Harbhajan Singh grabbed the wicket of Michael Clarke at a crucial time in the match. Despite occasional errors, Dhoni's men have kept it tight in the field.
Australia were 179/3 at the end of the second session.Harbhajan Singh got rid of Michael Clarke as soon as he found his footing on the crease. Rahul Dravid took a sharp catch at the slips. Clarke scored 14 runs off 39 balls.
Suresh Raina ran Ponting out. Ricky Ponting managed to score 71 runs off 124 balls. Ricky Ponting enjoyed a 2nd wicket partnership of 141 runs with Shane Watson.
Earlier, Shane Watson and Ricky Ponting anchored the Australian innings and posed problems for the Indian bowling attack.
At the end of the first session, Australia were in the driving seat, mainly due to a few dropped catches. Australia were 101/1 at the lunch break.
India grabbed an early wicket of Simon Katich, who departed after scoring just 6 runs. He lost his wicket to some clever bowling by Zaheer Khan. Simon Katich was out leg before wicket.
Meanwhile, Harbhajan Singh was declared fit to play after an initial injury scare. He passed an early morning fitness test to be included in the squad.
Earlier, Ricky Ponting won the toss and elected to bat first.
Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who has just returned from South Africa after playing in the Champions League Twenty20, will also have to switch quickly from Twenty20 to Test mode for the series.
The Australians, on the other hand, seemed to have acclimatise to the Indian conditions having been here for more than a week and done reasonably well in the three-day tour game though they also have to tackle with the Test match fitness of batsman Mike Hussey and pacer Doug Bollinger.
India are unbeaten on the Mohali pitch for the last 16 years. Australia, on the other hand, will try to defy the odds and pull off something which no team has been able to pull off in the last one and a half decade.
Nonetheless, India-Australia matches never fail to deliver. The series is bound to write a new page in the history books of the two countries.
Teams:
India: MS Dhoni, R Dravid, G Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, Z Khan, VVS Laxman, A Mishra, PP Ojha, CA Pujara, SK Raina, V Sehwag, I Sharma, S Sreesanth, SR Tendulkar, M Vijay
Australia: RT Ponting, MJ Clarke, DE Bollinger, PR George, NM Hauritz, BW Hilfenhaus, PJ Hughes, MEK Hussey, MG Johnson, SM Katich, MJ North, TD Paine, SPD Smith, SR Watson
source:espn
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