THE future of Test cricket is an easy target at the moment but yesterday’s play in Bangalore was a terrific advert for an underfire brand. India still face an uphill battle to avoid defeat in the first Test against Australia and there was no world record for Sachin Tendulkar but their final-session fightback produced drama that only the five-day game can provide.

Again, Harbhajan Singh played the role of irritant-in-chief with another pugnacious half-century, his third in three Tests against Australia. The first of these, in Sydney in January, triggered a breakdown in relations between the sides after the Australians tried to ignite Harbhajan’s short fuse.

Ricky Ponting and his players kept their frustrations largely within bounds yesterday, although something Brad Haddin said prompted an angry protest to Ponting from Zaheer Khan, who helped Harbhajan to post 80 for the eighth wicket.

Harbhajan says he hated losing against Australia and it showed in his gritty 110-ball innings. “It can’t be a coincidence that all my best performances have come against them,” he said. “It perks me up whenever I play against them, because they are the team to beat.”

When Mahendra Dhoni was feebly bowled by Michael Clarke, India were 195 for six and Ponting must have had hopes of a substantial first-innings lead. Then Anil Kumble’s decision to relinquish the No 8 position after a miserable run with the bat produced dividends. The rot was stopped. First Harbhajan added 37 with Sourav Ganguly, then he and Zaheer opened up against the second new ball. The first eight overs saw Brett Lee and Stuart Clark plundered for 46.

Moments before bad light ended play early, Harbhajan was caught behind carving expansively at Shane Watson but by then Indian spirits were in much better order. At the close they were 313 for eight, trailing by 117.

Even so, this was a resourceful performance by an Australia attack defying predictions that it is in decline. Mitchell Johnson, whose place was in danger after an indifferent tour of the West Indies, recovered from a shaky start on Friday to take four blue-chip wickets - Virender Sehwag, Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Ganguly. He reverse-swung the ball and hit the pitch hard, exploiting the uneven bounce better than anyone.

Ponting may yet hope tomorrow for a similar denouement to the game in Sydney (if not the public condemnation of his team’s gamesmanship after that victory). Australia bowled out India on the final day in 70.5 overs, Clarke snapping up the last three wickets as the clock ran down.

Clarke’s part-time spin may be needed again in tandem with the leg-breaks of debutant Cameron White, although with the pitch playing tricks the fast men could do damage. First, though, Australia will have to bat well for a second time.

A good crowd turned out at the prospect of seeing Tendulkar score the 77 he needed to displace Brian Lara as the leading runscorer in Test cricket. Although they were to be disappointed - Tendulkar had made 13 when he poked a slower ball from Johnson to short cover - they delighted in the belligerent batting of their bowlers. Zaheer has had a good game so far, his highest Test score on home soil coming on top of five wickets.

When Johnson had Laxman caught behind for a duck, India had lost four wickets in the morning for the addition of only 38 but Rahul Dravid dug in for an excellent fifty - his 53rd in Tests - and Ganguly battled hard in difficult conditions. Ganguly was “skulled” by Watson and knocked over in a collision with White. He had just received lengthy treatment when Johnson claimed him as his fourth victim.

This was a rich contest between teams who tend to bring out the best (and worst) in each other. It would be nice to think that those administrators who seem eager to kill off Test cricket were watching.

Lalit Modi, the Indian board’s energetic vice-president, has generated $4bn worth of deals and the American entrepreneur Sir Allen Stanford has signed off $275m in sponsorship, with little of this money having much to do with the five-day game. Modi understandably champions his Twenty20 Indian Premier League (IPL). A lot rides on it, not least the support of franchise owners who got back $6.25m on the first season when Modi had held out the prospect of $10m. His offer last week to the cash-strapped Sri Lankan board to commit to the IPL and Champions League for 10 years in return for £40m is designed to recruit another ally. He already has Australia and South Africa in his pocket.

Yet the likelihood is that Sri Lanka’s Test tour of England in May will still go ahead. Their board has signed the papers and, if it reneged on the deal, the England and Wales Cricket Board would surely sue for breach of contract. The Sri Lankans cannot afford for that to happen; neither would they want to forgo the £3m they stand to make from the tour.

Expect plenty of haggling at this week’s International Cricket Council meeting in Dubai, not only on this issue but on the way Modi and his cohorts trample over Test cricket in their rush for dollars.

The likelihood is that the Sri Lanka tour will be saved by the dates for the two Tests being put back by seven days to allow Murali and Co to spend four weeks at the IPL before arriving in England late, as the New Zealand IPL players did last summer.