Ponting And Watson Put Australia In Decent Position

Ponting And Watson Put Australia In Decent Position

Suresh Raina (right) appeals successfully for the wicket of Ricky Ponting, who made 77.

©REUTERS/Andrew Caballero-Reynolds (INDIA - Tags: SPORT CRICKET) Picture Supplied by Action Images

Australia 285-5 (Ponting 77, Watson 57) v India
Second Test, Bangalore, day one
Scorecard

Ricky Ponting and Shane Watson scored half-centuries as Australia closed day one of the second and final Test against India on 285 for five in Bangalore.

An even day's play saw each Australian batsman, save for Michael Clarke, who made 14, get starts but India chipped in with wickets to keep themselves in the contest.

They handed a debut to Cheteshwar Pujara as VVS Laxman failed to recover from back spasms while Murali Vijay replaced Gautam Gambhir and Shanthakumaran Sreesanth played instead of Ishant Sharma.

Australia gave a first Test cap to Peter George as Doug Bollinger missed out, although George was not called on to do much during his opening day as a Test cricketer once Ponting won the toss and invited the Indians to field.

He arrived at the crease when Simon Katich (43) was caught by Rahul Dravid off Harbhajan Singh to end an opening partnership worth 99 with Watson, who went on to make 57 before being caught by Mahendra Singh Dhoni off Pragyan Ojha.

Clarke was caught by Raina to become Harbhajan's second wicket and Ponting then put on 66 with Michael Hussey, who hit 34 in good time, for the fourth wicket.

Hussey was caught by Virender Sehwag as Zaheer Khan struck and after Ponting had passed his 54th Test half-century, he became Test wicket number one for Suresh Raina, who had him trapped in front for 77 in 143 balls.

Marcus North was unbeaten on 43 at stumps alongside Tim Paine, who had made eight.

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