Off-spinner Jason Krejza took eight wickets on his debut to give Australia a fighting chance of a series-levelling victory in the final Test against India on Friday.
Krejza took five wickets in the space of 26 balls in his post-lunch spell as India collapsed to 441 all out on a spin-friendly pitch after being strongly placed at 404-5 at the lunch interval on day two.
Opener Simon Katich struck an unbeaten 92 on a difficult pitch as the visitors moved to 189-2 in reply in their bid to avoid their first series defeat since the 2005 Ashes tour of England.
Katich put on 115 for the third wicket with Michael Hussey, who was 45 not out. Matthew Hayden was run out for 16 before captain Ricky Ponting (24) was bowled by Harbhajan Singh as the tourists stumbled to 74-2.
Krejza, who took three wickets on the opening day, triggered the collapse when he dismissed Mahendra Singh Dhoni (56) and Saurav Ganguly (85) in the space of three balls.
The overnight pair had put on 119 for the sixth wicket before the 25-year-old spinner turned things around after lunch in a spell of 5.5 overs, conceding 20 runs.
But he also entered the record books for conceding the most runs (215) by a debutant.
Ganguly’s was a big wicket, also probably denying the left-hander the rare honour of scoring a century in his first and last Test.
Ganguly had held the innings together after Sachin Tendulkar’s 40th century on the opening day had given India early control after winning the toss.
Michael Clarke took at low catch at slip to dismiss Ganguly, who announced at the start of the series that this would be his last.
Krejza, coming in for seamer Stuart Clark as a second specialist spinner alongside Cameron White, became the sixth bowler and third Australian after Albert Trott and Bob Massie to take eight wickets on their debut.
Krejza dismissed Zaheer Khan (1) and Amit Mishra (0) with consecutive balls, then sent back last man Ishant Sharma (0) in his next over.
Hayden was run out for 16 to a direct hit by debutant Murali Vijay from mid-on and Ponting became Harbhajan’s 300th Test victim when he was bowled when shaping to cut.
But Katich, who hit eight fours in his third half-century of the series, and Hussey scored at almost four runs an over to help the team stay in the hunt.
India had won the second Test at Mohali by a record 320 runs. The other two were drawn. — Reuters