Ricky Ponting hit a crucial fifty and Michael Clarke made an assured 36, but the Australians will leave Hyderabad with more questions than answers. Their bowlers once again were second-best; Board President’s XI set the Australians an impossible target of 434 by declaring 47 minutes after lunch. Yuvraj Singh played a vital role in building BP XI’s formidable lead, scoring an entertaining hundred, while Wasim Jaffer contributed 93.

For the visitors, the important phase of the day was Ponting’s batting against spin, especially Piyush Chawla, who had knocked him out in spectacular fashion in the first innings. It was a technical draw. Ponting laced a cover drive early in the contest but was beaten a couple of times when he tried to cut. Tea intervened, and as it happened Ponting then didn’t face Chawla much: at one point of time he had played only four deliveries from Chawla as compared to the 28 against Pragyan Ojha and Yuvraj. Ponting looked pretty comfortable against Ojha, using his feet and clattering him over long-on a couple of times. Chawla got ten more balls at Ponting, who started to stretch out to defend. Chawla dragged back the length and earned a close lbw shout. Just when the contest got interesting, the game ended in a stalemate. For details see www.cricinfo.com

No related posts.