Langer laps it up

For much of the day, Justin Langer played second fiddle to the batsmen at the other end, but he came into his own later in the day. Especially impressive was the manner in which he handled Harbhajan Singh. Of the 68 runs that Harbhajan conceded, 47 came from the bat of Langer, most of them through sweeps – Langer attempted that stroke 19 times, and it fetched him 26 runs.

Harbhajan seldom looked threatening, but on a first-day pitch, the onus of taking wickets clearly lay on the three seamers. Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Ajit Agarkar bowled a few good deliveries, but it was largely a case of serving up far too many four-balls – the three seamers bowled 28 half-volleys, which were creamed away for 45 runs. Agarkar was the worst offender, bowling 15 of those.

If Agarkar bowled plenty of tripe, he also came up with an extremely incisive second spell of seven overs – most of which he bowled to Ponting – in which he conceded just 19 runs, quite a contrast from his first spell of five overs for 40, including one over when he was smashed for three fours by Ponting. During his second spell Agarkar beat the bat seven times, and achieved a not-in-control percentage of almost 29 – that’s nearly three times in ten deliveries. The Australians survived that spell, though, and are now in a position to force the issue on the second day.