By IANS
Sydney : Left-arm medium-pacer Rudra Pratap Singh dismissed the Australian openers cheaply and if only umpire Mark Benson had not missed hearing Ricky Ponting’s leg glance to Mahendra Singh Dhoni off Sourav ganguly, India would have had a terrific opening session in the second Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) here Wednesday.
Ponting (36) was also lucky to survive a leg side stumping off his nemesis Harbhajan Singh before steadying the innings in the company of Mike Hussey (37), adding 69 for the unfinished third-wicket partnership to go to lunch at 95 for two. Ponting was 17 and Australia 45 when Benson reprieved him and when Dhoni missed him he was 31.
Winning the toss on a pitch, which had bounce and movement, Rudra Pratap Singh removed openers Phil Jaques, for his first Test duck, and Matthew Hayden unusually cheaply before Ponting and Hussey brought the contest an even keel.
Jaques was the first to go without a run on the board as he attempted to swat at a short one to be caught by Dhoni. Singh struck again with a beauty, this time forcing Hayden to edge to be well caught at first slip by Sachin Tendulkar. Hayden made 13 and Australia were struggling at 27 for two.
Jaques, 28, had scored six consecutive Test half-centuries before Wednesday’s duck and his dismissal left him just short of the record of seven consecutive half-centuries held by West Indian pair Shivnarine Chanderpaul (2007-08) and Everton Weekes (1947-48) and Zimbabwe’s Andy Flower (2000-01).
The Indians, as suspected, had to go in without paceman Zaheer Khan who could not pass a fitness test after a nagging heel injury and was replaced by Ishant Sharma.
Australia named an unchanged outfit from the side, which won the first Test in Melbourne by 337 runs.