Weather, Hayden rob initiative

The problem with the colours, however, was the clouds and the rain they accompany. It was a painful reminder of the constant walks on and off the field in an effort to piece together an engrossing day of Cricket in the second Test here.

Four rain interruptions came through today—one extended lunch and one forced early tea—leading to an extended hour of play and a half-hour early start tomorrow. That will absorb seven extra overs from today, and in the process one was left with only five overs lost on the fourth day.

Sunday promises similar gloom, but there was also some sunny action on-field today. Australia are 282/4 in 83 overs —- 213 ahead in the second innings with Michael Hussey relatively lucky to be still surviving on 87 and Andrew Symonds batting on 14.

However, Saturday’s star attraction with the willow was, for a change, a left-hander who uses his bat like a knife and with brutal force to cut open the field in contrast to Laxman’s soft brush-like strokes. And Matthew Hayden’s towering presence was much in contrast to a little man’s, who celebrated with arms held up yesterday. Sachin Tendulkar was among those who applauded Hayden’s century (123) today.

Hayden and Hussey began a crucial afternoon session with extra caution, with the pitch wearing down near the footmark area, precisely where Kumble and Harbhajan were hitting with clever variations in pace and flight.

There was a lot of padding up, interspersed with the sweep, against Kumble particularly. Hayden reached his half-century from 101 balls and looked more comfortable as he progressed, while Indians looked towards the other end to gain a breakthrough.

At the other end, Hussey frustrated the Indians as a string of near misses allowed him to stay on. It was compounded after Benson replied in the negative to an lbw appeal from Anil Kumble when the batsman on 22, hit plumb standing on the backfoot. Yuvraj barely got his hands to a tough chance at mid-wicket, before Benson again said no to an RP Singh appeal when Hussey edged on 45 to Dhoni to a leg-side delivery.

... contd.