Venue Changed Again! Ahemadabad Out, Mohali In!

The venue and the match schedule has been changed again for the England tour to continue. The England team went back to their home after cancelling the last two ODIs after the terror attack in Mumbai.

The 2nd Test was scheduled to be played in Mumbai, but it was changed to Chennai. Now, the schedule has been drawn again eliminating the practice match against the Indian Board President's XI.

The first test will be played in Chenni and the second test will be played in Mohali. Ahemadabad has been removed as the venue for the first test and Mumbai has been replaced by Mohali.

The revised schedule:

Dec 5-7, 2008: Indian Board President's XI v. England XI - Vadodara - CANCELLED
Dec 11-15, 2008: 1st Test: India v. England - Chennai
Dec 19-23, 2008: 2nd Test: India v. England - Mohali

Ganguly scores his 16th Test Hundred!

Ganguly should be a relieved man towards the end of his career. He performed well in the Bangalore test and in the 2nd Test in Mohali, he scored his 16th test hundred and 2nd against Australia.

When he was in 96, flicked the ball from White towards square leg where it reached the boundary to bring his hundred. Though he played little slow, it was required for the Indian team to ensure that they do not lose the wickets. His innings was perfectly played. He consumed little 224 balls for his 102, a well played innings.

Congratulations DADA!

2nd Test: Ind v. Aus: Day 1: Tendulkar Creates World Record, puts India ahead!

Winning the crucial toss on this batting wicket, Dhoni rightly decided to bat. The openers gave a good start with 70-run stand for the first wicket. The first day was a good day for Indian camp with a good total on the board, Ganguly batting well, Dhoni to come, creating the most important record by Tendulkar, Ganguly reaching 7000 runs in test cricket, Ishanth Sharma scoring his 100th test run.

India ended the day with 311 for 5 in 85 overs. The game was stretched for 30 more minutes and Sachin got out just before end of play. Sehwag and Gambhir started positively hitting few boundaries. Sehwag was caught behind of a ball pitched on the leg stump trying to glance it, took the edge and went to Haddin.

Dravind and Gambhir added 76 and both of them were looking strong and solid. They added 76 runs for the 2nd wicket. Dravid dragged the ball to the stumps off Lee. The ball was close to off stump and he tried to push hit, took the edge and fell on stump.

Gambhir also fell immediately caught behind of Johnson. Trying to drive the ball pithced on the off, the ball took slight edge of the bat and went straight to keeper Haddin.

India were strugging at 146 for 2. Laxman joined Tendulkar and both of them were new at the crease. Tendulkar needed 15 runs to overtake Lara. Laxman did not last long and left India struggling at 163 for 4.

Tendulkar and Ganguly played sensibly and did not rush through the innings. First ball after tea, the moment of the life came for Sachin. He just steered the ball to third man of Siddle, picked three runs and overtook Lara. The fans became alive and the fireworks did not stop for sometime. The play was stopped for a while until the fire works were stopped.

Tendulkar crossed his 50th fifty and ensured that the scoreboard is moving. When he reached his 62nd run, he reached 12,000 runs test cricket. Ganguly reached his 7000 runs in test cricket.

They both added 142 runs for the 5th wicket before Tendulkar edged the new ball from Siddle and Hayden took a good low catch. Siddle picked his first test wicket. In the Bengaluru test, White picked Tendulkar as his first test wicket. Tendulkar scored 88 with 10 boundaries.

Ishanth Sharma and Ganguly negotiated the remaining overs to end the day at 311 for 5 in 85 overs.

Test: 2nd Test
Venue: Punjab Cricket Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh
Dates: October 17-21, 2008
Teams: India and Australia
Hosts: India
Captains: MS Dhoni and Ricky Ponting
Toss: India

Score at the end of Day 1:

India 311 for 5 in 85 overs (Gamhhir 67, Sehwag 35, Dravid 39, Tendulkar 88, Laxman 12, Ganguly 54 batting, Ishanth Sharma 2 batting, Extras--14 (b 4, lb 2, w 5, nb 3), Lee 18-5-56-1, Siddle 18-2-80-1, Johnson 20-3-68-3, Watson 14-3-47-0, Clarke 7-0-28-0, White 8-0-26-0)

Fall of Wickets: 1-70 (Sehwag, 14.2 ov), 2-146 (Dravid, 40.5 ov), 3-146 (Gambhir, 41.1 ov), 4-163 (Laxman, 45.1 ov), 5-305 (Tendulkar, 81.5 ov)

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