India recovered from a dramatic post-lunch collapse to set Australia a daunting target of 382 on a tricky fifth day track as the fourth and final cricket Test seemed headed for a nerve-wracking finish in Nagpur on Sunday. After securing a vital 86-run first innings lead, the hosts were cruising along comfortably at l16 for no loss with Virender Sehwag (92) and debutant Murali Vijay (41) giving a slid start before the top order batsmen fell in a heap to leave the team tottering at 166 for six at the tea interval. But captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (55) and Harbhajan Singh (52) brought the Indians back into the game with a gritty 108-run stand for the seventh wicket before the innings folded up for 295 about 15 minutes before close on the penultimate day. Australia were 13 for no loss in the second innings before bad light forced play to be called off with four ball remaining to be bowled, which means they need 369 runs on the last day to win the match. The stage is now set for a pulsating fifth day's play with the balance slightly tilted in India's favour as chasing such a stiff target on the last day could be daunting task for the visitors. Only three teams have chased a target of more than 382 in the fourth innings in the history of Test cricket. West Indies has the record of successfully chasing down 418 against Australia at St Johns in 2002-03. Australia had scored 404 against England at Leeds in 1948 and India had successfully chased 403 against West Indies in Port of Spain in 1975-76. Leading the four-match series 1-0, the Indians need only a draw to regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy while the Aussies have no choice but to win the game to retain the coveted trophy. Off-spinner Jason Krejza, who became only the sixth bowler in Test history to scalp eight wickets on debut when he finished with 8 for 205 in the first innings, was again the pick of the Australian bowlers with four for 134 while Shane Watson also chipped in with four for 42. The Indian first innings again got off to a rollicking start with Sehwag and Vijay remaining unseparated till the lunch break and managed to score at a brisk rate. Australia had used all their four frontline bowlers to try and unsettle the opening combination but to no avail till the break. Sehwag cover-drove Johnson for the first boundary of the morning in the second over and then debutant Vijay, who looked composed, reached out and guided Brett Lee to the third man fence. Sehwag, playing and missing at times, struck Lee, who is recovering from a stomach bug that forced him to be on drips after dehydration yesterday, for two fours by dispatching a full toss over the fast bowler's head and then slog-sweeping the bowler from outside the off. But the Indian innings got completely derailed in post lunch session as they lost six wickets in quick succession to allow the visitors to come back into the game. In a repeat of the second day's proceedings when India squandered away a good first session, the hosts were again put under severe pressure by Australia who broke the back of the innings, thanks to some superb bowling by Shane Watson and rookie off spinner Jason Krejza. The batsmen to be dismissed through a combination of good bowling and poor play in this senseless collapse were Murali Vijay (41), Virender Sehwag (92), the out-of-form Rahul Dravid (3), Sachin Tendulkar (12), V V S Laxman (4) and Sourav Ganguly, who was out for a duck in his farewell Test innings. Watson picked up two wickets while debutant Jason Krejza grabbed two, to be on a hat-trick for the second time in the match, and Lee scalped one while Tendulkar was run out in the last over before tea. There were no signs of the impending disaster when India resumed at 98 for no loss after lunch and quickly moved to 116 with Sehwag doing most of the scoring. But they suddenly got reduced to 142 for three in the first hour of play in the session, recovered poise a bit when Tendulkar and Laxman added 21 runs, and then lost three more wickets to be left gasping at tea. Watson did the early damage by getting rid off Vijay, who batted for 129 minutes and faced 81 balls while hitting five fours, with a late inswinger and Dravid, with an out-swinger, to continue the miserable time in the series for the former India skipper whose tally stood at 120 after seven innings. Lee, down with a stomach bug and dehydration yesterday, bowled with a lot of fire to send back the dangerous-looking Sehwag, by having the flashy opener caught down the leg-side when he was all set to notch up his 16th century. Sehwag struck ten fours and a lofted six over long on off Krejza, the bowling hero with a sensational 8-215 haul in his first innings in Tests, before glancing Lee's short rising ball going down the leg-side to 'keeper Brad Haddin who brought off a fine leg side catch. Tendulkar, who made 109 in the first essay, and Laxman who made 64, came to the crease when India had slumped from 116 for no loss to 142 for three inside of forty minutes into the second period of play and stemmed the rot by holding out for an hour before disaster struck. Laxman, after facing 33 balls, stretched forward defensively to Krejza's ball pitched two feet wide of the off stump and was stunned to see the ball spinning back and squeezing between the gap between his bat and pad to knock down the leg stump. Ganguly, who missed the distinction of joining the handful of batsmen who had made a century in his first and last Tests when he was out for 85 in the first innings, fell first ball when he tried to turn the sharp break of Krejza to the leg and got a leading edge which was caught brilliantly by the bowler diving forward. India, staggering at this sudden change in fortunes, got another huge setback when Tendulkar played Krejza to cover point fielder Cameron White and set off for a run while Dhoni failed to respond to his call and was run out at the striker's end.
