New Test, different venue, but it was the same old story as in-form Australian pair Michael Clarke and Ricky Ponting piled on the misery for touring India on day one at the Adelaide Oval.
Century-makers Clarke and Ponting took advantage of a typically flat Adelaide wicket and a toothless Indian attack to combine for an unbeaten 251-run partnership that put Australia in total control of the fourth Test at 3 for 335.
Captain Clarke finished on 140 not out, his fifth century since taking over as skipper, while the revitalised Ponting went to stumps on 137 on a day where he passed 13,000 Test runs and cracked a fourth consecutive century against India in Adelaide.
While the Australian pair continued to stretch their summer stats in impressive fashion, the lacklustre Indians provided little to no contest for the majority of the day despite reducing the hosts to 2 for 26 and then 3 for 84 after being forced into the field.
"It wasn't an ideal start on that sort of wicket, but we fought back exceptionally well," Ponting told Grandstand.
Ponting hardly offered a chance on his way to his 41st Test century, and in doing so notched his sixth ton in Adelaide, matching his SCG tally, and joined Viv Richards and Sir Garfield Sobers in reaching an equal-highest eight hundreds against India.
"Those milestones are nice, but more importantly we have to set up what should be a really good Test match for us," Ponting added.
"What we know about Adelaide is a lot happens late in the games.
"We have to make sure we win the first hour tomorrow, and make our first innings is a really big one.
"With the wicket being as dry as it is, I'll be surprised if it doesn't play a few tricks later in the game as far as variable bounce is concerned."
Stand-in skipper Virender Sehwag, leading the tourists after MS Dhoni's suspension, took an early risk and threw the ball to returning off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin in just the fourth over of the morning.
The unconventional move paid dividends with Ashwin helping tie the dangerous David Warner down for 15 balls without scoring before the left-hander was trapped lbw for 8 by Zaheer Khan.
Ashwin then chimed in by beating the porous defence of an out-of-sorts Shaun Marsh (3) before luring Ed Cowan (30) into a false shot to cover.
But that was as far as Sehwag's tactics - which were largely flawed from that point on - got the tourists, as Clarke and Ponting added 116 and 121 runs in the final two sessions without the loss of a wicket.
In similar fashion to their fourth-wicket stand which reached 288 in Sydney, the partnership took a stranglehold on the match with their aggressive batting, flaying India's defeated bowlers to all parts of the iconic ground.
Ponting said he rated his innings better than his knock at the SCG, but said that was mainly due to the batsmen-friendly conditions.
"There wasn't anything that happened off the wicket at all from the seamers or the spinners," he said.
"I'm pretty excited where things are heading for me. I've spent a bit of time in the middle right through this summer and a couple of hundreds in the last couple of games has been good for me."
Upstart Umesh Yadav copped the brunt of the swift riposte, finishing with figures of 0 for 87 from just 12 overs and conceding a brutal 46 runs from 37 deliveries to the punishing Ponting.
Clarke went after spinner Ashwin with similar disdain while Zaheer (1 for 52) and, in particular, the luckless Ishant Sharma (0 for 52) ran in tirelessly for limited rewards.
The Australian skipper has now scored an impregnable 519 runs at an average of 173 in just four innings this series.
In stark contrast, team-mate Marsh's Test career hangs by a thread.
The Western Australian scored 284 runs in his first four Test innings, but since then has accumulated just 17 in his last six with scores of 0, 0, 3, 0, 11 and 3.
Tags: cricket, sport, adelaide-5000, sa, australia, india First posted January 24, 2012 19:43:44
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