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India leaded South Africa by 23 runs after the second day of third test on Saturday for Future Cup series in Kanpur. India ended the day on 288 at 88 overs for nine loses against the South African first innings total of 265. Ishant Sharma (0) and Sreesanth (9) remained on the pitch as the last wicket pair during the play.

Saurav Ganguly can be said the hero of today’s match giving 87 runs off 119 balls. It was his seventh fifty against South Africa while his 34th in test. Laxman also gave a satisfied contribution of 50 runs. Other players couldn’t contribute much.

India was dull at start as both the openers- Virendra Sehwag and Waseem Jaffar were sent to pavilion after a small score of 35. Sehwag (8) was dismissed by Dale Steyn while Jaffer (15) was sent back by Marckel.

Dravid and Laxman gave a partnership for 78 runs giving a little stability to the team. But soon the joint venture got disrupt when Dravid was catch out by Markel. Dravid gave 29 runs including 4 fours for 106 balls. Later Markel dismissed Laxman as soon as he completed his half century.

Yuvraj Singh contributed 32 runs to the team and was catch out by A.B. De Villiers on Harris’s ball. Captain Dhoni also gave an increment of 32 points to the team score.

Bhajji and Piyush were fragile at the ground with scores of 6 and 4 respectively.

Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel were the most successful South African bowlers with figures of three for 60 and three for 57 respectively.

Ganguly said that it was his best knock in difficult pitch like that of Greenpark stadium. He said, “There was pressure since I was coming back. In terms of difficulty of surface, it’s number one innings.”

“I wanted to play my normal game. On such surfaces, it’s how you think matters. If you think about the delivery that goes through the top, you will get out to normal deliveries.” Former captain Saurav Ganguly added after the day’s play. Watch the live proceedings of the third day of second test between India and South Africa.

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Tags: Ganguly, India, Ishant, Laxman, Sehwag, South Africa, Sreesanth

The situation for Indian team at Ahmadabad is really tough, India is playing the second test match of the future cup against South Africa at Ahmadabad. Today is the third day of play and India is on the verge of the inning defeat.

At the tea India is batting at 191 for the loss of 4 wickets and Ganguly is batting at 59 along with Dhoni who is batting at 28. India is still trailing by 227 runs and only 6 wickets are left.

Today early morning South Africa decided to declare their inning at their overnight score and they give India a target of 419 runs to save the match by an inning. Then Sehwag started brilliantly by hitting two sixes in the very first over of Steyn.

Within a very short time Sehwag became the victim of Ntini and India moved to 31 for the loss of one wicket. After that Dravid felt at 64 while he scored only 17 runs. Then Jaffer got out at 19 and India reached to 3 down for 70 only. After that Laxman and Ganguly played some good cricket but Laxman too fell cheaply at 35 while at that time India were 125 for the loss of 4 wickets.

From then Ganguly and Dhoni are playing and they have scored a partnership of 66 runs. For complete coverage please visit Cricket Updates.

Tags: Ahmadabad, BCCI, Bhajji, Cricket News, Dhoni, Dravid, Ganguly, Harbhajan, India, Ishant, Kumble, Laxman, Live Score, live update, Motera, News Live, South Africa, Team India, Test Match

Triple Century of blasting batsman Virendra Sehwag led India to beat the huge score of South Africa. Today on the fourth day of the first test match of Future cup Series, India scored a brilliant record of 627 runs, 87 points more than the rival team. Sehwag was dismissed by Ntini at a mammoth record of 319. he crossed his own score but unable to beat Lara’s record of 400 runs.

Dravid has achieved the milestone of 10,000 runs in test. Dravid also gave his century with 111 runs and was knocked out again by Ntini after lunch. He became the sixth player to tally 10,000 Test runs reaching the milestone in the first Test against South Africa. He is the third Indian player after Sachin and Sunil Gavaskar to achieve this target.

South Africa scored 540 runs in its first inning and India replied the rivals with 468 runs on second day at only one loss. South Africans seemed very helpless in front of the star batsman Sehwag. He gave the opponent team a hard nut to crack. Sehwag is the second player who achieved the milestone of making two triple centuries in test matches after Brain Lara.

