Hilfenhaus triple strike gives Australia the advantage

India needed 216 to win. They had a injured VVS Laxman in the camp but their roster screamed out names like Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, MS Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir and Suresh Raina. And they were playing at home. Surely, advantage India? Ben Hilfenhaus didn't think so and ran through the top order in an inspired spell of swing bowling. What attracted one's attention was his skill. What really stood out, though, was his intelligence and discipline to stick to a plan. Every wicket was well earned.

First-up he got a slice of luck going his way. Gautam Gambhir was wrongly given out lbw as there was an inside edge but even in that dismissal you could see Hilfenhaus' plan. He first hurled a bouncer across to nail Gambhir on the gloves. He then followed it with two inswingers but didn't get the line right. Both went down the leg side. But you knew what was he going for; an inswinger that would curl in and fetch him an lbw verdict. He got the next ball to shape in around that off stump line and Gambhir pushed out at it and got an inside edge. The umpire didn't hear or see the wood on leather and gave Hilfenhaus his first wicket.

A short while later Hilfenhaus returned for a second spell. He has a lovely outswinger and a very effective off cutter as well but he also possesses a good bouncer. He pinged Sehwag with a few short ones. One flew too high over the keeper's head. Perhaps Sehwag relaxed after that one. Perhaps he felt after that embarrassingly harmless delivery, Hifenhaus might not try a short delivery in the very next ball. Hilfenhaus did. It climbed chest-high and induced Sehwag to waft it to gully.

Suresh Raina was next. Everyone knew what was going to come. Even Raina must have known he was going to get bouncers. Hilfenhaus got one to climb quickly towards Raina's chest and got the desired result. In a blink, Hilfenhaus had tilted the game in Australia's favour.

At the end of the day, Hilfenhaus promised more of the same tomorrow. "We knew we had to come in hard in that session," he said. " I wouldn't say we are few runs short; we have to wait for that tomorrow. We had individual plans against their batters and we struck to that. It was nice to get a couple of wickets and we are very keen to stuck into them tomorrow."