BANGALORE, (Reuters) – India’s Sachin Tendulkar passed another major milestone but a dogged century from Australian Marcus North put the touring side in control of the second test yesterday.
North’s career-best 128 was the cornerstone of the Australian first innings which folded for 478 at tea on day two, but not before their lower half had added 193 runs to their overnight score of 285 for five wickets.
In reply, India made a feeble start, losing the explosive Virender Sehwag (30) and bail-out specialist Rahul Dravid (one) in quick succession.
Tendulkar remained unbeaten on 44 with opener Murali Vijay (42) at the other end with India still trailing Australia by 350 runs.
“It’s going to be extremely important tomorrow that we have a very big partnership,” Tendulkar told Neo Cricket channel after the second day’s play which ended with India on 128-2.
“A couple of partnerships will bring us back in the game and put us in a decent position. Right now it’s one of those challenging phases.”
Playing his 171st test, Tendulkar became the first batsman to amass 14,000 test runs in the 27th over of the Indian innings, hitting off-spinner Nathan Hauritz for a boundary.
Earlier, North’s 149-run sixth wicket stand with fellow overnight batsman Tim Paine (59) defied the Indian bowlers in the morning session and took the visitors past the 400-run mark.
North mixed caution with occasional aggression, slog-sweeping Pragyan Ojha for the first six of the innings before retreating into his defensive shell.
Paine’s was a more eventful knock in which he was caught behind off a Shanthakumaran Sreesanth no-ball and was dropped by Suresh Raina off Ojha before the left-arm spinner returned to settle the score.
North completed his fifth test century in the next over and eventually fell to Harbhajan Singh after a resolute 240-ball knock with 17 boundaries and a six in it.
“I got a start last night, so I needed a big score,” North said.
“It’s a very good batting wicket, so it will be nice to get a couple of early wickets tomorrow. They have got a partnership in Vijay and Sachin but we will come out very hard tomorrow.”
Australia trail the two-match series 1-0.
Scoreboard
Scoreboard
Australia first innings:
(overnight 285-5)
S Watson c Dhoni b Ojha 57
S Katich c Dravid b Singh 43
R Ponting lbw b Raina 77
M Clarke c Raina b Singh 14
M Hussey c Sehwag b Khan 34
M North c Sreesanth b Singh 128
T Paine st Dhoni b Ojha 59
M Johnson lbw b Ojha 0
N Hauritz run out 17
B Hilfenhaus not out 16
P George st Dhoni b Singh 2
Extras: (b-9, lb-12, w-1,nb-9) 31
Total: (all out; 141 overs) 478
Fall of wickets: 1-99 2-113 3-132 4-198 5-256 6-405 7-415 8-458 9-459 10-478
Bowling: Khan 23-5-84-1, Sreesanth 21-1-79-0 (6nb, 1w), Ojha 42-7-120-3 (2nb), Singh 43-3-148-4, Sehwag 4-1-7-0 (1nb), Raina 8-1-19-1.
India first innings
M Vijay not out 42
V Sehwag c Johnson b Hilfenhaus 30
R Dravid c North b Johnson 1
S Tendulkar not out 44
Extras: (b-4, lb-2, w-5) 11
Total (two wickets, 34.2 overs) 128
To bat: C. Pujara, S. Raina, M.S. Dhoni, H. Singh, Z. Khan, P. Ojha, S. Sreesanth. Fall of wickets: 1-37 2-38
Bowling (to date): Hilfenhaus 9-2-18-1, Johnson 7-2-30-1 (1w), George 5-1-18-0, Hauritz 11.2-0-45-0, Clarke 2-0-11-0.
