It was Ishant Sharma who got the wickets. He bowled quick and send down a few testing bouncers. He clearly was the best Indian bowler on display today and it was his willingness to bend his back and use the shorter-stuff cleverly to his advantage and hitting the line that kept the batsmen busy throughout.

Ishant picked two wickets in one over, and added the wicket of skipper Mark Higgs before lunch even as Chris Rogers looked solid in his innings of 62 before Harbhajan Singh ended his stint at the middle trapping him plumb in front.

But the best batting effort for the hosts came from John Rogers—no relation to the other Rogers—who took advantage of the generosity of the visitors’ bowling.

The 21-year-old missed out on a deserving century—caught by VRV off RP Singh for 98 — and walked off to a warm applause from the Indians and a standing ovation by the 2000-odd spectators at the Manuka Oval.

RP was the seventh change bowler, and he had to come into operation because the proceedings in the middle were getting a bit too embarrassing for the visitors.

Tomorrow will be one last chance for Sehwag, Kaarthick and Yuvraj to put their hand up for selection.

Perhaps just one chance for the fast bowlers, and that too on a wicket that wasn’t quick by any standard, was a bit unfair. But cricket has always been a batsman’s game.

Brief scores: India (Ist Innings) 325/9 decl vs ACT XI (Ist Innings): 292/8 in 93 overs (Chris Rogers 60, John Rogers 98; Ishant Sharma 3/26, RP Singh 2/16).