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Bangalore: It was Test cricket at its attentional best at the Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Thursday.Neither side asked for nor gave an inch on Day One of the opening Test. If the Indian bowlers were spot on for the most part, he Australian batsmen, led wonderfully by skipper Ricky Pointing maiden hundred in India, batted as if their lives depended on this one innings.
All this left the match evenly poised as the stumps score of 254 for 4 would indicate. Ponting had stated on match eve that his side would play new-age cricket, which among other things includes scoring at around four an over. But it was time-tested and old-fashioned methods that did the trick for him and his side.
Patient and watchful are not worlds normally associated with him but is getting to his 36 Test ton, Ponting 123 (329m, 243b, 13x4) was all that and more as be played soft and ran hard, exploiting all the slow moving India outfielders.
At least three wrongs could have been corrected on the first day of the Bangalore Test. Off the day's third ball, left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan appealed for a caught behind decision against Australian opener Mathew Hayden.
Pakistani umpire Asad Rauf up-held the appeal and Hayden, after the slightest hesitation, walked away. But TV replays seemed to indicate that it was more likely that the bat had brushed the pad and not the ball.
Then, in the 35th over of the day, Simon Katich survived what looked like a plumb leg-before appeal off Anil Kumble. While umpire Rauf this time decreed in favour of the batsman, a referral would surely have nailed Katich.
Much later in the day, Australian captain Ponting hit a ball back to Indian counterpart Kumble, who caught the ball and appealed for a catch, not with total conviction but with a lot of hope. Ponting stood his ground as if to indicate that it was a bump all and initially South African umpire Rudi Koertzen too was unmoved. Koertzen finally did consult Rauf, only to stick to the original decision.
Brief Score: Australia 254 for 4 (Ponting 123, Katich 66, Zaheer 2-39) v India
Day Highlight
First time ducks by Mathew Hayden in India. After posting 203 against Indian at Chepauk in 2000-01. Hayden has scored only one fifty in his last ten innings in India. This is also his first duck against India in 28 innings and and 12th in Tests.
Ninth times Harbhajan Singh has dismissed Ricky Ponting in 10 Tests - the most times any bowler has dismissed him. England's Dareen Gough, who has dismissed him 8 times, held the previous record.
16th centuries recorded by Ponting as captain, to establish a record most Test tons as skipper. Earlier, Allan Border and Steve Waugh with 15 tons, shared the record.
