Ind vs Aus 1st Test - India clinches a thriller at Mohali

[desicad]

VVS, Ishant script heroic win
VVS Laxman overcame his sore back to become the hero of a nail-biting one-wicket victory for India, who retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in dramatic fashion in Mohali. In one of the most memorable finishes in recent history, Pragyan Ojha picked up two leg-byes off Mitchell Johnson to seal the result, which until that delivery could also have been a tie or an Australian win.

The match was firmly in Australia's grasp when the No. 10 Ishant Sharma joined Laxman with 92 runs still required, but the pair ground Australia down and left a dejected Ricky Ponting still winless as a Test captain in India. The visitors' hopes were raised again when Ben Hilfenhaus (4 for 57) trapped Ishant lbw - although the ball would have missed leg stump - with 11 runs needed.

In the final, chaotic scenes, Australia continued to attack, desperate for one wicket. They thought they had it two balls before the winning runs were struck, when Mitchell Johnson rapped Ojha on the pads only to have a strong lbw shout denied. Adding to the commotion, Ojha wandered out of his crease and a throw from gully that would have found him short missed the stumps and ran away for four overthrows.

When the winning leg-byes arrived, the Indian players streamed onto the field as the Australians thrust hands on heads. For sheer on-field tension, the finish ranked up there with Australia's last-minute SCG win of 2007-08. But that match was overshadowed by claims of poor sportsmanship; this time there should be no such post-script.

Man of the match : Zaheer Khan

 

[Wadaich]

(clap)Congratulations!(clap) Well Done. Keep on thrashing these racist:angry_smile: Australians until gori chamri gets black.

 

[Waseem]

Well done team India, great performance by Laxman and Ishant. Indian batting line has always been good but still to score 92 runs on last wicket is not an easy task.

 

[desicad]

Well done team India, great performance by Laxman and Ishant. Indian batting line has always been good but still to score 92 runs on last wicket is not an easy task.

Thank you! :)
9th wicket: 81 runs Last wicket: 11 runs
Full scorecard:
http://cricketnext.in.com/scorecard/match/full/inaut11012010.html

 

[NaveedAli]

Aha thats very good these westerners are using everything to dismantle or dismay sub continent cricket atleast indians have kicked their ass by beating aussies and left others mouth shut who try to disgrace our cricket.

 

[Waseem]

Thank you! :)
10th wicket :81 runs Last wicket: 11 runs

Oops my bad, I thought Ishant was last man.

 

[desicad]

My bad too, maybe the excitement :P
It's 9th and last wicket. I have modified the post.

 

[Kavalier]

India won a thrilling contest against Australia.....

http://geo.tv/10-5-2010/urdu/10-5-2010_122220_1.gif

 

[IndiaGuy]

Magical Laxman seals thrilling one-wicket win

VVS Laxman overcame his sore back to become the hero of a nail-biting one-wicket victory for India, who retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in dramatic fashion in Mohali. In one of the most memorable finishes in recent history, Pragyan Ojha picked up two leg-byes off Mitchell Johnson to seal the result, which until that delivery could also have been a tie or an Australian win.

The match was firmly in Australia's grasp when the No. 10 Ishant Sharma joined Laxman with 92 runs still required, but the pair ground Australia down and left a dejected Ricky Ponting still winless as a Test captain in India. The visitors' hopes were raised again when Ben Hilfenhaus (4 for 57) trapped Ishant lbw - although the ball would have missed leg stump - with 11 runs needed.

In the final, chaotic scenes, Australia continued to attack, desperate for one wicket. They thought they had it two balls before the winning runs were struck, when Mitchell Johnson rapped Ojha on the pads only to have a strong lbw shout denied. Adding to the commotion, Ojha wandered out of his crease and a throw from gully that would have found him short missed the stumps and ran away for four overthrows.

When the winning leg-byes arrived, the Indian players streamed onto the field as the Australians thrust hands on heads. For sheer on-field tension, the finish ranked up there with Australia's last-minute SCG win of 2007-08. But that match was overshadowed by claims of poor sportsmanship; this time there should be no such post-script.

On that occasion Ishant was the last man out as the sun set over Sydney; in Mohali he was every bit as important as Laxman, with a defiant innings of 31 in their partnership of 81. But Laxman was the star. The Australians will wonder how they let such a golden opportunity slip; the answer lies in the hands, or wrists, of one of their chief tormentors of recent years.

Entering the final day, Ponting's men feared Sachin Tendulkar, who went to stumps unbeaten on 10, much more than they were concerned about Laxman. They knew that in the first innings VVS had been very, very sore. He'd batted at No. 10, with a runner, and was hampered in his strokeplay. Two days later, the man with the most unique initials in cricket was very, very stubborn.

Again he had a runner, Suresh Raina, but just as important were the eight boundaries he struck in his 73, which came from 79 deliveries. Had he not started to farm the strike in the dying stages, he would have finished with a strike-rate of more than 100 for only the fourth time in his 188 Test innings.

