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A dog-eared Michael Clarke century then a brace of late Indian wickets tonight gave Australia the slimmest chance of an outrageous final day victory in the third Test at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground.
Clarke (112) might have been out any number of times in reaching a nervous 21 on the third evening and today no fewer than three catches went down off his fortunate blade before he passed 100 for the eighth time in Tests.
But after allowing India to pile up 7-613, Australia were in no position to be picky, and were grateful for an innings that took them to 577, a total that removed the possibility of India having enough time to set a target.
Virender Sehwag (16) was then bowled via inside edge by Brett Lee and edgy nightwatchman Ishant Sharma (1) caught in close off a Stuart Clark throat ball to leave the home side 2-43, a lead of 79.
Though a draw remains highly likely, matches such as Bangalore 1998, Adelaide 2003 and Adelaide 2006 have proven that anything can still happen in Delhi.
“I think we’ve seen this evening what India’s thoughts are, sending a nightwatchman out they’re pretty defensive,” Clarke said.
“India will be disappointed with their day today, I think they’d have expected to bowl us out much earlier than they did and what we take from the nightwatchman is tomorrow there’ll only be one team trying to win the Test match.”
Shane Watson (36), Brad Haddin (17) and Cameron White (44) had batted soundly around Clarke to help ensure the Border-Gavaskar Trophy will still be in dispute when the teams journey to Nagpur later this week for the last match.
India’s best bowler was again part-time finger spinner Sehwag (5-104), who found tremendous variation in turn to cause confusion in the minds of all batsmen and thoroughly deserved his first five wicket haul.
Home skipper Anil Kumble (3-112) returned to the field today after receiving 11 stitches for a deep cut in his left hand and was rewarded with his first wickets of the series.
Nevertheless he was a frustrated man by the end of a day when his side was unable to turn a spin-friendly surface to their advantage.
His presence in the batting lineup is in question.
Watson and Clarke started off on a proactive note to quickly draw close to the 414 needed to avoid batting again, Watson pulling Zaheer Khan over square leg in the day’s opening over.
Sharma gave Clarke a life before the batsman had added to his overnight tally, allowing a lofted drive to burst through his fingers at mid off.
Many of the early runs arrived via fortunate edges through third man, eventually forcing Kumble to post a fielder there, but there were also a few strokes of authority.
Sehwag’s breadth of spin accounted for Watson, the batsman shuffling across on the back foot and waiting for the turn as he has done successfully all series, only to be beaten when the ball spun almost square to fizz behind his pads and flick leg stump.
Haddin was tied in knots by Sehwag and Kumble, often made to look a batting novice rather than the accomplished player that he is in Australia, and was ultimately stumped after a frazzled charge down the pitch.
White’s tour has been a rough one, given a fiendishly difficult spin bowling commission and also failing to contribute the runs he expected.
Today, however, he made it through the first few balls, striking a boundary right on lunch to break his duck, and gradually found his feet in the afternoon as a partnership developed.
Clarke’s luck held, as if borrowed from his poker-playing friend Shane Warne, when VVS Laxman then Amit Mishra dropped simple chances in successive Sehwag overs.
His 253-ball stay was ultimately ended when he failed to get to the pitch of Amit Mishra (2-144).
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