Captain Anil Kumble led from the front by scalping five wickets as Australia squand
ered a flying start to allow India come back strongly in the opening Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground today.Electing to bat, the hosts got off to a solid start with Matthew Hayden (124) and Phil Jaques (66) putting on 135 runs for the first wicket but the visitors bounced back splendidly to restrict Australia to 337/9 at close on the opening day. The formidable Aussies threatened to seize early control of the Boxing Day Test and were cruising along briskly before the complexion of the game changed after the lunch break with the Indians ripping through the strong Australian batting line-up.Mitchell Johnson (10) and Stuart Clark (21) were at the crease at stumps on an eventful day watched by a sizable crowd.The seasoned Kumble turned out to be the hero as 
he produced a devastating spell to pick up 5/84, his 34th five-wicket haul to bring to help his team bounce back on a good batting track at the MCG.Pacer Zaheer Khan also played a stellar role by taking three wickets while fellow pacer Rudra Pratap Singh chipped in with one wicket to thwart Australia's hopes of putting up an imposing first innings total on the board.
The burly Hayden, who has always scored heavily against the Indians, continued to torment the visitors by notching up his 28th Test century but none of the other Australian batsmen, barring Jaques, could get going against a disciplined bowling attack.The match turned when Australia lost three wickets in the hour after lunch and then six more in the final session of play.Australia crumbled under pressure as batsmen after batsmen tried to hit their way out of trouble instead of playing to the situation.Kumble picked two wickets in the afternoon in a space of four overs and then three late in the day inside eight overs to let the world champions know they have a battle on hands.The skipper started the slide when he fooled Jaques with a googly that beat his defensive bat and undid him with a stumping.Three overs later, Kumble got rid of Michael Hussey (2) who played the wrong line and was declared leg before wicket.In between, Zaheer bowled the Australian captain Ricky Ponting (4) with a peach of a delivery which moved that bit slightly to clip his off-stumpAustralia were 213/3 from 56 overs at Tea as Hayden and Michael Clarke appeared to be digging in their heels for a home revival. RP Singh nipped those ambitions in the bud when he had Clarke (20) flaying at an overpitched delivery, wide off stumps, into the hands of VVS Laxman in slips.Clarke had struggled in his 80-minute stay during which he made 20 from 40 balls and put on 60 runs for the fourth wicket with Hayden.
Zaheer then earned Indians the wicket they wanted. Hayden tried to force a delivery off the backfoot which rose higher than he expected and a simple catch went to Rahul Dravid at mid-on.
Kumble then took over and gutted the host with three quick wickets inside 28 balls.Andrew Symonds (35) and Adam Gilchrist (23) were both guilty of trying to force the issue against Kumble and departed to ill-judged strokes.Symonds aimed a pull at a shortish delivery and was smartly caught by substitute Dinesh Kaarthick at midwicket.Gilchrist attempted a hoick at a widish delivery and the leading edge was safely caught by Sachin Tendulkar at short third man.
Brett Lee became the eighth victim of the day when he played forward the wrong line and umpire Mark Benson had no hesitation in ruling him leg before wicket.Johnson had a reprieve when he inside-edged Kumble to Yuvraj Singh at forward short-leg but umpire Benson ruled not out.With four overs to go, the new ball was taken and it paid immediate dividends with Brad Hogg's (17) attempted drive off Zaheer nestling in the safe hands of Dravid at third slip.
Some good hitting towards the end by Johnson and last man Clark got some valuable runs for Australia, but India should be happy with their day's work. Following are the statistical highlights of the first day's play: Sourav Ganguly became the seventh Indian player to appear in 100 Tests or more, joining Sachin Tendulkar (143), Kapil Dev (131), Sunil Gavaskar (125), Anil Kumble (122), Dilip Vengsarkar (116) and Rahul Dravid (116).India became the second nation in Test annals to achieve the feat of featuring four players (Tendulkar, Dravid, Kumble and Ganguly) with 100 or more appearances in the same Test squad.The Australian team was the first to achieve the distinction during the 2006-07 Ashes series against England when Justin Langer, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Ricky Ponting appeared together.Matthew Hayden (124 off 183 balls) registered his 28th hundred, fourth against India. Only Ponting (33), Steve Waugh (32) and Don Bradman (29) have recorded more hundreds than Hayden for Australia.
