Jason Krejza's rare feat leaves match evenly poised

Spinner Jason Krejza became only the sixth bowler in history to scalp eight wickets on debut to plot India's dramatic late order collapse as Australia restored the balance in the the series-deciding cricket Test with a solid batting display here on Friday.

The 25-year-old off-spinner, ignored by the tourists for the first three Tests in the series in which they trail 0-1, changed the complexion of the game after the lunch break to snap up five wickets in the space of 26 balls and finish with with figures of eight for 215.

The Indians, who were cruising along comfortably at 404 for five at lunch, were polished off for 441 in their first innings to squander the advantage to some extent on a track which has started providing some turn to the spinners.

The Australians then batted with a great deal of determination and application to reach 189 for two at close on an engrossing second day's play, riding on Simon Katich's sparkling unbeaten 92.

Simon Katich and Michael Hussey (batting 45) played sensibly to prevent the Indians from making further inroads in the last session as they remained unseparated at the draw of stumps with the visitors still trailing by 252 runs. Matthew Hayden (16) and Ricky Ponting (24) were the two batsmen dismissed.

It was the unheralded Krejza who did the star turn for the Aussies as he removed India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (56), Sourav Ganguly (85), Zaheer Khan (1), Amit Mishra (0) and last man Ishant Sharma (0) in a dream spell which helped his team roar back into the game.

Krejza was also on a hat-trick during his mesmerising post-lunch spell of 5.5-0-20-5 after sending back Zaheer and Mishra off successive balls before Sharma prevented him from achieving an even more memorable feat.