With 316/5 for Australia at the end of the day 1, India was in it as much as Australia was. Michael Clarke is a great find for Australia, like many others before him, and I think he is a good fit for the hole left by Steve Waugh.

He and Gilchrist were able to not only avoid giving India any early advantage, but at the end, took the game away from India. 474 is a total that ensures that Australia will not lose this match. And given the fact that it was only the second day, it almost means India will lose the match.

Oh, and then the typical (of old) Indian collapse started. Sehwag was lucky to be let off and he scored some runs, but as usual gave up his wicket when he should not have. Chopra’s career is practically over maybe after the next match. The Wall is in an unusual slump nowadays, and Laxman was taken by Warne, as the Aussies have been talking about all the time.

Ganguly was ok, but Yuvraj failed. Again. At the end, at 150/6, we are again staring at a follow on. And hence, avoiding an innings defeat is now the first goal. And that’s sad. Bhajji got a 5-for, but ultimately, it was no good at all. He should have been able to get the breakthroughs when we needed.

Now it is up to the tail to avoid the follow on and then some good bowling and hopefully a better batting performance.

Or, what seems more likely, a follow on performance, which better be improved over the first innings performance.

0-1 down in the series in 3.5 days. Much like the 2001 series.