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Johnson’s double strike slows India reply

A double strike from Australian paceman Mitchell Johnson put the brakes on an aggressive reply from India late on day two of the first test on Saturday.

By (Reuters)

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Published: Sat 2 Oct 2010, 7:25 PM

Last updated: Mon 6 Apr 2015, 1:20 PM

Opener Virender Sehwag struck a 54-ball 59 with the help of 10 fours as India reached 110 for two at stumps, after Zaheer Khan’s five-wicket haul had restricted Australia to 428 in their first innings.

Rahul Dravid (21) and nightwatchman Ishant Sharma (0) will return on Sunday hoping to erase the 318-run deficit.

Australia had made it past the 400-mark thanks to a career-best 92 from Tim Paine, with Shane Watson, who resumed on 101, departing in the morning session after a well-compiled 126.

Watson, dropped twice on Friday, departed when Harbhajan Singh orchestrated a bat-pad dismissal to cut short the opener’s 338-ball knock.

Paine, dropped by Indian captain M S Dhoni off Zaheer Khan on Friday, made the most of the reprieve in company of Mitchell Johnson (47), raising 82 runs for the seventh wicket.

Zaheer removed Johnson to break the stand and returned to dismiss Paine and complete his five-wicket haul with the batsman eight runs short of his maiden test century.

Paine faced 196 balls during his patient innings, hitting 12 boundaries in the process.

Sehwag wasted little time in asserting himself in the reply and was particularly harsh on Doug Bollinger.

Losing opening partner Gautam Gambhir (25) to Johnson had little impact on Sehwag who kept scoring freely until the pacer induced a leading edge in the penultimate over of the second day’s play to send him back.