SYNOPSIS OF DAY 4 AT MOHALI

Wow, what a brilliant Test match we are having! The last Test played in India was the 2nd India - South Africa Test at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata. And now this one! Test match cricket is alive and kicking, biting, turning and doing all sorts of things even in India...

Today (Day 4) was the best day in this test so far... I love days that see heaps of wickets falling... and 14 was more than I bargained for last night!

When Watson began the attack this morning, it was good to watch. I think that innings shows, more than anything else, that scoring is still not too difficult on this pitch if the batsmen are looking to score. If they get bogged down, it will be extremely difficult.

Ishant's match-turning over was exhilarating to watch. Watson's wicket was gifted, not earned. And then Ponting and almost Clarke. What can I say about Ricky Ponting. In the lead up to this series, there was a slightly subdued talk about Ponting's new ailment called the 'short ball'. Subdued because short pitched stuff in Indian conditions was very unlikely to trouble a puller of the caliber of Ricky Ponting. But if Ponting is so keen to trouble himself with that shot, then so be it.

Tendulkar loves his cover drives and punches through the off side. They are the biggest run-generators for him. But he gave them all up in Sydney 2004 because they were letting him down. Once his confidence was restored, they were back. Ponting, who saw Tendulkar play that innings, should have learnt his lessons by now. Its not as if Ponting does not have any other shot in his repertoire... he has more than most other batsmen around. If only he could use them judiciously, he would increase his Test career by 2 years at least... that's a guarantee!

The second session was also panning out nicely before we saw an Ian-Gould-howler! Harbhajan should have been embarrassed to even appeal for it... instead, we had Mr. Gould raising his finger. Katich and Hussey had added 16 in 6.4 overs and were looking good... but after that, the next 5 wickets went down for just 38 runs in 13.4 overs. Target 216.

A tricky target... but manageable. And then came the second howler of the day - this time from the crooked finger of Billy Bowden. If anything, this was an even bigger howler than the first one. The big edge and the ball going outside off... what on earth was Bill thinking! Ben Hilfenhaus then bowled an inspired spell to skittle out a few more... and India ended at 55 - 4 with Sachin on 10* and Zaheer on 5*.

Oh man, I just can't wait for the Day 5 to commence. Though most believe that the balance is tilted towards Australia today, I still feel that India is not too far behind. The key is the fact that there are only 161 more runs to go. Two expensive overs tomorrow and Ponting will be forced to spread out his field a little... it may happen even earlier since he is known to be a defensive captain these days!

A lot will depend on Laxman's fitness tomorrow. If he can bat, it will be a huge thing for India. Because just the sight of Laxman walking out to bat (maybe with a runner) will help shift the momentum towards India. He's had a good history of 2nd innings scores and a good history of scores against Australia. Add the two together, and Ponting will be dreading the sight of Laxman walking out tomorrow. Plus, there is a small matter of Sachin Tendulkar still batting... he's looked comfortable against all bowlers in this Test, maybe except Marcus North ;)

An intriguing, exciting and exhilarating day of Test cricket awaits us tomorrow. Sad that there again won't be too many people witnessing it live from the stands!

P.S.: And yes, I was delighted to see Pujara make his first mark in Test cricket with the two catches. Does anyone know if they will be credited to him or the player on whose behalf he was fielding?

RANDOM FACTS AT THE END OF DAY 3

1. This was Sachin Tendulkar's 8th dismissal in the nineties in Test cricket... taking him to the 4th position alongside Kallicharran (WI) and Inzamam (Pak) in the all time list of most dismissals in the 90s behind Dravid (10), Steve Waugh (10) and Michael Slater (9).

2. Tendulkar also has 17 dismissals in his 90s in ODI cricket and 1 other occasion when he remained not out in his 90s. In One Day Cricket, this 18 occasions of being stranded in the 90s is a comfortable World Record... way ahead of 2nd-placed Grant Flower (Zim), Aravinda De Silva (SL) and Nathan Astle (NZ) at 9. Amusingly, Sachin would have had 52 tons in Tests and 55 in ODIs had he converted even half of his forays to the nineties into 100s!

