Laxman Sizzles at SCG

There is something in SCG which gets the best out of VVS Laxman, who overcame his inner demons and announced himself to the world way back in 1999-2000 with a dazzling knock that left the Australians in awe of him for the first time. Then came the absolute binder of innings in 2003-04 where he even over shadowed Sachin's 241 which almost gate crashed Steven Waugh's farewell. So it was apt that he chose SCG as a canvas to paint another masterpiece and in doing so broke upon the shackles that the Australian bowlers tried to impose upon the Indian batsmen just like they did in the last test at MCG.

It was important for the Indians to restrict the Australians in the morning but they couldn't do it with Bret lee and then Michel Johnson getting some easy runs while Symonds played a curiously subdued knock by his standards so much so that both the fast bowlers out scored him. Stuart Clarke like a true number eleven didn't bother the scorers, all the three wickets to fall picked up by Kumble , who I thought missed a thing or two by not bringing himself into the attack earlier. Australian innings ended on a score of 463 and they would have taken it after they were 135/6 yesterday.

Jaffer was undone by Brett lee's pace and Dravid at the other end was finding non-existent demons in the pitch and was also struggling with his timing, at times making a complete fool of himself, but kudos to him for digging in there and not giving away his wicket. That bloodymindedness coupled with Laxman's sublime stroking took the Indians into ascendancy and just when it looked like Dravid-Laxman partnership was taking away the game from the Aussies, Mitchell johnson struck having dravid caught at second slip and laxman soon followed spooning an easy catch to Hussey of brad hogg's bowling. Dravid did well to score 53, and was helped on the way by some shoddy work behind the stumps by Gilchrist, who was having one of those rare bad days with giving a reprieve each to Laxman and Dravid. Laxman's century had everything you would expect from him, those flicks through mid-wicket, straight drives and those gorgeous cover drives and this was on full display in one Johnson's over when he picked off18 runs in 5 balls. It's really so easy on your eyes and a pleasure to watch batsmen like Laxman play in full flow compared to the power hitting that you so often watch these days. He is right up there with the likes of Zaheer Abbas, David Gower & Mark Wagh.

The match is evenly poised at the end of day 2 with Sachin looking good for a big one in the company of Ganguly. So it's going to be an interesting day of cricket tomorrow and with the kind of cricket that's been on display for the last two days, it would be foolish to write off test cricket yet.