Mohali, December 20
Second-wicket stand for 314 runs and 453 all out! This sums up the day’s work by India on the second day of the second Test against England at the PCA Stadium here today.

Gautam Gambhir and Rahul Dravid were superb today again. The batting duo started off from where they had left at close yesterday. Batting with more freedom and authority, they continued to pile on misery for England. They saw off a testing spell from England new ball bowlers to consolidate the innings further.

Yuvraj lets one fly past English fielders on the 2nd day of the Mohali Test. Tribune photo: S. Chandan P 22

When the hosts had a chance to put the game firmly out of grasp of the visitors, the much-vaunted middle order collapsed to hand England a chance to stage a comeback into the game.

Resuming from the overnight score of 179 for 1, Gambhir and Dravid added 141 runs more today in the 314-run second-wicket stand before Gambhir fell playing an ambitious stroke. At 314 for 2 and a whole lot of batsmen to come, the hosts had a chance to bat their rivals out of the match.

But squandering an advantage is what the Indians know best. They have done it on numerous occasions in the past and it again turned out to be the day again when they were hit by the malaise. Even when both Gambhir and Dravid were back in the pavilion, the hosts were in a situation to put a huge total on the board.

Though England bowlers stuck to their task and bowled well, they do not deserve the entire credit for the sudden collapse that the Indian middle order suffered. A combination of fine bowling and some reckless batting saw the hosts slide from a situation of 320 for 1 to 453 all out.

Gambhir and Dravid, however, deserve all the credit for the position the hosts are in. If Gambhir was commanding, Dravid was compact. If Gambhir played some spanking strokes, the latter was elegance personified.

More enterprising of the two, Gambhir batted beautifully and his typical pulls raced to the fence. When a double century was there for the taking, he just let the opportunity slip. A sudden rush of blood saw the southpaw attempt a mighty heave off off-spinner Graeme Swann but ended up being caught by Cook at point. Gambhir was batting at 179 at that time having faced 348 balls. During his marathon innings, the dashing southpaw struck 25 fours and one six.

A well-set Dravid was back in the pavilion soon thereafter. He unnecessarily took the aerial route off Swann, when batting on 136 and ended up giving tame catch to Monty Panesar at deep mid-off. This was his 26th Test century in which he hit 19 fours.

Swann was delirious when Sachin Tendulkar attempted an uncharacteristic and lazy sweep, but failed to connect. Swann immediately went up in a vociferous appeal, which was upheld.

An overly subdued VVS Laxman batted for 35 minutes and consumed 24 balls without scoring before he was trapped lbw by Flintoff by an in-dipping delivery.

Yuvraj Singh tried to steady the innings and played a couple of trademark forceful strokes, but over-ambition caused his downfall. Mahendra Singh Dhoni perished in a similar fashion to be caught smartly by substitute fielder Owais Shah at mid-on off James Anderson.

A little cameo down the batting order by Harbhajan Singh and a stubborm Mishra ensured that the innings get past the 450 mark. The day’s play was called off when nine overs were yet to be bowled due to fading light.

l Rahul Dravid’s 26th Test century (136) is his fourth against England. With this hundred, Dravid’s batting average this year has slightly improved - 805 in 15 Tests at an average of 32.20.

l Dravid is now the leading run-getter at Mohali — 645 at an average of 64.50 in eight Tests, surpassing Tendulkar’s tally of 568 (average 51.63) in 9 Tests.

l Dravid became the first player to share four stands of 300-plus for India.

l Gambhir and Dravid put on 314 for the second wicket, India’s second best partnership stand against England for any wicket in Tests, next only to the 316 between Yashpal Sharma and Gundappa Viswanath for the third wicket in the 1981-82 Chennai Test.

l Laxman’s 11th duck is his second against England.

l Mahendra Singh Dhoni (29) has missed scoring his sixth successive fifty as captain.

l Harbhajan Singh with 24 has recorded three successive scores of 20-plus for the first time in his career.

l Gambhir’s 179 off 348 balls is his second best score in Test, next only to his 206 against Australia at Delhi in October this year.

l Gambhir, for the first time in his Test career has aggregated 1,000 runs in a calendar year - 1037 at an average of 69.13 in eight Tests in 2008.

l Gambhir's career average has touched 48.00 for the first time - 1729 in 22 Tests at an average of 48.02, including four centuries and eight fifties.

l Gambhir’s 179 off 348 balls is now the highest individual innings at Mohali, eclipsing the 174 not out by Jimmy Adams for West Indies against India in 1994-95. — PTI 

Mohali, December 20
“I am greatly relieved.” This was the first reaction as Rahul Dravid, visibly relieved after having done all the hard work and silencing his critics with a fine 136 and allowing himself a rare smile, said while talking to newsmen today.

