India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has heaped praise on Australia captain Michael Clarke for both his supreme batsmanship and magnanimous sportsmanship after the first day of the fourth Test at Adelaide Oval.
Ashwin, who struck twice before lunch after being introduced in just the fourth over of the innings, had no answers for Clarke (140 not out), who shared in a monster unbeaten stand of 252 with Ricky Ponting (137 not out) for the fourth wicket to advance Australia from an uncertain 3-84 just before lunch to an impregnable 3-335 at stumps.
The recalled off-spinner revealed Clarke tempered a potential row on the penultimate ball before tea.
Clarke turned part-time bowler Virat Kohil to the on-side for a sharp single when Zaheer Khan had a shy at the non-striker's end from square leg.
Seemingly unbeknown to the Aussie skipper, the ball ricocheted off his sliding bat and he ran two more overthrows as a result of the deflection, which at the time infuriated the Indians.
The tourists appealed for Clarke to be given out obstructing the field, arguing he had deliberately deviated off his natural line to bunt Zaheer's throw.
But after the umpires conferred with third umpire Paul Reiffel, Clarke was rightly allowed to bat on.
Clarke quickly went from being condemned to complimented by the Indians as a result of his reaction to the incident.
"It (Zaheer's throw) was straight on target for the stumps and it hit the bat and fended off," said Ashwin, who took 2-81 from 26 tireless overs.
"We were not very sure if he had really ran into the line of the throw or if it was something that just happened, so we wanted to check on that. We just had a polite enquiry to (Kumar) Dharmasena (umpire)."
"That's basically the reason we appealed because if it was intentional, he ran for it. That is the reason we did it, nothing else."
Clarke's response pleased Ashwin.
"After that particular thing, he (Clarke) went to the umpire and said (asked) if he could take back those two runs (overthrows) and he did it very instinctively."
"Anybody can do mistakes and he was quite pardonable because he immediately went and said I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done it."
"That was commendable on his part."
The appeal smacked of desperation and that's exactly how India were feeling as Clarke and Ponting piled on the runs in perfect, hot batting conditions offering little assistance to the bowlers.
"Definitely there wasn't much spin for the day," Ashwin said. "I think it was really good batting by Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke."
"They really took the game away from us in the second session."
"We were definitely egging each other on in the second session - we had to really be tight in that particular phase after lunch where it was quite crucial."
"But that's where we gave quite a few easy runs to both of them and they just took off from there."
Despite likely conceding a massive first innings score, Ashwin has not given up hope of India having a say in the outcome of the contest when it is the visitors' turn to bat on a belting Adelaide wicket, no doubt referencing the corresponding match at the same venue eight summers ago.
Rahul Dravid's 14-hour epic double of 233 and 72 not out helped India win that encounter by four wickets after Australia batted first and belted 556