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job with MS Dhoni and a violent one with Praveen Kumar, to offer a semblance of respectability to the total.

India's sole resistance in the top half was offered by Dhoni and Jadeja who added 48 runs for the sixth wicket to spark a fight back. Both the batsmen dealt in singles with nudges and dabs to push to score to 75 when Dhoni, who was very lucky to survive a caught-behind decision against Bollinger when he was on zero, was given out lbw to the same bowler to a delivery that was missing the off stump.

Jadeja, though, carried on the fight with Praveen to save India the blushes. It was the type of innings that situation demanded of him and Jadeja rose to the occasion with admirable tenacity. He built his innings through singles and though he was beaten a few times by spin and seam, he didn't allow it to affect his temperament. For the main part, he pushed the ball into gaps and tried to block the good deliveries before he freed his arms in the end.

Praveen, a dangerous lower-order batsman in domestic cricket but who never flourished in international cricket until this series, started the acceleration in the end overs with some big hits. None were more furious than the one he unfurled against McKay when he used his bottom-hand to lift a very full delivery over the straight boundary, ala Dhoni, for a stunning six. Interestingly, Praveen vented out most of his aggression against McKay, caning him for 28 runs from 18 deliveries, with several on-the-up adventurous swings over mid-off or mid-on. Time and again, he backed away to the leg side and knifed through the line and whatever he tried came off today.

Though Jadeja and Praveen played their best knocks of their respective careers, it was Australia who held all the aces after a superb bowling effort. Were the conditions so English that the ball was swinging wildly? No. Was the pitch aiding alarming movement? No. There was just a bit of movement, in the air and off the pitch, and Australia exploited it superbly to bundle India out. Johnson, whose inability to swing the ball into the right-handers had blunted his threat in the recent times, found that inswing today and immediately looked a different bowler. With a slightly round-armish action which helped him to tilt the ball back in, Johnson gnawed away at the batsmen at disconcerting pace.

For a year Australians have fretted and puzzled over this man's inconsistency. They were proud of his performances against South Africa and cussed him over his poor showing in Ashes but they have always known that Johnson is a different bowler when he gets that inswing going. Today was one such day. It was an early-morning start, the pitch was damp and there was hope in the air. The start wasn't flattering - his second delivery was whiplashed for a six over point by Virender Sehwag - but Johnson bounced back in the same over to start the demolition job. It was the full delivery, Sehwag shaped for his big drive but the ball curved in to thread the bat and pad gap and splayed the stumps.

Egged on by the success, Johnson went from strength to strength and unfurled his full repertoire: The rapid pace, the extra bounce, the slinging round-arm, and the consistent line and length. He removed Gautam Gambhir with little bit of help from the batsman, who perhaps was swayed by Johnson's bad days when the ball wouldn't swing away from the left-handed batsmen. It was a delivery on the off and middle and Gambhir shaped to work it to the on side as if he expected the ball to angle in to his pads but to his horror, the ball straightened to take out to the off stump.

Johnson went on to trouble Yuvraj Singh in the corridor before he took out Suresh Raina after harassing him with his bounce. There was something very obvious in the set-up - bowl a few short balls and push the batsman back before you slip in that fatal full delivery - but Raina fell for it again. Perhaps the ball stopped on him a bit, but Raina was late in getting forward to a full delivery and ended up flicking it straight to short mid-on.

If Johnson created an opening with his incisive bowling, it was Doug Bollinger who provided the perfect supporting act with his unspectacular but consistent seam bowling. There is nothing flashy about Bollinger; you know what you will get from him: the steady line and length, the changes in pace, and the ability to bowl to his fields and it was enough today to get him two big wickets of Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh.

Tendulkar was restricted to just one run from seven Bollinger deliveries when he pushed at a back-of-length ball a touch early. Perhaps, it stopped on him a bit and he ended up pushing it straight back to Bollinger who took a good reflex catch. There was a bit more luck in his second dismissal. The ball ricocheted off Yuvraj's pad over his right shoulder and as Yuvraj, clueless about where the ball went, turned behind to place the bat back inside the crease, he only succeeded in pushing the ball back to the stumps. And he returned for the second spell to take out Dhoni and Harbhajan.

At the half-way mark of the game, despite plucky knocks from Jadeja and Praveen, India's good run in bilateral series - they have lost just two out of 14 since 2006 - looked most likely to end.