Australia's Stuart Clark celebrates the wicket of India's Yuvraj Singh during the second day's play of the first Test in Melbourne yesterday. - Reuters
MELBOURNE (Reuters):
AUSTRALIA TOOK a firm grip on the first Test after Stuart Clark and Brett Lee produced a sustained period of hostile and controlled pace bowling to dismiss India for 196 late on the second day yesterday at the MCG.
Clark, who finished with an outstanding four for 28 off 15 overs, captured the valuable wickets of Sachin Tendulkar (62) and Rahul Dravid (four) as India struggled against the pace attack.
India were dismissed 147 runs behind Australia's first innings of 343.
"If you bowl badly, then you will go for plenty of runs (because the wicket) is still low, flat and slow," Clark said.
"But I think what helped us was the ball got scuffed up nicely and we were lucky enough to get a bit of reverse swing.
"I think the credit goes to Brett and Mitch (Johnson) because they did not allow them the opportunity to score any runs."
Australia's openers Phil Jaques (10) and first innings centurion Matthew Hayden (22) extended the lead to 179, reaching the close of play on 32 for no wicket.
Winning streak
Short of a dramatic collapse, Australia look favourites to extend their successive Test winning streak to 15 later in the week as the pitch deteriorates.
The current Australia side is chasing the world record set by Steve Waugh's side of 16 successive Test victories, which was ended by India in 2001.
Clark, who was the last man dismissed in Australia's first innings early on the second day when he was caught hooking by Harbhajan Singh off Zaheer Khan, struck at crucial times during India's innings.
He trapped a pensive looking Dravid in the final over before lunch, then dismissed Tendulkar just before tea.
Clark also dismissed Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Dhoni, both for nought, either side of the tea break as he took three wickets for just one run within the space of 12 balls.
Lee, whose extreme pace snuck through the defences of Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh, hitting both in the ribs, finished with four for 46 off 19.5 overs.
Saurav Ganguly, who combined with Tendulkar in a 65-run partnership as they attempted to rebuild India's innings from 55 for three, scored 43 before he was bowled by Brad Hogg, who finished with two for 82 off 21 overs.
India captain Anil Kumble, who took five for 84 in the first innings, also scored 27 valuable runs before he became Lee's 250th Test wicket.
"Yesterday we were in a good position but today we are not," said Tendulkar. "We should have played better but that is all part and parcel of Test cricket.
"We will have to get 10 wickets quickly. That is the first target, then we will break the rest of the Test match down session by session," he added of India's plans.