3. On Day 2, Virendra Sehwag scored a fifty... and as a result, he has now managed a 50+ score in each of his last 11 Tests... a world record he jointly holds now with Sir Viv Richards (WI) and Gautam Gambhir (Ind). Gambhir had a chance to break Viv's record against South Africa at Nagpur earlier this year, but he failed. Will Viru go one better at Bangalore against the Aussies?

4. Sachin Tendulkar is not behind the above trio... he's now scored a 50+ score in each of his last 9 Tests. In fact, Sachin has scored a 50+ score in 17 of his last 19 Tests (starting from the match in which he surpassed Brian Lara... at the same ground and against the same opposition as he is playing now). What a phenomenal time he is having!

5. On Day 2, Zaheer Khan's 5-wicket haul was the 100th instance of a 5-for being recorded in an India-Australia Test match. Mitchell Johnson's 5-64 becomes 101st.

6. Mitchell Johnson is now the 8th highest wicket taker for Australia against India in Tests (34 wickets). Amongst the top 10 for Australia against India, Johnson has the 2nd worst average (32.79) after Shane Warne (43 @ 47.18)!

7. This is the 2nd time in 3 Tests that Marcus North has gotten a batsman out in his 90s. He got Salman Butt (Pak) stumped on 92 at Lord's before getting Sachin Tendulkar lbw today on 98.

ALL TIME WORLD XI - OPENERS AND WICKETKEEPER

The entire exercise of selecting an All Time World XI is extremely difficult... so I have chosen the two simplest positions to fill in first - the Openers and the Wicketkeeper. Why are they simple? Because there will only be 2 openers in all the World XIs and there will only be 1 Keeper. So first the Openers...

Here is a look at the Test statistics of the 16 openers eligible for selection:

My choices are the legendary Sir Jack Hobbs (England) and the on-his-way-to-be-legendary Virender Sehwag (India).

I did give a lot of consideration to 3 other names - Sunil Gavaskar (India), Barry Richards (South Africa) and Gordon Greenidge (West Indies). But I wanted to pick one aggressor with one solid man at the top. Sehwag easily edged out Greenidge for the role of the aggressor in my squad, and Hobbs beat Gavaskar to the top. A man who averaged 57 in the 1910s and 1920s had to be given some serious considerations. Barry Richards lost out because I am choosing an All-Time TEST XI. Despite his mighty prowess with the bat, Richards does not get into my squad as he played just 4 Tests. It is not his fault... but life was never fair!

Now coming to the wicketkeeper's slot, I don't need to go into the statistics. My choice was simple - Adam Gilchrist (Australia). I know a lot of people would pick Alan Knott, but Gilchrist scores above him for me. His keeping could not be faulted and he was the ideal aggressor lower down the order after what certainly will be a mighty middle order.

When the middle order is a little brittle, teams need to have a solid batting technician in their keeper at No. 6 / 7. But when you have a very strong and solid middle order, you can afford an aggressive man with the gloves. Thus, Gilchrist gets my nod.

I will do the analysis for the middle order soon...

RANDOM THOUGHTS AT THE END OF DAY 1

1. Shane Watson reaching his 100 off 258 balls... and I used to think that he was an opener in the Matthew Hayden mould, rather than Simon Katich!

2. How come Watson celebrated in such a sober manner on reaching 3-figures? No obnoxious smiling or anything annoying... Some relief for him nudging his way out of his infamous trysts with the nervous 90s...

3. How much money was Ishant Sharma paid for his 8 no-balls?

4. When will MS Dhoni next win a toss for India in his whites?

5. When was the last time Australia scored less than 225 over an entire day of batting? Or for that matter, spent an entire session of 33 overs strolling at less than 1.5 runs per over for 45 runs?

6. Good old David Shepherd would have cursed the Australians (Watson, North and Paine in particular)... they were stuck on 222 for 30 deliveries!

7. Finally, it was great to see Cheteshwar Pujara on the field during a Test match... even if it was only in the role of a substitute fielder!