“It is nice to be contributing again. I had not contributed much for nearly a year. It feels nice to make an important contribution,” the former skipper said.

Asked how he rated his comeback ton, the genial batsman said it was among the most significant knocks he had played for the country. “I have not had a great year. It was natural for the people and the critics to speculate. It was tough personally. But now after getting runs, I am feeling nice,” the right-handed batsman observed.

Declining that he ever doubted his ability as a batsman during the long bad patch, Dravid said: “I always believed that I was playing well. During the Australia series, everybody told me that everything was right with my batting. But you need to show runs on the board. I firmly believed that once I get some runs, I will come good,” technically the most compact batsman of the era said.

“Teammates, Gary (Kirsten) and other people said everything was right about my batting. I too knew that but only the runs were not coming,” he said. “Gary and Upton constitute a very good team.They have worked really hard for the team.”

“I knew it was a matter of spending some time out there in the middle. I knew I will turn it around and it has happened,” he said.

Asked what efforts he put in to regain his form, the Karnataka batsman replied that first he went through a couple of videos to figure out what was wrong with his batting. “Having done that I decided to hit the nets. I worked really hard. People showed faith in me. Even the selectors were there who never put any pressure on me.”

Dravid also credited Gautam Gambhir for his impressive comeback. “Naturally, he bats aggressively. Due to his style of batting he took a lot of pressure off me. He gave me time settle down and play my game.”

About the speculation that he may be sent down the batting order, possibly at No 5, to make it a bit easier for him, Dravid quipped: “Nobody spoke to me about it. Pressure was there on me to try and score runs. Plus, there were my own expectations to come good. Anyway, I am happy to bat at any slot in the interest of the team”.

He mentioned rookie off-spinner Graeme Swann as the stand-out bowler of the day. “Swann tested us right through. Hopefully, the wicket will start to wear and our spinner, if they do well, will hold the key for us.”

Quizzed about the prospects in the game, he retorted: “On Indian tracks , the game tends to meander for a day or two. Hopefully, the game will quicken up. Things here can happen quickly in the last 3-4 days. I hope that our 300-plus stand turns out to be a match-winning one.”

Mohali, December 20
Rookie off-spinner Graeme Swann was highly satisfied after England clawed their way back into the game dealing some crucial blows towards the fag end of the day.

From a position of immense strength (320 for 1) the Indian middle order virtually committed harakiri. The wickets kept on tumbling at regular intervals as the side was bowled out for 453 runs.

Barely able to hold back his enthusiasm, Swann was delighted to take the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar. The bowler was also responsible for sending back both the century makers Gautam Gambhir and Rahul Dravid. After the hard day’s work Swann had an impressive haul of three wickets in his marathon spell of 45 overs.

“I am still early into my Test career. It feels nice to get the wicket of someone like Tendulkar,” he said, adding “All I want is to get a game at the moment. I want to have a decent Test career. And if I do well I am sure I will get more games. There is another tour coming and I’ll be delighted if I play in it.”

About the relative lack of success by Monty Panesar, Swann said: “Monty is a class act. We want him to get going.” Hailing his team’s bowling efforts, Swann said it was creditable to restrict India to a score of 453. “If we can bat well from here on, anything is possible in the game.”

A lot, he said, would depend on how the Indian spin duo of Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra fare in the game. Swann was candid and conceded that the unexpected defeat in Chennai hurt the team. “Me and Monty expected to win the game. But we were outplayed by a genius on the day,” he said.

Hailing the efforts Gambhir and Dravid, who threatened to shut England completely out of the Test, he said they did a great job for India. “It’s a very good pitch. Once you get a partnership, it’s important to get going and get a very big one. Gambhir and Dravid did so well,” Swann said.

