticipate being conceded to the opposition.

If there is one man the Australians have been openly talking about, it was Virender Sehwag, whom even the Australian coach, Tim Nielsen, acknowledged as being the threat in changing any match situation. Sehwag was certainly going about doing that, as the Indian openers paced themselves to negate the Australian bowling under the sweltering sun.

Mitchell Johnson eventually gave Australia the breakthrough with India's score of eighty-one when he trapped Gautam Gambhir in front for twenty-five. Barely twenty runs later, Johnson struck an even deadlier blow just short of the end of the day's play. Sehwag, after a well constructed and comforting play for the hosts, fell to a soft dismissal, after making fifty-nine runs but looking good for a lot more.

Once again the Australians would be heading to the dressing room a contented lot, happy to see the back of Sehwag, with Ishant Sharma coming out to do nightwatchman duty with Rahul Dravid, India looking shortchanged at 110 for two.

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