Hayden's 124 is his sixth hundred at MCG - the last three in successive innings - 137 vs South Africa in 2005-06, 153 vs England in 2006-07 and 124 vs India in 2007-08.Hayden recorded his second successive hundred against India at MCG. In the 2003-04 Melbourne Test, he had made 136 and 53 not out.Only Bradman has registered more hundreds (9) than Hayden (6) at MCG.Hayden, during the course of his innings, became the sixth batsman to amass 1,000 runs or more at MCG. Bradman (1671 in 11 Tests) holds the record for most runs at this venue.
Dravid, with Hayden's catch, overtook Mark Taylor's tally of 157, moving into the fourth place in the list of all time leading fielders. His tally of 159 catches is exceeded only by Mark Waugh (181), Brian Lara (164) and Stephen Fleming (161).Phil Jaques (66) registered his fifth 50-plus score in succession.The 135-run stand between Hayden and Jaques is Australia's second best for the first wicket against India at Melbourne, next only to the 191 between Bobby Simpson and Bill Lawry in 1967-68. The aforesaid partnership is Australia's first century partnership in 32 innings.Kumble became the third Indian bowler to claim five wickets in an innings twice at Melbourne, joining Bhagwat Chandrasekhar and Kapil Dev.Kumble became the fourth bowler to capture 10 five-wicket hauls or more (in 15 Tests) against Australia, joining Richard Hadlee (NZ) - 14 in 23 Tests; Sydney Barnes (England) - 12 in 20 Tests and Tom Richardson (Eng) 11 in 14 Tests.Kumble has now claimed 35 five-wicket hauls and only Muttiah Muralitharan (62), Shane Warne (37) and Richard Hadlee (36) have claimed more five-wicket hauls than Kumble.
Kumble became the third Indian captain to bag five wickets in an innings against Australia, joining Bishan Singh Bedi (thrice during the 1977-78 series - twice at Perth and once at Brisbane) and Kapil Dev (Adelaide, 1985-86).
ered a flying start to allow India come back strongly in the opening Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground today.Electing to bat, the hosts got off to a solid start with Matthew Hayden (124) and Phil Jaques (66) putting on 135 runs for the first wicket but the visitors bounced back splendidly to restrict Australia to 337/9 at close on the opening day. The formidable Aussies threatened to seize early control of the Boxing Day Test and were cruising along briskly before the complexion of the game changed after the lunch break with the Indians ripping through the strong Australian batting line-up.Mitchell Johnson (10) and Stuart Clark (21) were at the crease at stumps on an eventful day watched by a sizable crowd.The seasoned Kumble turned out to be the hero as 
he produced a devastating spell to pick up 5/84, his 34th five-wicket haul to bring to help his team bounce back on a good batting track at the MCG.Pacer Zaheer Khan also played a stellar role by taking three wickets while fellow pacer Rudra Pratap Singh chipped in with one wicket to thwart Australia's hopes of putting up an imposing first innings total on the board.The burly Hayden, who has always scored heavily against the Indians, continued to torment the visitors by notching up his 28th Test century but none of the other Australian batsmen, barring Jaques, could get going against a disciplined bowling attack.The match turned when Australia lost three wickets in the hour after lunch and then six more in the final session of play.Australia crumbled under pressure as batsmen after batsmen tried to hit their way out of trouble instead of playing to the situation.Kumble picked two wickets in the afternoon in a space of four overs and then three late in the day inside eight overs to let the world champions know they have a battle on hands.The skipper started the slide when he fooled Jaques with a googly that beat his defensive bat and undid him with a stumping.Three overs later, Kumble got rid of Michael Hussey (2) who played the wrong line and was declared leg before wicket.In between, Zaheer bowled the Australian captain Ricky Ponting (4) with a peach of a delivery which moved that bit slightly to clip his off-stumpAustralia were 213/3 from 56 overs at Tea as Hayden and Michael Clarke appeared to be digging in their heels for a home revival. RP Singh nipped those ambitions in the bud when he had Clarke (20) flaying at an overpitched delivery, wide off stumps, into the hands of VVS Laxman in slips.Clarke had struggled in his 80-minute stay during which he made 20 from 40 balls and put on 60 runs for the fourth wicket with Hayden.
