Sweet and sour for Waugh

Steve Waugh, who had made only 99 runs from six hits this summer, added an even 90 yesterday before he was run out controversially.

It was the tenth time - a Test record - he had been dismissed in the 90s and the Australian captain, an advocate of accepting an umpire's decision, was subsequently charged with dissent after loitering when adjudged out by Darrell Hair.

The ever-forthright local umpire's decision to rule without video assistance proved rash, but perhaps not as rash as Waugh's reluctance to leave. The match referee Ranjan Madugalle was considering his decision yesterday. At worst Waugh may be suspended for three matches. A more likely punishment would be the loss of 75 per cent of his match fee. Even if there is truth to stories that he still has the first dollar he earned, sanction of any kind for a crime he has preached against would hurt more than a slug to the hip pocket. Diving full-length to beat a direct hit from Herschelle Gibbs, Waugh did not see Hair's raised finger at square-leg and picked himself up to watch the replay on the big screen.

When the umpire moved alongside and told Waugh he had been given out, the stump microphone recorded the captain asking: "Are you sure?" Video evidence showed that Waugh perhaps had a case - he was not so far short as to allow certainty, and Mark Boucher appeared to disturb a bail before ball struck stump - but this was only retrospective ammunition.

The International Cricket Council code of conduct states: "Players and/or team officials must at all times accept the umpire's decision and not show dissent at the umpire's decision."

Waugh's commitment to the creed had hitherto been tested by two wrong decisions against him this summer, balanced somewhat by one clanger in his favour. The 36-year-old, who also appeared to exchange words with his opposite number Shaun Pollock as he trudged off, could take comfort that his partner Damien Martyn went on to score 52 and that Australia led by 210 as their first innings neared its end.

From such a position the hosts should win and go 2-0 up in the game's first sanctioned world-title fight.

But even after Matthew Hayden became his country's most prolific scorer ever in a calendar year, and with Justin Langer completed an unprecedented third 200-plus opening stand in the same season, the dominant feature of day three was the captain's knock.

There is speculation that Waugh has begun his decline, and a recently sealed bat contract with the Madras Rubber Factory, sponsor of Sachin Tendulkar's blessed blade, had left the company short on exposure for its many rupees. It was lucky for the improvement here too, Waugh edging Nantie Hayward over slip three times in a fast and furious welcome and twice fending to short-leg only to be missed by Boeta Dippenaar as Allan Donald showed that mind and body can occasionally still work in tandem.

Pollock's captaincy was curiously dim. Hayward was removed from the attack after a four-over working-over of Waugh and the new ball was taken without him. Lance Klusener did not bowl until the 110th over, then sent down seven overs for 11 when leaking almost four apiece was the norm.

Waugh had time to air his best occasionally during an interesting three hours at the wicket, and even played a rusty pull shot - the first since the one that brought up his hundred against England here three years ago.

In a lighter moment during last summer's Ashes he opined that the next time he produced such a gem it would be time to go.

Hayden has finally arrived, almost eight years after he first played. The Queenslander completed his sixth Test century of the season and took his calendar-year tally to 1,388 runs at an average of 63.09, then took a call from Bobby Simpson, the man he overtook on Australia's list of most gluttonous years. Apart from a relatively lukewarm England tour, Hayden has batted with such force these past 12 months it is frightening to contemplate Viv Richards's 1976, when he scored a lazy 1,710 runs including five centuries - and doubles at Trent Bridge and the Oval - the latter as England bowled everyone bar Dennis Amiss and Alan Knott.