Melbourne, December 20
Under pressure Australian opener Matthew Hayden's future would be reviewed at the end of the Test series against South Africa, coach Tim Nielsen said.

Nielsen admitted that Hayden’s prolonged bad patch was putting pressure on Australia’s top order but said the team management will have to be patient on the Queenslander who has 8,524 Test runs behind him though scored just 48 runs at an average of 9.6 this summer.

“At the end of the series we will sit down and see where he is. It will make it more difficult if his scores are not as consistent as he would like them to be, but at the moment we just have to be patient,” Nielsen said.

“It’s nice for the rest of the team when he is in form. We have had Ricky Ponting in inside the first 10 overs a few times and that can wear down your top order a bit. Our opening bats know they have to set up a platform for the middle order and at the moment Matt hasn't got the runs he would like,” Nielsen was quoted as saying by Sydney Morning Herald.

Nielsen suggested that despite all the speculation of Hayden’s retirement, the Queenslander had made a private decision to continue till the next 
Ashes. — PTI

Mumbai, December 20
A sensible unbeaten century from Uday Kaul kept Punjab in the hunt against Mumbai in their Ranji Trophy Elite Division Group ‘A’ match at the Brabourne Stadium here today.

The 21-year-old Himachal-born wicketkeeper-batsman remained unconquered on 117 at stumps on day three of the four-day tie, his second successive ton after his knock of 106 against Hyderabad in the previous match, as Punjab ended the day at 363 for eight.

Punjab, who trailed Mumbai by 234 runs in the first innings, are ahead overall by only 129 runs, but even to reach this situation they had to thank, Kaul and his rollicking stand of 107 runs with the attacking Ankur Kakkar (58 with three sixes and five fours).

The fifth wicket duo repaired the damage as they had done in the first innings with Kaul, who faced 174 balls in his 252-minute innings and struck 16 fours, and Kakkar joining forces at 169 for four and then taking the total to 276.

Kakkar, who used the slog sweep to good effect against Mumbai off spinner Ramesh Powar, faced only 64 balls in making his second half century of the match, having top-scored with 71 in Punjab’s first innings score of 202.

Kaul and Chandan Madan (32) then put on 55 runs after Kakkar’s fall before Mumbai struck three quick blows. At stumps, Kaul was accompanied at the crease by Sarabjit Ladda, who was yet to score.

Earlier, opener Sunny Sohal made a half century (51), after Punjab resumed at 18 for no loss, while Karan Goel, Ravi Inder Singh and skipper Pankaj Dharmani could not score big after settling down.

Punjab lost the wickets of Goel, Sohal and Ravi Inder before lunch, taken at 158 for three, and then Dharmani soon after the break before Kaul and Kakkar took the attack to the Mumbai bowlers in overcast conditions.

Goel was bowled by Rajesh Verma who then sent back Sohal with a superb leg cutter, which the opener edged to Mumbai stumper Vinayak Samant. Verma took these two wickets in a six-over spell for 16 runs.

Powar dismissed Ravi Inder and Dharmani on either side of lunch and Mumbai looked set to end the match today itself. However, Kaul and Kakkar batted in a forthright manner to deny Mumbai another wicket till the stroke of tea when the latter was dismissed by Usman Malvi. — PTI

Scoreboard

Punjab (1st innings): 202

Mumbai (1st innings): 436

Punjab (2nd innings)

(Overnight 18 for no loss)

Sohal b Verma 51

Goel lbw Verma 26

Inder Singh c Samant b Powar 33

Dharmani c Nayar b Powar 34

U Kaul batting 117

Kakkar c Samant b Malvi 58

C Madan b Rohit 32

Gagandeep c Rohit b Powar 1

Amanpreet c Rahane b Chavan 0

Ladda batting 0

Extras: (b 1, lb 7, nb 3) 11

Total: (8 wickets, 91 overs) 363

Fall of wickets: 1-71, 2-84, 3-124, 4-169, 5-276, 6-331, 7-340, 8-341.

Bowling: Powar 32-2-154-3, Chavan 21-4-59-1, Malvi 12-1-41-1, Shaiklh 9-1-53-0, Verma 10-2-30-2, Nayar 6-1-17-0, Rohit 1-0-1-1.