1st Test, Day 4: India v. Australia: Advantage Aussies!

Zaheer and Harbhajan denied Aussies a big lead which was expected by everyone. The lead was thought to be over 180, was reduced to 70 runs by Harbhajan and Zaheer as they both crossed their 50 run mark. Harbhajan was dismissed for 54 towards end of day 3, but Zaheer was in the crease to start day 4.

Zaheer crossed his 50 in style by coming down the track and hitting Watson over his head for a straight four. Zaheer and Kumble reduced the gap to less than 100. They added 31 for the 9th wicket, off whcih Kumble scored 5. Zaheer Khan hit two boundaries in the morning and released the pressure.

Kumble was the first one to go, leg before to Watson. He played 33 balls for his 5. Ishanth played well and Zaheer had the confidence in Ishanth. They added 17 before Ishanth was bowled by M Clarke. Zaheer Khan was not out on 57 off 121 balls with 5 fours. He was the highest scorer for India, followed by Harbhajan. The last three wickets played 41.3 overs, that is, 249 balls. Isn't this amazing?

Australia started the 2nd innings with a lead of 70 runs and had 68 overs in hand. Sure that Ponting would be in double mind--whether to attack or to play defense and based on loss of wickets, either attack or defend. Any captain would expect a good start to put a good total on the board.

Hayden went first, unlucky decision! LBW to Zaheer. He fell to Zaheer in both the innings. Ponting, played well, but couldn't continue his first innings form. He was caught at mid wicket off Ishanth Sharma. Australia where 49 for 2 in 22.2 overs.

Katich and Hussey added 50 for the third wicket and they consumed 133 deliveries to reach this mark. The top spinner from Harbhajan hit the top of the Katich bat and and poped an easy catch at silly mid off where Laxman grabbed it easily. His 34 came off 140 balls with 3 hits to boundary.

The vice captain Micheal Clarke did not last long. He was caught at covers of Ishanth Sharma for 6 and Aussies were 115 for 4.

The century scorer Mike Hussye did not read Harbhajan's incoming delivery. He thought it would leave him, but it came in and knocked the stumps. He was bowled for 31 off 72 deliveries with 3 fours.

Watson should have gone in the over by Bhajji if Sehwag was placed few steps close the boundary. He was standing half way and the shot ball was pulled just over his head.

Earlier, Gambhir reacted late to at short-leg to give a life to Katich.

A run-out chance for sending Ponting to pavilion was closely missed by substitute Badrinath. He tried for direct hit, but the ball wnet few inches away from the bowlers end stumps.

Shane Watson and Brad Haddin 65 runs for the 6th wicket and took the lead beyond 250. They survived close run-outs which were missed by Indians. No one stood near the stumps when they were taking chances on the 2nd run. In one instance, Kumble or Ishanth could have collected the throw from Ganguly, but they were standing in their own position.

Watson is on 32 and Haddin is on 28 and the score is 193 for 5. What will be Ponting's plan for day 5? When will he declare? Or will India pick all the wickets in less than 300 runs? How much overs will India have to negotiate or to score the target? The target will be around 325--this my expectation!!!

Test: 1st Test
Venue: Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
Dates: October 9-13, 2008
Teams: India and Australia
Hosts: India
Captains: Anil Kumble and Ricky Ponting
Toss: Australia

Score at the end of Day 4:

Australia 1st Innings 430 all out in 149.5 overs (ML Hayden 0, SM Katich 66, RT Ponting 123, MEK Hussye 146, MJ Clarke 11, SR Watson 2, BJ Haddin 33, CL White 6, B Lee 27, MG Johnson 1, SR Clark 0 not out, Extras--15 (lb 11, w 1, nb 3), Z Khan 29.-4-91-5, I Sharma 30-7-77-4, Harbhajan Singh 41-8-103-1, A Kumble 43-6-129-0, V Sehwag 6-0-19-0)

Fall of Wickets: 1-0 (Hayden, 0.3 ov), 2-166 (Katich, 54.4 ov), 3-226 (Ponting, 78.4 ov), 4-254 (Clarke, 89.2 ov), 5-259 (Watson, 92.3 ov), 6-350 (Haddin, 122.6 ov), 7-362 (White, 126.5 ov), 8-421 (Lee, 147.5 ov), 9-429 (Johnson, 149.1 ov), 10-430 (Hussey, 149.5 ov)

India 1st Innings 360 all out in 119 overs (G Gambhir 21, V Sehwag 45, R Dravid 51, SR Tendulkar 13, VVS Laxman 0, SC Ganguly 47, MS Dhoni 9, Harbhajan Singh 54, Zaheer Khan 57 not out, A Kumble 5, I Sharma 6, Extras--52 (b 23, lb 23, nb 6), B Lee 26-6-64-1, S Clark 17-3-58-0, M Johnson 27-4-70-4, S Watson 19-4-45-3, White 13-2-39-0, M Clarke 17-3-38-2)

