Australia on top in low scoring battle …

A spate of three wickets in nine balls, all to injudicious shots outside off, allowed Australia to fight back into the contest, one that appeared lost when they were kept down to a modest 203 in Adelaide. Yuvraj Singh, though, showing signs of returning to form with some glittering strokes, ensured India were still favourites.

Australia were revived, quite fittingly, by James Hopes, a medium-pacer who surprised with extra zip off the pitch. He broke a promising stand, inducing an edge from Irfan Pathan, before luring Rohit Sharma into a false drive. Mitchell Johnson managed to pocket a wicket in between, tempting the in-form Gautam Gambhir into a fatal flash to point.

Pathan and Gambhir had allowed India to overcome the early loss of Sachin Tendulkar, stitching together a 35-run stand with few alarms. Gambhir backed himself against the wide ones and the pair ran hard between the wickets. The mini-collapse changed the complexion of the game but Yuvraj and his captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, steadied the nerves with a confident stand.

The two needed to get through a tricky phase, when Johnson hurried them with well-directed bouncers, but Yuvraj soon found his striking rhythm against Hopes and Brad Hogg. He smacked a straight drive straight into Dhoni's body, injuring him in his finger, before blitzing Hopes violently through the covers. The pair also decided to take on Hogg, with Yuvraj carting a long-hop way over long-on for six, on a ground where the straight boundaries are supposedly the longest in the world.

A responsible 79 from Michael Clarke lent some respectability to the Australian innings after India's seamers, led by Irfan Pathan, rattled the top order with a fine burst with the new ball. Like in Melbourne last week, Australia lost five wickets for less than 75 before Clarke's innings helped them avoid an ignominious situation.

Toss with Dhoni ...

India's seam bowlers stood up to the challenge on a scorching day in Adelaide. Ishant Sharma started it with an incisive spell before Pathan swung out the middle order with some teasing deliveries outside off. Munaf Patel, brought in as the fifth bowler, kept things tight and Sreesanth came back well after an initial hammering. Add an economical Harbhajan Singh to the mix and you had a bowling unit functioning as a team.

To Ishant goes the credit of providing the initial breakthrough. Adam Gilchrist was laying into Sreesanth when Ishant castled him with one that came in a fraction. Even before the dismissal it was clear that Ishant had sussed up the conditions early. He struck a perfect length, one that didn't allow the batsmen to get onto their front foot, and beat a rampaging Matthew Hayden consistently.

He clocked up serious pace, going beyond the 152kph mark on one occasion, and extracted plenty of bounce from what was a good batting surface. He was duly rewarded with another wicket in his second spell - Andrew Symonds failing to gauge the bounce and chopping straight to gully - and showed the rest the value of a disciplined approach.

Pathan picked up the baton effortlessly. He moved the ball enough to create doubts in the batsmen's minds before slipping in the sucker punch of a ball outside off. Hayden didn't account for the extra bounce, snicking one to the wicketkeeper, and Michael Hussey wafted lazily at one outside off. Like all of India's bowlers, Pathan used the bounce in the track well and came back to nab two more wickets.

Clarke, who fell to Pathan towards the end, turned in an invaluable knock, adding 72 with the gritty Brad Hogg. The duo, coming together when James Hopes was left hopelessly stranded outside the crease to a Harbhajan doosra, played the percentages well. They decided to cut out the risks and chipped away at the singles and twos.

Clarke began slowly but upped the strike-rate as his innings went along. He struck six fours but the signature strokes were the taps in the gaps followed by quick running between the wickets. He didn't go on to his hundred, though, holing out to midwicket in his first real slog attempt. It was symbolic of the innings as a whole, one where Australia couldn't break the shackles and take the attack to a disciplined unit.