Australia Hunt Record After Dravid Prospers

They concentrated on the cricket today at Perth and gripping it was too. After a fortnight in which the sport gazed shamefacedly at its own navel and even absorbed a new cliché - Bollyline - both sides were on their best behavior as Australia went in search of a record-breaking 17th-straight Test win. By stumps they were very much in the game as India closed on a respectable but precarious 297 for six based around Rahul Dravid's 93 and Sachin Tendulkar's 71.

India, though, will know it could have been much better. Dravid and Tendulkar had added 139 for the third wicket when Brett Lee rapped the Little Master more or less in front of off-stump but above the knee roll. When Asad Rauf, apparently oblivious to the Waca's reputation for bounce, upheld the appeal it was tempting to wonder how the decision would have gone down if Steve Bucknor had been around to make it.

If that was bad enough, they later lost Dravid to the kind of rush of blood he succumbs to roughly once a decade. Having batted with customary diligence for over 4½ hours, Dravid went down on one knee to try to mow an Andrew Symonds off-break over midwicket but instead miscued high towards extra cover, where Ricky Ponting held on with the minimum of fuss. That made it 278 for five and Dravid's obvious fury had as much to do with the imminence of the second new ball as his own failure to reach three figures. Symonds' quizzical look at the batsman said it all.

Worse was to come. With 10 minutes to go before the close, VVS Laxman tried to pull Brett Lee from outside off-stump, only to slap a tame catch to Shaun Tait at mid-off for 27 - a mystifying shot in the circumstances. Lee's third wicket of the day tilted the game Australia's way, although an Indian flurry might yet lift them towards 400.

Ponting, though, would have settled for all of this after Anil Kumble had won the toss on a typically true Waca pitch and his openers had added 57 for the first wicket. Both fell in quick succession: the recalled Virender Sehwag failed to cope with a bit of extra bounce and was caught behind cutting off Mitchell Johnson for 29, before Wasim Jaffer (16) nicked a drive off Lee three overs later.

It was the cue for a stylish repair job from India's two most celebrated batsmen. Dravid, badly dropped by Michael Clarke at first slip off Lee on 11 and fortunate to be given not out on 63 when Johnson swung a yorker onto the toe of his boot, knuckled down as Tendulkar tucked into the erratic Tait. At 198 for two, India were in charge.

But umpire Rauf triggered Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly made just nine before falling victim to a superb catch low to his right at backward point by Mike Hussey off Johnson, and Dravid swiped at Symonds to end a promising fifth-wicket stand of 64 with Laxman.

Lee's late breakthrough with the second new ball will persuade Australia that they are still in this game - they won at Sydney, remember, after conceding well over 500 in the first innings. But they will be almost as relieved that the first day of Test cricket since the Sydney shambles passed without incident. Do not be surprised to read at some stage that cricket was the winner.