It’s a pity that such a good win for India opened up with a rank bad judgment from umpire Rudi Koertzen. It began on the third ball of the afternoon when he upheld Sreesanth’s lbw appeal against Adam Gilchrist who got a thick inside edge to a full-length delivery. Sreesanth was spot on in the corridor of uncertainty while the other new-ball operator Ishant bowled a couple of wicket-taking deliveries and between a barrage of a wide, a couple of no balls and well-pitched up deliveries.

The first runs off the bat came through an edge when India’s nemesis Mathew Hayden was dropped on no score as Rohit Sharma palmed a difficult chance at third slip off Ishant. He edged once again but it was too high for the second silp to hold on a no-ball but the lanky India pacer was third time lucky—this time Hayden went for a booming cover drive and nicked it fine to Dhoni to complete the formalities. Ricky Ponting started off pushing through the cover region but was squared up once again on nine as Ishant hit the deck to earn extra bounce and take the shoulder of Ponting’s bat before landing in Sehwag’s safe hands.

Andrew Symonds walked in at 47/3 and put his head down along with Micheal Clarke in the middle. One-change Irfan Pathan got into the groove straightaway with a nagging line and soon forced Clarke to hit straight to Rohit at mid-wicket. Dhoni made a great tactical decision by pressing on with his the seamers—he got Sreesanth to bowl seven with a change of end after five and then brought back Ishant again for a second spell, who responded with the big wicket of Symonds, again by making the ball hold its line after four incoming deliveries in the 140s kmph range.

... contd.