By IANS,
Bangalore: A charged up India Tuesday set the stage for an exciting finish of the second and final cricket Test against a battered Australia, which lost seven wickets for 202 in second innings on the penultimate day at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here.
After taking a slender 17-run lead by scoring 495 to Australia’s 478 in the first innings, the Indian spin duo of Pragyan Ojha and Harbhajan Singh struck early to have the Australian’s staring at another defeat. India had won the first Test at Mohali Oct 4.
Barring skipper Ricky Ponting, who waged a lonely battle to make 77, and opener Watson (32), the remaining top five batsman reeled under the rampaging Indian attack, leaving the tailenders to stretch the lead to 185.
Ponting made 77 in the first innings.
First innings centurion (128) Marcus North lasted hardly two overs when Singh had him bowled for 3.
After putting up a 50-run partnership with Ponting, keeper Tim Paine got out early for 23, caught behind by Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni of S. Sreesanth’s quickie, the lone wicket the Kerala speedster got in this Test so far.
Earlier, resuming at overnight 435 for 5, Indian innings collapsed after adding 60 runs for the remaining five wickets.
Batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar surpassed the 200-mark for the sixth time in Test career before getting bowled to new comer Peter George for 214 with 22 boundaries and two mighty sixes.
After Tendulkar and Dhoni saw India cross the rival’s score (478) and put up 75-run sixth wicket partnership, the tail-enders did not last long.
Australian off-spinner Nathan Hauritz, who went wicketless till Tuesday and was sent on leather hunting by centurions Tendulkar and opener Mural Vijay during their 308 third wicket partnership, tasted success by getting Dhoni for 30 and S.Sreesanth for duck, before conceding a whopping 153 runs in 39.5 overs.
As in Australia’s first innings, Ojha (3) and Singh (2) had the lion’s share of wickets, with seamers Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth sharing one each.
With the last session and a day left for the match, another thrilling victory beckons India if they can snap the remaining three Aussie wickets early Wednesday and limit the target to around 200.