Australia in a commanding position

Australia, after winning a vital first session and pressing these gains for much of the second day, claimed mastery of the second Test.

Having made 478 in its first-innings, the touring side ousted Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid within a run of each other to reduce India to 38 for two after tea on Sunday afternoon.

Sehwag (30) had looked as if he might mar Australia before Ben Hilfenhaus' two-bouncer trap — a rip-snorter followed by the slow bumper — worked. Dravid was undone for the third time this series by the angle from left-arm over, Mitchell Johnson, the bowler this time.

Careful batting

But M. Vijay (42 batting) and Sachin Tendulkar (44 batting) played carefully without spurning opportunities to score, as India ended the day on 128 for two. Tendulkar, who batted quite beautifully and crossed 14000 Test runs in the process, holds the key for India. This isn't to downplay Vijay at all — the opener grew in assurance after a static-footed start against Hilfenhaus' swing.

But the home side is still 350 in arrears, and with four-Test-old Suresh Raina and debutant Cheteshwar Pujara the next men in, Australia will fancy its chances here at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Monday.

Australia is indebted to Marcus North (128) for the state of affairs. North and Tim Paine (59) extended their alliance from Saturday, adding a further 120, as the touring side progressed from 285 for five in the morning to 405 for six.

North then batted cleverly with the lower-order to prevent the sort of wicket-slide common in India. North's fifth Test hundred — an innings that has rescued his career — was forged in the severe fires of discipline. The left-hander scrupulously left deliveries from Zaheer Khan that curled away, waiting for the ball on his pads, ever vigilant of the one that nips in.

Pressure on Zaheer

Zaheer was thus forced to start his out-swinger from straighter. North turned his wrists on these deliveries, sending them either side of mid-on for fours. Only once did Zaheer tempt North into following a delivery's alluring shape — but all the ball did was convince the batsman to redouble his concentration.

Paine, who gave North sterling support, cut and pulled Sreesanth. The bowler, to his credit, twisted the young wicketkeeper-batsman around a couple of out-swingers, but his control, particularly in the first spell, was poor. Sreesanth did return after drinks to twice gain Paine's outside edge. One squirted through the slip-cordon; the other flew over it.

On 40, Paine touched a wide Sreesanth delivery to the ‘keeper. But umpire Ian Gould, as Billy Bowden had done with Michael Clarke in Mohali, asked the batsman to wait as he confirmed with the third-umpire his suspicions of a no-ball. Paine had another reprieve, on 57, when Suresh Raina shelled a simple chance at short extra-cover off Pragyan Ojha.

Ojha provides the break

It was Ojha who split the partnership, causing Paine to over-balance as he groped for a delivery outside off-stump that sunk and broke away.

M.S. Dhoni unseated the bails quick as a hiccough, trading the traditional ‘give' for a twitch towards the stumps, collection and stump-breaking in one snappy movement. It's a technique he repeated in stumping last-man Peter George — while it saves precious time, it can go horribly wrong, for the hands harden during the act and the attention skips ahead.

North would have bothered little with the mechanics of Dhoni's wicketkeeping, for he hardly over-reached against the spinners.

Besides, Dhoni's fields helped North. They didn't pressure him in defence; the two men on the drive actually forbade the stroke, which has shown evidence of looseness in the past; there were at least three options — each of which contained minimal risk — for the single.

Memorable strokes

North, who reached his century with a hard-scrambled single, played many memorable strokes either side of the landmark. He's a bewildering left-hander in that he can look both elegant and unsightly.

His looped back-lift and his footwork can often work together for a clean-cut silhouette; when they don't, the result isn't pretty.

Delicate

North late-cut Harbhajan twice, and both times the splendour of the stroke lingered after it had been made.

Two cover drives, one off Ojha, the other off Zaheer, were just as haunting.

North fell to the slog-sweep, a stroke of utility that he had employed profitably earlier in the day, but he had, by then, secured for Australia a position of might.