Australia v Zimbabwe - Second test - First day - Third session
25 minutes after the break Katich departed LBW to Manyumwa who had been troubling him all innings for 112, a great knock and recieved a standing ovation as he left the ground after his 271 minute knock.
Katich LBW Manyumwa 112 (228)
This brought Michael Hussey to the crease. Ponting brought up the 200 only 2 wickets down with a powerful cut shot that beat two fielders to race across the quick outfield for 4. Hussey edged one behind for Taibu's second catch of the innings when only on 1 off Maruma. He was trying to defend a ball very wide outside off that he could have left, but with the bowler spinning it back towards his stumps he didn't quite have the confidence so early in his innings.
Hussey c Taibu b Maruma 1 (7)
Vice-captain Michael Clarke came to the crease with the score at 3/206 knowing another wicket before the end of play could contribute to a batting collapse and a bad end to a good day for Australia. He had a job to do, was the Australian fans hoped he was in the right mood to do his job.
He definitely was not! Second ball he edged to Williams at first slip off Maruma, and Australia were reeling at 4/206. Andrew Symonds came to the crease looking very nervous after witnessing the Zimbabweans take 3-8. Ponting and Symonds had a long chat midwicket and Symonds eventually made his way to the crease, took guard and faced up to his first ball. He survived, and the Australians sat back in their seats with relief.
If that wasn't bad enough for Australia, Zimbabwe took the new ball. However, things did look positive from one perspective that Maruma would probably be taken off, or be bowling with a new ball, that won't get as much grip and turn off the pitch.
Ponting caressed a ball through the covers off the back foot for 4 to bring up his 50, providing the only resistance in Australia's middle order. He had blasted 3 fours in the previous over from Chigumbura and it looked like he was trying to belt the cover off the ball. We were set for a thrilling last hour...
Ponting 53* (124)
Chigumbura struck back, bowling a delivery bang on middle peg that nipped back a fraction off the seam that Ponting played all around trying to drive him through mid on to the boundary. The umpire didn't hesitate in raising the finger, and Ponting was on his way. Australia were in deep trouble at 5/239, where at 2/206 things were looking great. Bangladesh had taken 3/33, including arguably Australia's best 3 batsmen in Ponting, Hussey and Clarke. Wicketkeeper batsmen Brad Haddin knew he needed to stick around for the remainder of the session then a considerable amount of time tomorrow morning as well to get the Australia innings back on track after their middle order collapse.
Ponting LBW Chigumbura 54 (127)
Symonds took to Chigumbura, following on from where Ponting left off, hitting 3 fours off his next two overs and taking Australia past 250. He has everyone in the grounds heart in their mouth when he edged past second slip for 4, but acted as calmly as possible, almost as if he purposely played the stroke to third man.
With 5 balls left in the day, after playing a crisp off drive back past the bowler, Symonds played a stupid shot in the air back to the bowler Cremer to be caught and bowled. All his hard work had come undone, and put Australia in an extremely bad position at the end of the day.
Symonds 41 c&b Cremer 41 (71)
Johnson made his way to the crease to face 4 balls...He survived, and Australia had ended the day at 6/284 after such a great start. All Katich's great work had come undone by stupid, wreckless batting from the middle order, and some great bowling from the Zimbabweans.