Zaheer then earned Indians the wicket they wanted. Hayden tried to force a delivery off the backfoot which rose higher than he expected and a simple catch went to Rahul Dravid at mid-on.
Kumble then took over and gutted the host with three quick wickets inside 28 balls.Andrew Symonds (35) and Adam Gilchrist (23) were both guilty of trying to force the issue against Kumble and departed to ill-judged strokes.Symonds aimed a pull at a shortish delivery and was smartly caught by substitute Dinesh Kaarthick at midwicket.Gilchrist attempted a hoick at a widish delivery and the leading edge was safely caught by Sachin Tendulkar at short third man.
Brett Lee became the eighth victim of the day when he played forward the wrong line and umpire Mark Benson had no hesitation in ruling him leg before wicket.Johnson had a reprieve when he inside-edged Kumble to Yuvraj Singh at forward short-leg but umpire Benson ruled not out.With four overs to go, the new ball was taken and it paid immediate dividends with Brad Hogg's (17) attempted drive off Zaheer nestling in the safe hands of Dravid at third slip.
Some good hitting towards the end by Johnson and last man Clark got some valuable runs for Australia, but India should be happy with their day's work. Following are the statistical highlights of the first day's play: Sourav Ganguly became the seventh Indian player to appear in 100 Tests or more, joining Sachin Tendulkar (143), Kapil Dev (131), Sunil Gavaskar (125), Anil Kumble (122), Dilip Vengsarkar (116) and Rahul Dravid (116).India became the second nation in Test annals to achieve the feat of featuring four players (Tendulkar, Dravid, Kumble and Ganguly) with 100 or more appearances in the same Test squad.The Australian team was the first to achieve the distinction during the 2006-07 Ashes series against England when Justin Langer, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Ricky Ponting appeared together.Matthew Hayden (124 off 183 balls) registered his 28th hundred, fourth against India. Only Ponting (33), Steve Waugh (32) and Don Bradman (29) have recorded more hundreds than Hayden for Australia.
Hayden's 124 is his sixth hundred at MCG - the last three in successive innings - 137 vs South Africa in 2005-06, 153 vs England in 2006-07 and 124 vs India in 2007-08.Hayden recorded his second successive hundred against India at MCG. In the 2003-04 Melbourne Test, he had made 136 and 53 not out.Only Bradman has registered more hundreds (9) than Hayden (6) at MCG.Hayden, during the course of his innings, became the sixth batsman to amass 1,000 runs or more at MCG. Bradman (1671 in 11 Tests) holds the record for most runs at this venue.
Dravid, with Hayden's catch, overtook Mark Taylor's tally of 157, moving into the fourth place in the list of all time leading fielders. His tally of 159 catches is exceeded only by Mark Waugh (181), Brian Lara (164) and Stephen Fleming (161).Phil Jaques (66) registered his fifth 50-plus score in succession.The 135-run stand between Hayden and Jaques is Australia's second best for the first wicket against India at Melbourne, next only to the 191 between Bobby Simpson and Bill Lawry in 1967-68. The aforesaid partnership is Australia's first century partnership in 32 innings.Kumble became the third Indian bowler to claim five wickets in an innings twice at Melbourne, joining Bhagwat Chandrasekhar and Kapil Dev.Kumble became the fourth bowler to capture 10 five-wicket hauls or more (in 15 Tests) against Australia, joining Richard Hadlee (NZ) - 14 in 23 Tests; Sydney Barnes (England) - 12 in 20 Tests and Tom Richardson (Eng) 11 in 14 Tests.Kumble has now claimed 35 five-wicket hauls and only Muttiah Muralitharan (62), Shane Warne (37) and Richard Hadlee (36) have claimed more five-wicket hauls than Kumble.
Kumble became the third Indian captain to bag five wickets in an innings against Australia, joining Bishan Singh Bedi (thrice during the 1977-78 series - twice at Perth and once at Brisbane) and Kapil Dev (Adelaide, 1985-86).