Fall of Wickets: 1-70 (Gambhir, 19.2 ov), 2-76 (Sehwag, 22.6 ov), 3-94 (Tendulkar, 28.4 ov), 4-106 (Laxman, 32.6 ov), 5-155 (Dravid, 49.5 ov), 6-195 (Dhoni, 65.4 ov), 7-232 (Ganguly, 77.3 ov), 8-312 (Harbhajan Singh, 99.3 ov), 9-343 (Kumble, 111.6 ov), 10-360 (Sharma, 118.6)

Australia 2nd Innings (70 runs lead) 193 for 5 in 68 overs (Hayden 13, Katich 34, Ponting 17, Mike Hussey 31, Micheal Clarke 6, Watson 32 batting, Haddin 28 batting, Extras--32 (b 13, lb 10, w 6, nb 3), Z Khan 15-4-30-1, I Sharma 12-3-27-2, Harbhajan Singh 27-5-76-2, V Sehwag 7-1-12-0, A Kumble 7-0-25-0)

Fall of Wickets: 1-21 (Hayden, 12.2 ov), 2-49 (Ponting, 22.2 ov), 3-99 (Katich, 44.3 ov), 4-115 (Clarke, 47.5 ov), 5-128 (Hussey, 50.5 ov)

Click here to read Day 1 Report

Click here to read Day 2 Report

Click here to read Day 3 Report

Lara Wishes Tendulkar!

The current record holder for highest run scorer in Test Cricket History with 11,953 runs has wishes Tendulkar to break the record. He said, records are meant to be broken and Sachin should go for it.

"I wish Sachin all the best. Records are meant to be broken. It's a pleasure to be counted in the elite list of players like Sachin and (Sunil) Gavaskar. We should appreciate Sachin for whatever he does," the WI batsman said.

The 39-year old WI batsman has 11953 runs on his account from 131 tests that he appeared for his country. Tendulkar is just 77 runs to go beat Lara. He has scored 11,877 runs in 150 test matches.


"I would have loved to be at Bangalore to watch him when he breaks my record, but I'm flying off to Australia tomorrow," he said. Lara indicated that the next person who can beat Sachin's record would be Ricky Ponting.

Good luck Tendular. We all hope that you will beat the record in Bangalore itself and you do not require another Test!

Ganguly Plans to Play in India A v. NZ A 2nd Test!

Ganguly should be a happy man after getting his place in the test side against the Australian Team. Before joining the Indian team in the net practice in Bangalore, Ganguly is planning to play in the 2nd test for Indian A.

India A team is playing 2-Test series against New Zealand A. India A won the first test and leading the series 1-0.

After added to the Indian team for the first two test that was announced on October 1, Ganguly wanted to get real time match practice and will be playing in the 2nd test.

This is a 4-day game that will be played in Chennai. So, you can see Ganguly in Chennai soon.

After getting some match practice, he will join the Indian team in Bangalore for the practice session.

Match 2 of Tri-Series: India Crush Pakistan! Huge Defeat!

India stopped the winning streak of Pakistan! India famous for stopping these kinds of records, once again proved that they are on top.

Deciding to bat first, India posted a mamooth total of 330. It looked like they were continuing their form from the IPL's T20.

Gambhir and Sehwag added 155 for the first wicket, though Sehwag survived a close caught behind, which the TV replay showed Kamran Akmal picked the ball from the ground.

Sehwag scored 89 off 76 balls with 13 fours and a six. He won both the man of the match and the award for fastest fifty scoring in 42 balls.

Gambhir scored run-a-ball of 62 runs with 6 fours. Yuvaraj Singh who bagged the award for scoring maximum sixes, scored 55 off 54 balls with 3 fours and 3 sixes.

Yousuf Pathan and Rohit were not able to score much on the slow wicket. Dhoni scored a quick 24 with 5 fours and Raina fired two good sixes. Wahab Riaz was the costly bowler conceding 86 in his 10 overs picking 2 wickets. The bowling attack was not that decent as Pakistan gave away 38 runs in extras including 20 wides and 9 no balls.

Click here to read the 1st match details: Pakistan v. Bangladesh

Chasing 331, from the beginning, Pakistan was on the back foot. Praveen Kumar rattled the top order and picked all the first 4 wickets. He picked his first two wickets in the successive balls to send Salman Butt, caught brilliantly at short cover by Rohit. He dived to his left to take an one-handed stunning catch! Next ball, Younis Khan trying to steer it to third man, took outside edge and was caught behind.

Yousuf was judged leg before off Praveen and Kamran Akmal was caught at mid on by Yousuf Pathan.

Shoaib Malik, the skipper was in the field alone fighting the Indian bowling attack. He scored 53 off 67 balls with 3 fours and a six. Shahid Afridi, who did not see much success in IPL, should have played a sensible innings. He threw his wicket by stepping out of Piyush Chawla, who bowled well to get him stumped. He then took a godo return catch to send Tanvir back to pavilion.

