Harbhajan Singh wins man of the match in drawn game between http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 and India
Harbhajan Singh become the fourth international batsman to score a half century in each innings of a Test match batting at number eight to guide India to a draw against New Zealand on the fifth and the
final day of the first Test match at Ahmedabad.
Harbhajan added 163 runs with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/VVS-Laxman-c2772 for the seventh wicket to take the Indians to a draw after it had looked at one stage that the New Zealand team had managed a coup by capturing the top five Indian
wickets for 15 runs.
India had begun the fifth day on 82/5 with an overall lead of 110 runs only. With only Laxman remaining from the top of the order, it was left to Harbhajan to support Laxman. As it turned out, Laxman was
the soothing influence on Harbhajan and the number eight batsman batted with aplomb to take on the tiring New Zealand bowlers.
New Zealand’s problem was that they had gone into the game with four frontline and one part-time bowler and out of that two bowlers had injured themselves. This left the Kiwis with only three bowlers and
that meant that the penetration was missing. Chris Martin, who had scalped five wickets in the first innings, failed to take another and Jeetan Patel and Daniel Vettori were easily manoeuvred by the two Indian batsmen on a slowing wicket.
Harbhajan did not start the day too well, and could have been run-out by Vettori, early in the day. There were also other half-chances that he offered but the Kiwis failed to take them and once the early
wicket did not come, they begun to lose focus and interest.
When http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 went to lunch, they hadn’t lost a single wicket and were ahead by 192 runs. The Kiwis needed a miracle to win the game at this stage, but apart from two poor decisions by Steve Davis, the only
other event of the session was the Harbhajan century. Laxman departed for 91 off Vettori, given out lbw to a huge inside-edge while Zaheer was also similarly dismissed.
Harbhajan brought his century up with a six and by that time the game had meandered into a draw. Finally occasional bowler Ross http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Taylor-c92915 got the last couple of wickets to end the Indian innings and the Kiwis
were left to score 295 for a win in the last 24 overs.
Ten of the 22 overs were possible and in those Zaheer Khan had enough time to get Tim McIntosh out but the game ended in a draw with the score reading 22/1. Harbhajan won the man of the match.
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