ENGLAND dropped Ricky Ponting once at Adelaide and then suffered the worst Ashes thrashing in 86 years. India dropped Michael Clarke thrice at the Feroz Shah Kotla and will hope the consequences are not so severe in a series that they lead 1-0 going into the final day of the third Test. Reprieved on 21, 90 and 94, Clarke’s resolute 112 spanned six hours and got Australia to within 36 runs of India’s imposing 613 for seven. With Brett Lee and Stuart Clark then sending back Virender Sehwag and Ishant Sharma in the 13 overs before stumps, India’s position is not dissimilar from England’s a day before their world fell apart in 2006.

Sehwag’s brisk start ended when he inside-edged Lee on to the stumps, giving Australia’s spearhead only his sixth wicket of the series. With 4.4 overs left, Ishant was sent out to protect the middle-order stars. That gambit lasted a mere five deliveries, with Clark’s bouncer from round the wicket tamely fended to silly point.

“I think we’ve seen what India’s thoughts are,” said Clarke later, adding more needle to a series that hasn’t lacked it. “By sending in the nightwatchman, they’ve shown a defensive approach. Australia will be the one team out there trying to win the game tomorrow.”

Such thoughts would have been almost impossible had Ishant held on to a fairly straightforward chance at mid-off before Clarke had added to his overnight score. Amit Mishra was the luckless bowler. There would be pain too for Sehwag, whose maiden five-wicket haul was delayed after VVS Laxman and Mishra put down simple catches.

The road to safety that Clarke traversed involved two significant partnerships, 73 with Shane Watson and 106 with Cameron White, whose 44 included one superb straight six off Anil Kumble.

Kumble was the day’s other story, bowling 26.3 overs to take three for 59. Before he had Brad Haddin stumped, he had gone 74.4 overs without reward in the series. His plight was exacerbated by a finger injury on his left hand that required 11 stitch-es. It could keep him out of the final Test in Nagpur, and after the heady strokeplay of the first two postDiwali days in Delhi, India will be desperate to head there with noses still in front.