http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746
India have taken a clean sweep of their two Test series against Australia after cruising to a seven-wicket victory in Bangalore today.
Australia started day five of the Test with a 185-run lead over the home side, but only three wickets in hand and it didn’t take long for India to finish off the tail.
Mitchell Johnson (11) was the first to go with Zaheer Khan bringing the batsman undone with some reverse swing that saw the ball clatter into his stumps. Ben Hilfenhaus and Peter George were each dismissed for ducks within the next four overs, leaving Nathan Hauritz stranded on 21 and India with a 207-run chase and most of the day to reach the victory target.
A dropped catch in the second over, when Michael Hussey put down a hard hit chance from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Virender-Sehwag-c95429, was not the start to his side’s defence that Ricky Ponting would have wanted.
The ICC’s Test Player of the Year, however, couldn’t make the Aussies pay as he was caught behind for seven to hand Ben Hilfenhaus his first wicket of the innings and give Ponting’s men just the sniff of a chance early in the final innings of the match.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Watson-c96326 for 37, but at 89-2, India were still in the box seat to claim victory, with Test debutant Cheteshwar Pujara settled at the crease and Sachin Tendulkar, double centurion in India’s first innings, joining him there.
Pujara went on to bring up his maiden Test half-century as the home side moved within 100 runs of a 2-0 series win before Hauritz finally made the breakthrough, with the ball skidding onto the 22-year-old’s stumps to send him back to the pavilion after contributing a valuable 72 to his team’s cause and winning plenty of fans in the Bangalore crowd in the process.
That was to be as good as the day got for the off-spinner, with Tendulkar deciding in the 37th over of the innings that he was in a hurry to finish the match, smashing two consecutive Hauritz deliveries for six as the No. 1 ranked Test side moved within 24 runs of wrapping up the match.
That victory came soon after tea, just after Tendulkar brought up his own half-century (he finished unbeaten on 53), the result leaving Ponting without a Test win in India as Australia captain and making India the first team to successfully chase down a 200-plus fourth innings target in Bangalore.
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