The uniquely graceful right-hander conjured a master class in ball-caressing to wow 30,000 spectators at a ground closest to his heart, dancing his way to a third hundred in as many Tests here.

An innings of subliminal grace and unfettered stroke production on an excellent surface flowed from the sinuous Hyderabadi's featherweight willow on day two of the second Test as India reached 216 three in reply to Australia’s 463 all out.

Laxman toyed with Australia's awe-inspiring attack, not hitting a shot in anger and still finding the boundary boards with stunning regularity as he brought up his fifth Test ton against the World champions.

His 12th Test century was as beautiful a construction as any. Qualitatively, it was out of the top draw. For sheer timing -- both of the ball and in the context of the series -- the effort will be hard to match even for the virtuoso himself, as he struck an excellent tandem with old mate Rahul Dravid.

India could have done without losing both set batsmen in the last three-quarters of an hour; even so, the Test stands beautifully poised, and ripe for the picking.

When Laxman is on song, he elevates batsmanship to dizzy heights. On Thursday, he was at his fluent best. There was an economy of effort, but the effect was mesmeric. Every stroke in the book was placed on view, every part of the ground wooed as Laxman turned on the style like only he can. Those wondrous wrists of his, at once supple and steely, were brought into play repeatedly; gentle flicks sent balls screeching from outside off to long-on, stronger urgings bade them farewell to mid-wicket and square-leg.

Wasim Jaffer's third straight failure -- cleaned up by a screaming Brett Lee yorker that threatened to angle in before straightening and pegged off-stick back -- brought Laxman out inside the first 30 minutes. For the next three and a half hours, he held centrestage, driving through the line, crunching cracking cuts, driving down the ground, whipping through mid-wicket, pulling with control and finesse, glancing with panache. It was the bearding of the lion in its own den non-pareil, a beautifully majestic dismantling of the same attack that had so systematically scuttled India's batting designs  no more than a week back.

Wonderful ally

In that mission, Laxman had a wonderful ally in his former captain. Even as Laxman charmed and enchanted, Dravid stone-walled and frustrated; predictably, the accolades went the Hyderabadi's way, but of no less import was the Bangalorean's measured contribution to the 175-run (212m, 283b) stand.

Still some way short of his best, Dravid -- who spent 39 balls when on 18 -- fought on manfully, bogged down neither by long periods of scorelessness nor the good-natured barracking of an SCG crowd that perhaps couldn't bear to see Laxman off strike. Fortune was on Dravid's side -- he was caught at second slip driving a widish Mitchell Johnson no-ball when 15, dropped down leg by Adam Gilchrist on 18 and then snaffled on the half-volley by Ricky Ponting at 47 -- and while he didn't entirely cash in, he played his part in a tempo-setting association.
Australia's outcricket was, for once, shoddy. Perhaps it had to do with Laxman's no-punches-thrown counter-punching. Gilchrist was the worst culprit, putting down Laxman himself on 45 and then 77, both tough chances but definitely takeable. Dravid and Laxman fell within seven deliveries of each other, against the run of play and just when the former was beginning to assert himself, both to loose strokes outside off. But Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly saw the day out with few alarms.

Alarm bells had started ringing in the Indian camp early on as Lee pressed on from the previous evening, launching a stunning assault on the new ball-armed pacers as Australia resumed their innings at 376 for seven.
Andrew Symonds was strokeless as Lee motored along, dominating the eighth-wicket stand of 114 (132m, 190b) before Anil Kumble belatedly brought himself on, and quickly cleaned up the tail. By then, umpire Bucknor had managed to add to his list of errors by not referring a stumping appeal to the third umpire against fortune-blessed Symonds, who rode his luck to post his highest Test total.