ADELAIDE – Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke both hit centuries and combined for 251 runs to drive Australia to 335 for three as India wilted in the Adelaide sun on the opening day of the fourth Test yesterday.
A rejuvenated Ponting became just the third cricketer to score 13 000 Test runs as he reached 137 not out, while Clarke, his successor as captain, notched up his fourth century in eight Tests with an unbeaten 140.
India’s hopes of salvaging a modicum of pride after losing the series with emphatic defeats in the first three Tests looked bright when they removed Australia’s top order before lunch but melted in 37 degree Celsius heat in the afternoon.
Ponting’s 41st Test century was far more fluent than the 40th, which he scored to end a two-year drought in the second Test in Sydney.
The 37-year-old, who scored his 13 000th Test run with a swept single to deep square leg, brought up the hundred in 164 balls with his 11th four and doffed his helmet to accept a standing ovation from the crowd.
Rescued
After the pair had again rescued Australia’s innings from 84-3 to stand at 214 at tea, Clarke made a statement two balls into the final session by marching down the pitch to smash a huge six off part-time spinner Virender Sehwag.
The 30-year-old reached the century, his 19th in Tests, with a less emphatic stroke and the ball trickled to the boundary at fourth man for his 14th four.
Sehwag had made a promising start as stand-in skipper for the banned Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the morning, keeping the Australians on the back foot and bucking convention by introducing recalled spinner Ravi Ashwin in the fourth over.
It was the pace bowling of Zaheer Khan at the other end, however, that forced the breakthrough when his inswinger trapped left-hander David Warner leg before for eight with just 26 runs showing on the picturesque ground’s famous old scoreboard.
Shaun Marsh had made 14 in four innings in the series and his poor form continued when he misjudged the flight of an Ashwin delivery which went between bat and pad, took the bails off and sent him scurrying back to the pavilion for three.
Ashwin struck again ten minutes before lunch to remove Ed Cowan for 30. (Reuters)
