Cricket: Shane Warne has held aloft most of cricket's glittering prizes, but when he lifted a bruised and prematurely misshapen ball in the tremulous heat haze here yesterday it was with the deepest professional pride he had ever known.
At the age of 35 he had become the most successful bowler in Test cricket history. In his fifth over of the day he had the Indian night-watchman Irfan Pathan, who with a teenager's disrespect for reputations had already hit him over midwicket for six, caught by Matthew Hayden at slip.
It was his 533rd Test wicket and edged him ahead of his rival Muttiah Muralitharan, for the moment at least, as the greatest scalper of them all.
Later, fielding on the boundary, his sweaty fair hair glinting under the floodlights, which had come on to counter the encroaching gloom, he showboated gleefully in front of the ecstatic crowd, who chanted: "Warnie, Warnie." He doffed his sunhat then cocked his ear. And then he lifted his upturned palms. "Louder, louder," he screamed with a smile as wide as the Chepauk Stadium.
He was still smiling, wearily, a couple of hours later when he emerged to say: "I feel very proud of what I've achieved. When I started my career in Sydney 14, 15 years ago, I would have been happy to take one Test wicket.
"Even if Muttiah regains the record, and he could take upwards of 1,000, no one can take this moment away from me. This is the best I've bowled in India."
Though that was not saying much, for he has bowled poorly here in the past.
But for once cricket's ultimate ringmaster could not clear the arena and was forced to surrender most of the spotlight to Virender Sehwag, whose audacious 155, his seventh Test century, had given India a clear advantage at the end of the second day.
When Australia's bone-weary cricketers had dragged themselves from the field India were 291 for six, 56 runs ahead. If they can extend the lead beyond 100 it will probably be too much on this wearing pitch - even for a side as tough and talented as the world champions, who conceded first-innings leads of 161 and 91 to Sri Lanka in Galle and Kandy in March and still won.
Sehwag, who praised Warne as a great bowler but did not feel he had bowled particularly well here, played a remarkable innings in that he had little support. It looked like him and a succession of night-watchmen. He cemented the innings while scoring two thirds of the runs, a sort of pinch-anchor role.
He faced 221 balls and struck 21 fours, often sweeping Warne against the spin, before he was sixth out, well caught on the leg-side boundary by the diving Michael Clarke.
But Australia have dropped five catches in this innings, not including the three half-chances that fell to Glenn McGrath, Michael Kasprowicz and Simon Katich. None of the chances was straightforward, but it has often been Australia's brilliance in the field that has set them apart.
"We toiled today," conceded Warne, who dropped one himself at slip as Parthiv Patel and Mohammad Kaif shared an unbroken seventh-wicket partnership. "But if we can come back tomorrow and set them 250 to win it will be game on."
By the close Kaif, who had been dropped by Hayden before he had scored and again behind the wicket when he had made only one, was looking dangerously fluent on 34.
Australia bowled reasonably well but their poor performance in the field had started the previous evening when Clarke had spilled Yuvraj Singh. One player unable to capitalise was the India captain Sourav Ganguly. He was caught at slip off a no-ball and then dropped by Adam Gilchrist, Kasprowicz the unfortunate bowler on both occasions, but he scored only nine.
If Australia lose this match it will be a devastating blow to their hopes of winning a Test series in India for the first time in 35 years. Wives and girlfriends have already arrived from Australia and, with the third Test in Nagpur not starting until October 26, a short mid-series break has been planned, with players scheduled to rest aching muscles in Goa, Singapore and, mostly, Mumbai.
The plan was to go 2-0 up here and then bring in a couple of fresh horses, including a fast bowler, to win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy they last won in Australia five years ago. But, in India, nothing goes quite according to plan. Guardian Service
India v Australia
(Overnight: Australia 235 (J Langer 71, M Hayden 58; A Kumble 7-48). India 28-1)
India First Innings Close
V Sehwag c Clarke b Warne 155
I Pathan c Hayden b Warne 14
R Dravid b Kasprowicz 26
S Ganguly c Gilchrist b Gillespie 9
V V S Laxman b Gillespie 4
M Kaif not out 34
P Patel not out 27
Extras b6 lb1 w2 nb5 pens 0 14
Total 6 wkts (100 overs) 291
Fall: 1-28 2-83 3-178 4-203 5-213 6-233 To Bat: A Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Z Khan. Bowling: McGrath 20 3 63 0; Gillespie 27 7 55 2; Warne 29 3 95 3; Kasprowicz 19 4 45 1; Lehmann 5 0 26 0
