By Jaideep Sarin, IANS,
Mohali (Punjab) : Determined old warhorse Sourav Ganguly, ably supported by stand-in captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, milked the Australian bowling to push India’s first innings score to 401 for the loss of six wickets at lunch on the second day of the second cricket Test match at the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) Stadium here Saturday.
The 36-year-old Ganguly, playing his last Test series, was just nine short of his 16th Test century while Dhoni was batting on 45 when the umpires called the lunch break.
Resuming on their overnight score of 311 for five, India lost the wicket of night-watchman Ishant Sharma (9), who spooned a catch to Simon Katich off debutant Peter Siddle, in the fifth over of the day.
The flat Mohali track on a relatively warm day showed no sympathy for the Australian bowlers as the Indian batsmen continued to dominate by scoring 90 runs in the first session.
Ganguly started from where he left off Friday and played strokes both sides of the wicket to move to 91 in 200 balls. With Dhoni, Ganguly added 76 runs for the seventh wicket. Their 50-run partnership came in 67 balls as India crossed the 350 mark in the 97th over.
Ganguly competed 7,000 Test runs Friday even as the day’s proceedings were dominated by Sachin Tendulkar who first surpassed West Indian Brian Lara’s highest Test runs record of 11,953 runs and then became the first batsman in cricket history to cross the 12,000 runs mark in Test matches.