Chennai: An incredible double hundred by skipper MS Dhoni has put Australia on the back-foot on the third day of the first Test at M.A.Chidambram stadium here on Sunday. The day saw a fantastic innings from the Indian Captain who scored his first double century that helped India take a healthy lead of 135 runs after the hosts ended their day at 515 runs with the loss of eight wickets.
The Indian skipper kept himself very busy throughout the day by hitting some monstrous hits which has nearly taken Australia out of the first match. Dhoni took control of the match from the moment he occupied the crease started playing some cracking shots and kept on scoring at the brisk pace.
The third session of the third day was crowned to Mahendra Singh Dhoni who went after the trio of Moises Henriques, Peter Siddle and James Pattinson. Session started on a sour note for India as they lost Ravichandran Ashwin who was looking very good in the centre. Lyon picked his third wicket and brought some sense of relief in Aussie camp. But very soon Dhoni scored sixth century of his career by smashing a cracking boundary on the leg-side and he continued with his strokes which put Australia in sorts of dilemma. Dhoni was running out of his partner but maintained the strike rate of above 80 which proved to be havoc on Australian team and his innings at the end looks to be a real game changer in this match.
The dismissal of Ashwin brought Harbhajan Singh to the crease and he played some ruthless shots against Nathan Lyon but didn’t have a long stay and was bowled out by debutant Moises Henriques of an ordinary delivery. However, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar applied him sensibly to give Dhoni some support and that added frustration in Aussie camp. Dhoni kept on dealing in boundaries and he didn’t mind taking the aerial route for that and scored as much as five sixes. He surpassed the 200 mark for the first time in his career. Interestingly, he kept his helmet on even after scoring a double ton, simply giving an indication that the real work was yet to be done and that the fourth day will bring some more fireworks for Indian fans.
With Dhoni at his belligerent best, India managed to add 144 runs in the final session with the loss of two wickets. He became the first number six batsman to score 206 runs in one day of a Test match.
Earlier in the day, it was Virat Kohli who scored the fourth century of his career and played a sensible innings but very soon he got out at the score of 107 runs, when he tried to clear mid-on but was caught by Mitchell Starc to give Lyon his second wicket of the day. Pattinson got Ravindra Jadeja bowled just before the tea break and pushed India on back-foot. But after that, it was MS Dhoni who shifted his gear and kept the Australian attack quiet and safely took India to tea at the score of 371 with the loss of six wickets.
At the start of the first session, India got a big blow when Sachin Tendulkar got out on 81. He was beaten by a delivery of Nathan Lyon as it turned sharply after hitting the rough and went on to hit the timbers. Aussies put the break on run-rate in the first session of the day. Virat Kohli and Mahendra Singh Dhoni were also looking at ease and simply looking to see-off the bowlers and added only 85 runs in the opening session with the loss of just one wicket. Cautious batting helped India to do some recovery in the later sessions.
By ISN