Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh snapped up the first Test hat-trick by an Indian to lead a fight-back against Australia on the opening day of the second Test in Calcutta yesterday.

Singh made his triple strike after tea by having Ricky Ponting leg before for six and with his next two deliveries removed Adam Gilchrist, also lbw, and Shane Warne, who was caught at forward short-leg.

At the close, Australia were 291 for eight, having lost seven wickets in the final session after being 193 for one at tea.

Australian captain Steve Waugh, who had won the toss and opted to bat, was 29 not out with Jason Gillespie on six.

Singh raised Indian spirits when he started the post-tea collapse by dismissing left-handed opener Matthew Hayden (97) and Mark Waugh (22) before getting the hat-trick as reward for his accurate bowling.

Skipper Saurav Ganguly then brought himself on and had Michael Kasprowicz leg before for seven.

Singh ended the day with career-best figures of five for 66, beating his four for 121 in the first innings of the opening test in the three-match series in Bombay where Australia won by 10 wickets.

Left-arm pace-man Zaheer Khan, who bowled consistently well, chipped in with two for 55 from 18.4 overs before he went off with a minor muscle strain in the last session.

Australia had made an ideal start as Hayden, who hit 14 fours and three sixes, shared a 103-run opening partnership with Michael Slater (42) and put on 90 for the second wicket with Justin Langer (58). Hayden and Slater were in aggressive mood, scoring Australia's first 28 runs with boundaries.

Left-hander Hayden, who scored a century in the first Test, completed a 77-ball half-century when he swept Singh to the fine leg fence for four.

AUSTRALIA first innings M Hayden c sub (Badani) b Singh - 97 M Slater c Mongia b Khan - 42 J Langer c Mongia b Khan - 58 M Waugh c Mongia b Singh - 22 S Waugh not out - 29 R Ponting lbw b Singh - 6 A Gilchrist lbw b Singh - 0 S Warne c Ramesh b Singh - 0 M Kasprowicz lbw b Ganguly - 7 J Gillespie not out - 6 Extras (b-11 lb-7 nb-6) - 24

Total (for eight, 90 overs) 291

To bat: Glenn McGrath

Fall of wickets: 1-103 2-193 3-214 4-236 5252 6-252 7-252 8-269

Bowling (to date): Zaheer Khan 18.4-4-55-2, Venkatesh Prasad 21-5-69-0 (nb-1), Saurav Ganguly 10.2-2-31-1 (nb-5), Venkatapathy Raju 15-2-49-0, Harbhajan Singh 24-6-66-5, Sachin Tendulkar 1-0-3-0.