Cricket:An eight-wicket haul from debutant off-spinner Jason Krejza and a swift 92 not out from Simon Katich saw Australia battle their way back into the fourth Test against India in Nagpur. The home side started day two on 311 for five, a strong position given they only need a draw to secure a series win.
But Krejza ripped through the Indian tail to restrict Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men to 441 all out before Katich continued the recovery by moving to the brink of his fifth Test century as Australia closed on 189 for two.
Following the early dismissal of Matthew Hayden, run out by Murali Vijay at mid-on for 16 while attempting a quick single, Katich, in tandem with Mike Hussey, steadied the Australia innings with the tourists reaching stumps 252 runs behind with eight wickets remaining.
Half-centuries from Sourav Ganguly (85) and Dhoni (56) helped India race past the 400 mark before Krejza, overlooked for the first three Tests, took centre stage.
He broke the partnership by dismissing Dhoni, who moved past his half-century with consecutive boundaries off Mitchell Johnson.
In a bid to clip Krejza away on the leg side, the India skipper shuffled too far across his stumps and the ball turned sharply to remove his leg stump.
Krejza then grabbed his fifth wicket by dismissing Ganguly later in the same over.
Ganguly, playing in his final Test, poked tentatively at a ball which straightened and clipped a thick edge to Michael Clarke at first slip.
Zaheer Khan and Amit Mishra, who contributed one run between them, then departed to successive balls from Krejza.
Although Krejza was denied the hat-trick he also snared Ishant Sharma to finish with figures of eight for 215 and become just the eighth man in history to take eight wickets in an innings on his Test debut.
Australia's reply got off to a shaky start with Hayden joined back in the pavilion by captain Ricky Ponting with the score on 74.
Ponting was fooled by Harbhajan Singh, the spinner claiming his 300th Test victim by cramping the Tasmanian as he made room to cut a sharply turning delivery, with the ball going on to hit the stumps.
But Katich steadied the innings, hardly giving India's bowlers a chance while scoring at a run-a-ball rate as he sped towards a ton.
The Western Australia opener added 115 with Hussey, who looked out of sorts at first before settling down to move on to 45 not out at the close.
4th Test, Day 2: India 441(S Tendulkar 109, S Ganguly 85, V Sehwayg 66, VVS Laxman 64, MS Doni 56; J Krejza 8-215), Australia 189-2(S Katich 92no, M Hussey 45no).