Praveen Kumar and Piyush Chawla picked 4 wickets each while Ishanth Sharma and Yuvaraj Singh picked 1 each.

Match Details:

Trophy: Kitply Cup - Tri-Series in Bangladesh
Match #: 2
Venue: Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur
Date: June 10, 2008
Teams: India and Pakistan
Captains: Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Shoaib Malik
Toss: India won the toss and decided to bat
Result: India won by 140 runs
Man of the Match: Virendra Sehwag of India
Score:

India 330 for 8 in 50 overs (G Gambhir 62, V Sehwag 89, Yuvaraj Singh 57, YK Pathan 3, RG Sharma 9, MS Dhoni 24, SK Raina 26, IK Pathan 18, P Kumar 6 not out, PP Chawla 0 not out, Extras--38 (b 5, lb 4, w 20, nb 9), Umar Gul 10-0-61-3, Sohail Tanvir 9.4-0-57-1, Wahab Riaz 9.2-0-86-2, Iftikhar Anjum 10-0-63-0, Shahid Afridi 10-0-52-2, Younis Khan 1-0-2-0) beat Pakistan 190 all out in 35.4 overs (Salman Butt 9, Kamran Akmal 38, Younis Khan 0, Mohammad Yousuf 11, Misbah-ul-Haq 24, Shoaib Malik 53, Shahid Afridi 23, Sohail Tanvir 6, Umar Gul 7, Iftikhar Anjum 16 not out, Wahab Riaz 0, Extras--3 (lb 3), P Kumar 9-1-53-4, I Sharma 6-0-28-1, IK Pathan 6-0-38-0, PP Chawla 8.4-0-40-4, Yuvaraj Singh 4-0-17-1, YK Pathan 2-0-11-0)

Click here to read the 1st match details: Pakistan v. Bangladesh

Dravid says, T20 may not help in longer versions

"Success in T20 may not automatically translate into success in the four-day Ranji or Tests," Dravid, whose team will take on Kings XI Punjab here tomorrow, told a pre-match press conference here.

He said batsmen scoring runs in T20 cannot be rated as better player because they will need to prove themselves in the longer version of the game.

"T20 is unique and lot of young Indian players are excelling in this format. Whether they can take this confidence to the next level is debatable. It's not going to be easy and the skills with which you achieve success in T20 may not help you give you success in Ranji and Tests," he said.

He also said, "It's hard to rate what is a good performance in this format."

"Whichever team you are a part of, you want to win and want to do well," he said.

Australia's Tour to India - Schedule

Australia will play four test matches in India between September and November 2008. They start with the four day match starting October 2. They arrive to India on Septemebr 29 and the two months will be a good fight between the teams for Border Gavaskar trophy.

The trophy is with Australia now who won the series at home 2-1. The tour had lot of controversies with Harbhajan charged with racial abuse. He was banned and latter let off with a fine. Later Hayden called Harbhajan "Little abnoxious weed" and apologized. Harbhajan was found to be gesturing monkey postures towards the crowd by a local media and later found no evidence.

The Australia's visit to India will be interesting and we have to see how the teams are going to play the sport!

The schedule:

October 2-5 - Four day match
October 9-13 - First Test in Bangalore
October 17-21 - Second Test in Mohali
October 28-November 1 - Third Test in Delhi
November 5-9 - Fourth Test in Nagpur

IPL Kicked Off in Style!

The much awaited Indian Premier League (IPL) was kicked off yesterday. The first match was played between Kolkata Knight Riders and Bangalore Royal Challengers. The first match was played in Bangalore and the ex-captains of India were leading each side--Ganguly was leading Kolkata and Dravid leading Bangalore.

For complete schedule, click here!

The eight teams that are competing for the championship are:


Bangalore Royal Challengers
Chennai Super Kings
Deccan Chargers
Delhi Daredevils
Kolkata Knight Riders
Mumbai Indians
Punjab Kings
Rajasthan Royals

Prasad and Robin Singh Stay!

The bowling coach and the fielding coach of the Indian Cricket Team has been retained for the forthcoming series against South Africa. It was said that the BCCI was not happy with them because they have signed IPL teams as coaches without consent from BCCI.

Venkatesh Prasad was retained after the improved performance in the bowling department during the down under series against Australia. He was signed by Vijay Mallya's Bangalore team and Robin Singh was signed by Hyderabad's team.

The speculation was that the new coach Gary Kirsten wanted his own men to support the Indian team in all the departments and BCCI was supporting the new coach. The post of the interim coach Lalchand Rajput is also under danger. It may be noted that this series of India against South Africa in India is the first official series for Gary Kisten as coach.

The official news is that, both Venkatesh Prasad and Robin Singh stay as bowling and fielding coach respectively.