India wins 3rd Test! Equals Series!

India win the 3rd and final test against the touring South African team and equalled the series 1-1. Trailing the series 0-1, the Kanpur wicket, which was termed as spinner frienly, actually proved it.

Though the pitch helped spinners, the pacers also got some help from the wicket, with uneven bounce.

India started the day 3 with a lead of 23 runs and the last pair batting, Sreesanth and Ishanth Sharma survivied the first 10 overs and helped India gain an overall lead of 60 crucial runs. They both added 46 runs for the last wicket, which really put India on the driver seat. Everyone knew that the 2nd innings of India is going to be much tougher because of the heavy crack and footmark of the bowlers.

As expected, the crack in the pitch produced uneven bounce--especially the wicket of Rahul Dravind in the Indian first innings was expected. The ball bounced and hit him in the wrist and flew to gully. It was really an unplayable delivery.

The last Indian wicket fell in the 100th over the innings. Sreesanth scored 29 valueable runs and Ishanth Sharama was not out on 14. Harris took the last wicket.

South Africa trailing by 60 runs, had to score more than 250, so that they can set a target of 190+ runs which would very difficult to chase in the uneven wicket.

The first wicket was taken by Sreesanth when McKenzie tried to pull the short ball and was judged leg before.

Next to go was Amla, the inform batsman, but he was dismissed just before lunch. He was caught at short leg for a duck. Then, Kallis was caught at short leg again by Jaffer for 15. The break-through was given by Shewag this time, when Smith and Kallis were building the innings and provided 5 runs lead.

Smith was bowled behind his leg. That was a beautiful delivery by Shewag pitched outside the leg stump of Smith and hit the leg stump. Smith was not able to do anything except look at what has happened and return to pavilion.

de Villiers, also didn't last long. He was caught by Laxman off Harbhajan for 7 leaving SA struggle at 90 for 5.

The last dangerous batsman was Boucher. He was caught by Dhoni off Ishanth Sharma. The ball kicked and kissed the glove on the way to Dhoni. After this, everyone knew that it is just a matter of time to dismiss the rest of the batsmen.

From 90 for 5, to 101, SA lost 3 quick wickets including Boucher, Morkel for 0, and Harris for 0. Morkel was bowled by a beauty from Ishanth and Harris was caught by Dravid in slips off Harbhajan.

Styen and Nitni were dismissed for 7 and 0. Steyn was bowled when he tried slog Harbhajan and Nitni was caught by Ganguly off Shewag. South Africa were dismissed for 121, the third lowest score.

Dhoni's surpise of having Harbhajan open the bowling, though didn't pay fruits immediately, he surprised and sent SA backfoot.

Harbhajan finished with 4 wickets, Ishanth with 2 and Shewag with 3.

Chasing an easy target of 62, Shewag hit two sixes of Harris. When he tried to make one more, the ball took the edge and flew to point. In the next over, Jaffer was trapped leg before for 10. With 30 more runs to win, Ganguly and Dravid finished the formalities.

Man of the Match was given to Ganguly for his wonderful 87 in the first innings, which helped India to gain a lead. He mentioned that this is one of the best knock which helped India to win.

Man of the Series was given to Harabhan for picking 19 wickets in 5 innings.

Full score:

Match: 3rd Test
Venue: Green Park, Kanpur
Date: April 11 to 15, 2008
Toss: South Africa and decided to bat
Match Result: India won by 8 wickets
Series Result: India and South Africa won 1 each; 1 test drawn
Captain: Dhoni (India) and Smith (South Africa)
Score:
South Africa 1st Innings 265 all out in 87.3 overs (McKenzie 36, Smith 69, Amla 51, de Villiers 25, Boucher 29, Ishanth 3 for 55, Harbhajan 3 for 52, Chawla 2 for 66)
India 1st Innings 325 all out in 99.4 overs (Dravid 29, Laxman 50, Ganguly 87, Yuvaraj 32, Dhoni 32, Sreesanth 29, Steyn 3 for 71, Morkel 3 for 63, Harris 3 for 101)
South Africa 2nd Innings (trail by 60 runs) 121 all out 55.5 overs (Smith 35, Harbhajan 4 for 44, Ishanth 2 for 18, Shewag 3 for 12)
India 2nd Innings (62 to win) 62 for 2 in 13.1 overs (Shewag 22)