Mohali, October 18:

Debutant leg-spinner Amit Mishra picked up two key wickets as India pushed Australia into a corner on the second day of the second Test here on Saturday.

Mishra, 24, sent back Simon Katich (33) before dismissing Michael Clarke (23) off the penultimate ball of the day to reduce the visitors to 102-4. His efforts came after Sourav Ganguly hit a century and Mahendra Dhoni an attacking 92 to take India to 469 all out in the first innings. At stumps, Michael Hussey was on 37 with five fours.

It was Zaheer Khan again who gave the home side the crucial breakthrough when he bowled opener Matthew Hayden for a duck off just the third ball of the Australian innings.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting (5) fumbled around for nearly half an hour before being trapped leg before off Ishant Sharma. Katich (33) misjudged Mishra and gifted him his maiden Test wicket. Australia would have been in deeper trouble had Dhoni taken a simple catch of Hussey off Harbhajan Singh when he was on 25.

Earlier Ganguly hit eight fours in his 225-ball knock and shared a 109-run stand with Dhoni, who hammered eight fours and four sixes in his 124-ball innings.

Ganguly reached his 16th Test century with a four to the square leg fence off leg-spinner Cameron White.

The former Indian captain, who completed 7,000 runs in his 111th Test on Friday, was out soon after reaching his century, holing out to Brett Lee at long off to give White his first wicket of the match. White (2-71) struck again when he cleaned the off-stump of Harbhajan to reduce the home side to 442-8. Lee (1-86) needed two stitches on his right hand after hurting himself while stopping a ball in his follow through.

Dhoni, leading the side in the absence of injured captain Anil Kumble, was also severe

on debutant fast bowler Peter Siddle. Dhoni’s fiery knock was brought to an end by Siddle, who trapped him leg before with a searing inswinger, while Zaheer was run out by Lee.

Australia paceman Mitchell Johnson finished with 3-85 while Siddle picked up 3-114. The Mohali Test will be followed by matches in New Delhi and Nagpur.