Other players including Sachin Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dhoni couldn’t use their bats much. They all got dismissed one by one very soon. Dhoni gave only sixteen and Ganguly contributed 24. Sachin, Harbhajan and R P Singh were sent to pavilion without opening their account. Laxman gave 39 while the captain (Kumble) couldn’t achieve more than 3. Sreesanth was the last player with only 4 runs in hand.

In the second inning of South African team, the players have recorded 131 runs in 33 overs at the end of the day at one loss. Smith had made 35 runs and was knocked out soon. McKenzie and Amla are now the overnight players with 59 and 35 runs respectively.

Tags: BCCI, Bhajji, Chennai, Chepauk, Cricket News, Dhoni, Dravid, Ganguly, Golden Ball, Harbhajan, India, Ishant, Kumble, Laxman, Live Score, live update, News Live, Rain, South Africa, Symonds, Team India, Test Match

After scoring 304 runs at a lose of four wickets in the first test against India on March 26, opening batsman Neil McKenzie told that South Africa will be looking to add another 100-150 runs on Thursday to push for a possible win in the series.

McKenzie who contributed sparkling 94 runs was happy with the start of the team scoring huge inning score but conceded that a lot of cricket was left in the match. But he is confident of getting big score by the remaining quality batsmen of the team.

“Still a long way to go. We have no illusions. Once the wicket gets to wear down, it will be difficult to bat on. I think another 100 to 150 runs tomorrow will be a good total and anything above that will be a bonus,” McKenzie, who added 132 for the opening wicket with Captain Graeme Smith, said after the match.

“We have dependable batsmen in Mark Boucher and AB De Villiers. If one of them comes up with a good individual score, it should be enough to fight our way for a possible win.” He added.

McKenzie said that it was a challenge to face high class spinners like Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh but his previous experience of conditions in the sub-continent helped him to fight but was a little disappointed

“I had toured the sub-continent (before). It is all down to experience,” the opener said.

“Paul Harris is a quality spinner, maybe not to the standards of Kumble or Harbhajan. If the same level of bounce that was there this morning continued in the Indian innings, Nitini and Morkel can be penetrative and trouble Indian batsmen,” he said.

“RP Singh bowled well in Australia but the Indian seamers did not get assistance from the wicket here today, though they played well as a unit,” he added.

The docile nature of the pitch rendered India’s pace bowlers largely ineffective, McKenzie said.

Tags: BCCI, Bhajji, Chennai, Chepauk, Cricket News, Dhoni, Dravid, Ganguly, Golden Ball, Harbhajan, India, Ishant, Kumble, Laxman, Live Score, live update, News Live, Rain, South Africa, Symonds, Team India, Test Match

The 14 member team for the test matches going to start from March 26 against South Africa is announced today. Off spinner Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj are in while India’s new pace sensation Ishant Sharma and in-form batsman Gautam Gambhir are out.

Ishant Sharma Who has done wonderful job while the recent Australia tour have been overlooked for the matches because of his finger injury.

The team is announced by Board of Control for Cricket in India secretary Niranjan Shah after the selection committee met in Bangalore on Monday afternoon.

Mumbai opener Wasim Jaffer was retained in the squad which has Virender Sehwag as the other specialist opener while in-form batsman Gambhir is not considered for the play.

Harbhajan Singh is among the specialist spinners in the team while R P Singh, S Sreesanth and Irfan Pathan make up the pace department.

Ishant will undergo a fitness test after the first Test, starting March 26, and if found fit will be considered for the last two matches, said Niranjan Shah, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India,

Murli Kartik who was picked up for the squad was ruled out later for 3 weeks as he got injured and dismissed for the first test match.

Wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh will undergo fitness tests March 21 in Bangalore.

“If they are found unfit, they will be replaced by wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik and leg-spinner Piyush Chawla.”

The first Test will be played in Chennai from March 26 to 30 and the second Test in Ahmedabad from April 3 to 7.

The indian team is like this: Anil Kumble (captain), Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Rudra Pratap Singh, Vangipurappu Laxman, Murli Kartik, Yuvraj Singh, Wasim Jaffer and Virender Sehwag, Piyush Chawla (as cover for Harbhajan), Dinesh Kartik (stand-by for Dhoni)

Tags: Bhajji, Dhoni, Dravid, Gambhir, Ganguly, Harbhajan, India, Ishant, Kumble, Sachin, South Africa, Team India, Yuvraj