Melbourne, Dec 27: Australian wicketkeeper Brad Haddin was the third player to have dropped Virender Sehwag during the opener’s spirited 67-run knock on Day 2 of the Boxing Test; Michael Hussey and David Warner were the other fielders guilty of the offence. Fortunately for Australia and Haddin, the dropped catch while the explosive batsman was on 58 went relatively unpunished as the opener was bowled by James Pattinson a little while later.

The 34-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman spoke about the day’s play in a brief chat with the media after stumps on Day 2 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Excerpts:

On the day’s play

The game is evenly poised at the end of the day today; it’s going to make for an exciting Test match. It was pretty good batting with [Rahul] Dravid and [Sachin] Tendulkar in the middle to the later session. Peter [Siddle] put in a pretty good spell at the end of the day to get rid of Tendulkar; that was pretty important from our point of view. It’s important tomorrow that we shut down the scoreboard in the first session and build some pressure and create some chances.

On the Australian team’s displeasure at their being no DRS (Decision Review System) and his views on the rule that allows for a wicket-taking ball to be referred

There is no DRS in this game so there is no need to talk about that and that’s cricket. The bottom line is [Dravid] was not out [and] it was a no-ball.

On whether Sachin Tendulkar gave any evidence of nerves while batting

He has obviously been a great for a long, long time and today was a pretty special 73 [runs]. It was good to get him at the back end of the day; we can start with a couple of fresh batsmen tomorrow. He played well but it is our job to get him out as quick as we can.

On Tendulkar missing out on that elusive hundredth ton yet again

It is a big occasion for the game if he does [get that hundred]. It’s our job to make sure it drags on as long as it possibly can.