Centurion Andrew Symonds congratulates Brad Hogg after the latter reached his fifty on Wednesday. The two put on 173 for the seventh wicket to haul the home team out of a deep hole. (Reuters)

Sydney: Till Wednesday, there was little in common between Andrew Symonds and Murali Kartik. However, with the Australian doing a Kartik after stumps on the first day of the second 3mobile Test, that has changed.

Just as Kartik admitted he’d “nicked” one during the most crucial stage of the Mumbai ODI versus Australia, in mid-October, Symonds conceded he’d been “very lucky”.

Indeed, instead of turning down an appeal for a catch at the wicket off Ishant Sharma, Steve Bucknor should’ve given Symonds out when he was on 30.

By the close, the intimidating Australian powered his way to an unbeaten 137 and helped his team, one-up already, reach a muscular 376 for seven. At one stage, Australia were 134 for six.

Had Kartik walked at the Wankhede that evening, the match wouldn’t have been won by India. Symonds too didn’t walk (nowadays, hardly anybody does) and Bucknor’s error could gift the Test to Australia.

The Indians, understandably, are furious with Bucknor — who has a fairly high error-percentage against them — but the Code of Conduct prevented an outburst.

“We couldn’t believe it when Symonds wasn’t given out... The entire picture would’ve been so different,” remarked a well-placed source in the touring party.

Clearly, the Indians can only get their point across in the captain’s report to the International Cricket Council.

Bucknor wasn’t alone in erring on a day when poor decisions took the sheen away from what had been a fantastic first few hours for India after the toss had been lost.

For example, Ricky Ponting ought to have been given out, caught behind off Sourav Ganguly, when on 17. Mark Benson made a mess on that occasion and, when he did give the Australian captain out, he made a bigger mess!

Ponting got a thick inside edge, yet was given out leg-before to Harbhajan Singh. By then he’d reached 55, a big improvement on the failures at the MCG.

Later, third (TV) umpire B.N.J. Oxenford ruled in Symonds’ favour when he was on 48.

To make it worse, the Indians dropped a couple of catches and Mahendra Singh Dhoni missed a stumping.

With the circumstances conspiring in that manner and the Symonds-Brad Hogg pair rewriting records for the seventh-wicket, courtesy their 173-run partnership, the initiative got snatched by Australia.

Hogg the batsman was quite a revelation and his positive approach caught the Indians napping. The think tank, obviously, hadn’t seen him as a threat with the willow.

“Look, even I’ve often underestimated myself,” Hogg quipped. He fell for 79, but replacement Brett Lee kept up the good work.

By stumps, ifs and buts were strewn across the SCG and, once again, the Indians have all the running to do.

Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard, by the way, was at the SCG throughout the day. He didn’t comment on the umpiring, but did tell The Telegraph: “We saw quite a bit of see-saw cricket, but Australia’s very strongly placed now. Having said that, I’m looking forward to watching Sachin Tendulkar bat.”

Sachin is one of Howard’s favourites, with the list headed by Sir Gary Sobers.