Zaheer was declared man of the match for the first test match played in Bengaluru aka Bangalore. Zaheer picked 5 wickets in the first innings which helped India to restrict Australia for 430. He dismissed Hayden in the first over of the series for a duck and dismissed Michael Clarke in the last over of the first day.
He was involved in a crucial 80-run partnership with Harbhajan and then another 31-run partnership with skipper Kumble for the 9th wicket. Most important thing was he played out 121 balls which took 189 minutes. This irritated Oz and delayed the 2nd innings batting of Aussies. This also reduced the lead to 70 runs as against the expected lead of close to 200.
In his partnership with Harbhajan, they both played 22 overs and 12.3 overs with Kumble. He scored 57 not out with 7 fours.
During the 2nd innings, he provided the break through by sending Hayden back again.
He was declared man of the match though there were two centurions--Ponting and Hussey. During the interview, he said:
"... I have not seen any Australian team play such a defensive cricket. This is good for us."
Ricky reponded saying, "I do not know what he meant. We played aggressive cricket. We provided challenging total. We played positive cricket. You have to ask him what he meant."
When asked Zaheer, he said, "They score 4 runs per over as an average but in this gave they have scored at an average of 2.87. This tells that they have played defensive cricket. They couldn't get us (me and Harbhajan) out."
Well, he has opened up a controversy and we have to wait and see how Aussies are going to respond.
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