Smart Stats
This was India's first one-wicket victory in Tests and the 12th such result overall. India's two closest victories previously were by a margin of two wickets, both coming against Australia.
This was the 17th occasion when India has won a Test after conceding a lead. In eight of these matches, they have batted second and on the other nine occasions, they have batted first. Nine of these victories have come against Australia.
The 81-run partnership for the ninth wicket between VVS Laxman and Ishant Sharma was the second-highest against Australia, behind the 89-run stand between Harbhajan Singh and Irfan Pathan in 2004. It was also the second-highest ninth-wicket stand for India in the fourth innings of Tests.
During that 81-run stand, Ishant played 71% of the total deliveries (92 out of 130).
Laxman is one of the few batsmen who averages more in the second innings in Tests. He averages 45.67 in the first innings, but 50.47 with five centuries in the second innings.
India have a win-loss ratio of 4.00 in Mohali, the best among all home venues that have hosted ten or more matches.
Sachin Tendulkar became the only batsman to aggregate 1000 runs in a calendar year for the sixth time, surpassing Ricky Ponting, Brian Lara and Matthew Hayden, who have done so on five occasions each.
Laxman flicked the ball through gaps and was always looking to counterattack as Ponting continued to set aggressive fields. His approach was critical, for Australia had all the momentum in the hour before lunch when Doug Bollinger, who did not take the field after lunch due to abdominal stiffness, made two breakthroughs, including the key wicket of Tendulkar for 38.

But try as they might, Australia under Ponting simply haven't been able to close out a victory in India. In 2008 he was over-defensive, failing to push for wickets and grab opportunities when they arose. This time Ponting didn't do much wrong; Laxman was just too good.

India began the day needing 161 runs and for an hour they were cruising, as Tendulkar and Laxman brought the target down with a rapidity that alarmed Ponting. Nathan Hauritz had picked up the night-watchman Zaheer Khan, caught at slip, but was leaking runs and when he conceded 14 off an over, Ponting knew the fast men were his only option.

Cheers went around the ground as Tendulkar passed 1000 Test runs in a calendar year for the sixth time in his career, and it seemed that he was destined to deliver India to victory. But his desire to score quickly brought his undoing, when he tried to cut Bollinger over the cordon to the vacant third-man region.

The ball was too close to his body and he steered it to gully, where Michael Hussey grabbed the sharp chance. Tendulkar was gone, and the atmosphere cooled down slightly as the runs began to dry up. Then came the second big moment of joy for Australia, when the presence of a runner cost MS Dhoni his wicket.

Laxman drove Bollinger to mid-on and his runner Raina took off for what should have been a comfortable single. But Dhoni appeared confused by Laxman remaining in his ground and the hesitation was enough to give hope to the fielder Hilfenhaus, whose superb direct hit at the striker's end finished Dhoni's stay on 2.

When Bollinger's fast, well-directed bouncer had a fending Harbhajan Singh caught at slip two balls later, Australia were in control. Laxman and Ishant had other ideas, and the rest is history. The great shame is that this is only a two-match series.

Brydon Coverdale is an assistant editor at Cricinfo

 

[desicad]

Re: Magical Laxman seals thrilling one-wicket win

The Final over:

 

[Abdul_ghaffar]

They should be thanking Billy for not giving the last lbw out..It was plumb!

 

[desicad]

They should be thanking Billy for not giving the last lbw out..It was plumb!

Watch the full highlights and come back. 1st and 9th wickets were not out. :)

 

[Tilloo]

Plumb LB kha geya Bordan. . . . . .Nai to india geya tha. . . its a Part of game. . .

Well done for both teams. . .

 

[desicad]

Plumb LB kha geya Bordan. . . . . .Nai to india geya tha. . . its a Part of game. . .

Well done for both teams. . .

Listen to the commentry again, may be there was bat on to pad, no close up shown. Billy Bowden didn't signal 4 leg byes to the overthrow on that delivery, the runs went to the batsman's account. :)
Thanks anyway for your comments.

 

[Bret Hawk]

Congratulations to the Indian Members of this Forum

A fantastic Test match I’ve ever witnessed after a long time, which has surely revived the iconic Test match results of Karachi in 1994 and then in Barbados 1999 through the brilliances of Inzamam and Brian Lara respectively for their teams astonishing wins and ironically speaking Aussies were at the receiving end in all of those (And in this current one as well) occasions despite of dominating the major chunks of those memorable Test matches. However I do have to mention some points here in relation to the marvellous victory of Indians in this Test match.

First and foremost being ranked as the # 1 Test playing nation for some months now I reckon that it was highly unconvincing and nervy victory against that Test side which has surely become a shadow of their glorious recent past. Secondly I think it was a grave mistake coupled by incompetence from the Board of cricket control of India to not place the UDRS (Umpire’s Decision Review System) aided by the highly precise & reliable technology of Hotspot for this short Test series with Australians.

This Test match would have gone to the favour of Aussies right in the end when an umpire surely misread the lbw decision against the last wicket of Indians and in the end cost the match to the affected team. Anyhow there were some other doubtful decisions as well in this Test match and in future the other cricket boards / officials should try to avoid making such insane decisions and try to adopt & facilitate the most latest and reliable technology to not only assist the on field umpires but to ensure the smooth running of such vital international fixtures as well so that the stakeholders of this game should get optimum level of satisfaction and enjoyment in this due process. This will definitely do a world of good to the future of Test format of cricket, which is now not enjoying the wide scale acceptability and favouritism from the cricket lovers across the world as compare to the shorter formats of this game.

P.S. In the end though I would like to congratulate the Indians of this forum on this memorable result and wish a best of luck to the Asian block in the upcoming mega series of World Championship of cricket which is due to be held next year in this region of South Asia and to try their best to end the magnificent winning streak of Australians in these championships dating back to the instalments of 1999 till 2007.

 

[IndiaGuy]

Well done team India, great performance by Laxman and Ishant. Indian batting line has always been good but still to score 92 runs on last wicket is not an easy task.

Thank You Commander:). Hope Pakistan cricket issues will be resolved soon and we can watch most exciting Indo-PAk match again...

 

[IndiaGuy]

They should be thanking Billy for not giving the last lbw out..It was plumb!

Not really .. Ishant was not out but was given not out.. Gambhir was not out and given out.. so let's not get into this Just celibate :)