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 No T20  match nor an ODI will give so much thrill to spectators within the stadium and Cricket lovers around the world as this Mohali Test match did. It was a  nail-biting atmosphere as India requiring 216 to win the match in the last innings, pulled off a spectacular victory to beat Australia by one wicket. 

VVS Laxman

VVS Laxman, despite, his backache remained unbeaten on 73 runs took India to a one-wicket win against Australia in the Mohali Test which ended like a live-wire. 

India has now taken a 1-0 lead in the series. It was Laxman and Ishant Sharma who put up a match winning partnership of 81 runs. 

Yesterday, India were 55 for the loss of four wickets and it was expected that Australia would finish the formalities by noon today and win the match, but that was not to be. India had struggled to reach 162-8 at lunch on the fifth day after resuming their second innings at 55-4. 

Zaheer Khan was caught by Michael Clarke for 10 runs at first slip off the bowling of Hauritz. 

Tendulkar took no risks and waited patiently for loose deliveries to punish, driving and flicking off-spinner Hauritz for two fours. He later steered Hilfenhaus for another boundary. Tendulkar’s 38-run knock in 64 balls including five hits to the boundary. 

Tendulkar was later caught by Micheal Hussey at gully when he tried to hit one over deep point boundry.

The turning point came when Ishant Sharma came in at the fall of Harbhajan’s wicket. The speedster  put on 81 runs for the ninth-wicket with Laxman, hitting a few  fours in the match-winning partnership. 

Laxman started impressively, driving Hauritz through the covers for two fours in an over and then hitting Bollinger for another boundary. 

Pressure became the name of the game when skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni walked in to bat, with his team needing 97 to win with only four wickets in hand. 

Dhoni was run out after scoring just 2 runs and Harbhajan Singh also didn’t last long giving an edge to Ricky Ponting in the slip cordon. 

But Ishaant Sharma and VVS Luxman stood to their ground and ensured that their team reached very close to the victory target. 

Indian needed less than 15 runs when Ishant fell over a doubtful lbw decision where in the ball would have certainly missed leg stump. A day earlier Gautam Gambhir was also given out lbw off a played ball.  It was also a day that Pragyan Ojha would love to remember forever. He was nervous during a couple of overs, but to his credit, stayed with Laxman. The Aussies conceded a boundary off an overthrow when Indian needed 6 runs to win. These four bonus runs were the last nail in the Australian coffin.

And with just two runs required for victory, a delivery down Ojha’s leg stump was all that the left-armer needed to give him two leg-byes that took India for a historic win. 

The second and final Test starts in Bangalore on October 9 and confident India go there 1-0 up in the two Test series. 

In the post-match presentation ceremony, Mitchel Johnson got the special award for taking 100 wickets and scoring 1000 runs in his carreer. Zaheer Khan also received a special award for bagging 250 wickets in his cricket carreer. VVS Luxman was also awarded a trophy for his superb innings in this match. 

The Man of the Match Trophy went to Zahir Khan for having bagged 8 wickets during the match.

Ravi Matah.

Tags: Australia, First Cricket Test Match, india, Ishant Sharma, Mohali Cricket Stadium. Man of the Match, VVS Laxman, Zahir Khan

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 5th, 2010 at 4:12 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.