Aussies very down under in Mohali, India’s perfect end to perfect Test

Stand-in skipper, stand-in blazer,” Mahendra Singh Dhoni beamed at the post-match press conference, on a charm offensive after an aggressive India had completed a whopping 320-run win to take a 1-0 win in the Test series against Australia.

The fact that Dhoni walked out for the toss in an oversized jacket, after Anil Kumble had to pull out on the morning of the match, was the only blip over five days in Mohali where everything else fit just right. Needing five wickets to wrap up the game on the last day, Dhoni threw the ball to Zaheer Khan first thing in the morning. He could well have been throwing the left arm pacer a pair of boxing gloves.

Brad Haddin saw the first five deliveries of the day pitch on middle and leave him, but he quite clearly didn’t see the one that pitched on middle and hit middle. His bat hung limp in his hands, searching for contact at least six inches off target.

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Strikes fit terror pattern: Mandir on Tuesday, Masjid on Friday 1

Be it the attack in New Delhi that came before Id-Diwali, the Sankat Mochan temple in Varanasi or the blasts at the Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad or the explosion today at the Hanuman Mandir in Jaipur, there's a chilling pattem to these acts of terror: target places of worship or "religious" occasions that draw the maximum people.

The intention is not only to cause maximum loss of human lives but also to inflame communal passions and hope it escalates to a bloody show down between communities.

Targets and dates have been carefully chosen. A close look at recent attacks reveals the sinister design: Hindu temples have been targeted on Tuesdays, an auspicious day for the devotees of Hanuman, while Muslims and their mosques have been attacked on Fridays.

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