Australia vs India – 4th Test – Ponting and Clarke pound India
Sublime centuries from Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke pounded a lacklustre India on the opening day of the 4th Test, at the Adelaide Oval, January 24, 2012.
Both remained unbeaten on 137 and 140 respectively to end on 335 for 3, as the tourists lost control of the game after striking early blows.
With temperatures on the higher side, Clarke rightly opted to bat first making one change to the side which saw spinner, Nathan Lyon coming in for Mitchell Starc, the left-armer pacer.
The match followed the Sydney script after the host’s lost three quick wickets, two of which scooped up by Ravichandran Ashwin, who too made a return to the side in place of Vinay Kumar. The spinner was introduced early by stand in skipper, Virender Sehwag
and got rid of Shaun Marsh – bowling the left-hander through his defences.
Ed Cowan was on 30 and well set before he drove uppishly to the cover region as Aussie lost momentum at 84 for 3. Earlier, veteran pacer, Zaheer Khan had caught David Warner lbw, which for the time being put his side in the ascendency.
However, it was the best the tourists could conjure up as Ponting and Clarke then took the task of ending a perfect batting day on a near perfect note.
Following a similar pattern of their mammoth partnership at Sydney where the Kangaroos skipper went on to make a maiden triple hundred, while Punter brushed aside his poor form to register a century, both men again clobbered their opponents with relative
ease, ending the second session by adding 130.
The final session brought little luck for the Men In Blue as Ponting thrashed Zaheer Khan to the point boundary to bring his ton. His innings was crafty by all means, becoming among a handful of players to make 13000 Test runs.
His partnership with the skipper looked ominous and while he showed a few nerves in the nineties, Clarke brought up his three figure score in effortless fashion, striking consecutive fours off pacer Umesh Yadav to punch the air in delight.
The Indians looked shell shocked and even failed to contain the duo, who ended the day with another unbroken stand in excess of 200.