Australia turn the tables with Symonds ton

New Delhi: Backs to the wall and yet firing on all cylinders, Australia bounced back from doom against India to be in command on the opening day of the second Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Wednesday.

Reeling at 134-6 moments after lunch, Australia finished day one on 376-7 at well over four runs an over, courtesy a splendid unbeaten 137 from Andrew Symonds after captain Ricky Ponting elected to bat.

The two Singhs - RP and Harbhajan - emerged unlikely heroes as India sparked a rare Australian collapse immediately after lunch.

RP sizzled with the wickets of Phil Jaques, Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey and Adam Gilchrist, while Harbhajan Singh extracted vicious turn to remove Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke to have the world champions on the mat at 134-6.

But a 173-run partnership for the seventh wicket between Andrew Symonds and Brad Hogg enabled them to come roaring back. And as if Brad Hogg's highest Test score didn't help enough, Brett Lee rubbed it in along with Symonds with an unbeaten 69-run stand from a situation when they were on the verge of being shot out for under 200.

A tale of misses

Earlier, RP Singh ended opener Phil Jaques' run of six straight 50-plus scores when the left-hander was out caught behind for a duck in the third over of play, before inducing an outside edge off Hayden that flew straight to Sachin Tendulkar, reducing the Australians to 27-2.

A luckless Indian team, however, did cut a sorry figure full of drooping shoulders by stumps as the scorecard hid behind it a tale of decisions gone awry and chances abegging.

A Sourav Ganguly delivery appeared to have taken some wood of Ponting's bat on its way to MS Dhoni down the leg side, which was followed by a missed stumping opportunity off the same batsman. The Australian captain was given out when he had edged it on to his pads.

More followed when a caught behind shout off Symonds went unheard, and was rounded off with another one - this time via the third umpire - who dismissed another stumping call. The burly all-rounder replied emphatically with his second Test hundred.

Australia retained their eleven that trounced Anil Kumble's side in the Boxing Day Test, while Zaheer Khan missed the cut due to a recurring ankle problem. Ishant Sharma was given the nod. The Indian opening combination remained unchanged after drawing criticism over their performance in the first Test.

Australia won the first Test of the series at the MCG by 337 runs to lead the four-match series 1-0.

Teams:

Australia: Ricky Ponting (captain), Adam Gilchrist, Michael Clarke, Andrew Symonds, Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey, Phil Jaques, Brad Hogg, Mitchell Johnson, Stuart Clark, Brett Lee.

India: Anil Kumble (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Ishant Sharma, RP Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Wasim Jaffer.