India stun Australia in a thriller at Mohali
India won a thrilling Test match against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 at Mohali after the game had swung like a pendulum and favoured both sides throughout the duration of the five days. In the end, India won with just one
wicket to spare thanks to a memorable innings by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/VVS-Laxman-c2772.
Laxman has been a scourge for the Aussies, a thorn in their flesh ever since he played that magnificent knock of 167 in the 2000 Sydney Test match. Since that innings, the Aussies have found it so difficult
to dislodge him that with Laxman at the crease Tuesday, they knew that they were in for some trouble. As it turned out, they were correct and in the end, lost the game that they would have otherwise usually won.
At 124/8, the target of 216 looked eons away for India and a win seemed unlikely. Instead, it looked like the Aussies were going to inflict a third successive first Test match defeat on India after the hosts
had already lost to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ishant-Sharma-c64566, who had had such a terrible Test match with the ball that expecting him to bat would have been expecting the stars.
Ishant did not play too many stroke,s but did play his part in batting out at his end without finding himself in too much trouble. He kept out the good balls and whenever he got the opportunity, he would
get his singles and twos and rotate the strike.
At the other end, Laxman was almost magical. He drove on the off-side, he flicked with ease like he's famous for. The shot of the game was one in which he used his wrists to send the ball from outside the
off-stump to the mid-wicket fence. This was despite the presence of a deep square-leg and deep mid-wicket in position.
The pair added 81 runs for the ninth and for most part of the partnership the Aussies looked clueless. It needed some help from the umpire for them to get Ishant out – called LBW through a highly dubious
decision – but by then the Indians needed only 11 to win.
Last man Pragyan Ojha survived some tense moments, including a close LBW shout and a run-out opportunity before scoring the 11 needed to win http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 an amazing game of cricket. Laxman remained unbeaten on 63,
while Zaheer Khan’s eight wicket haul won him the man of the match.
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