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As we all know that Team India won in the second cricket test match in Border-Gavaskar trophy. They defeated Australia the number 1 team in test cricket by a huge margin of 320 runs. We are here by preparing a list of seven lime lights of the test match.

1. 12K runs by Sachin: The master blaster of Indian cricket, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar made 88 runs in the first inning of India and he became the highest run getter in the history of test cricket. Also check the 10 glorifying moments of his career! He crossed the land mark made by Brian Lara of West Indies. At the end of the match he has more than 12,000 runs in his bag.


Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly

2. 7K runs by Ganguly: He was once considered as the best captain of India. A bit of politics in cricket and Greig Chappel caused him his place in the team. Finally he get the place in the team but became so frustrated that he decided to quit the cricket after this series. And in this series his bat is talking with all those people who were criticizing him earlier. He made a superb century in the first inning and due to that he made more than 7000 runs in test cricket. It was not a small feet, but still he decided not to revert back his decision of quitting cricket. I News India salutes the “Dada”, we always supported him during his bad phase too.


Maya of Dhoni and a different Bhajji

3. Maya of Dhoni: He is the guy who has changed the form of Indian cricket, he brought it from the aged person to the younger ones. Under his captaincy India won the T 20 world cup one year back and after that whichever match he captained gave India something to cheer about. He is a bit lucky too, considered by a huge section in India. We still remember the match against South Africa in this year, in which he got the captaincy due to the sickness of the regular skipper Anil Kumble and India won that match. Even today India won the match in which he was the captain. This is the Maya of Dhoni. The two attacking half centuries are superb and those gave him the Man of the Match.


The best Indian opening pair of Viru and Gauti

4. Opening pair of India: Viru and Gauti, the opening pair of India is these days considered as the best ever opening pair for India. These two have played lots of cricket together and they love to play together. In One Days too they are being considered as the best and now in test too. The 182 runs stand between these two in the second inning of this test was really brilliant, while the pitch was offering help to the bowlers. Sehwag though failed to convert 90 into 100, but Gambhir get the second test century of his life.


Superb Ishant Sharma

5. Superb Ishant Sharma: This school guy has troubled one of the best batsman of the world, Rickey Ponting. He made the hat-trick of dismissing him in test cricket. He is doing the same thing which Bhajji did in the previous tours of Australia in India. Since his debut in the national team from the January of this year he is continuously creating problem for Rickey Ponting. During this match he dismissed Ponting in both the innings and that caused problem to Aussies, while they are also facing the failure of Mathew Hayden in the series.
6. A different looking Bhajji: We still remember the slap controversy in IPL 2008. That incident has changed our main bowler Harbhajan Singh. He is looking more polite and attacking on the field after that. Yesterday he dismissed the top three batsman on Aussies and that caused them the match. He was not so much successful in the drawn first test match, while he devastated the Aussies second inning. The fall of the batsman like Hayden, Katich and Hussey caused them the match. Now he is one short to the 300 test wickets.


Amit Mishra a good beginning

7. Amazing Amit Mishra: He was not in news before this match and he performed brilliantly in the match. He took 5 wickets in the very first inning of his life and that is also against the number 1 team of world. That was superb, and awesome. Indian team management will have to face a bit more problem now in choosing the playing 11. Whom will they remove, Kumble, Mishra or Bhajji?

It was a team effort and other than these guys Zaheer Khan too did well, along with good contribution from all the players of the team, especially Rahul Dravid. So overall it was a all OK match for team India and now they are looking ahead to defeat Aussies in the series. Best of luck to team India. We would be happy to see the comments of our readers on this match. Also you can take a look at the Cricket Updates for the match reports.

Tags: Amit Mishra, Bhajji, Border Gavaskar Trophy, Captain of India, Dada, Dhoni, Dravid, Gambhir, Ganguly, Gautam, Gautam Gambhir, Gauti, Greig Chappel, Harbhajan Singh, Hayden, Hussey, India Australia, Ishant Sharma, Katich, Kumble, M S Dhoni, Ponting, Rahul Dravid, Rickey Ponting, Sachin, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Second Cricket Test, Sehwag, T 20, T-20 World Champions, Team India, Tendulkar, Test Match, Virender Sehwag, Viru, Zaheer Khan

India leveled the three match Test series 1-1 in Galle on Sunday after beating Sri Lanka by 170 runs in the second cricket test. Earlier, team India was defeated by Srilanka by a mammoth total of 239 runs in the first test match at SCG ground in Colombo. On Sunday in second test, Indian team performed very well in Galle setting a hard target of 307 runs but the Sri Lankans collapsed for 136.

Harbhajan, Sehwag and Gambhir deserves of being the responsible factor behind this victory. Harbhajan Singh returned a match haul of 10 wickets, four in the second innings, for 153 runs while Virender Sehwag once again shown his magical batting and hit an unbeaten double century in the first innings and a half-century in the second to pave the way to victory ground. Sehwag fell against the Srilankan strike bowler Chaminda Vass when India’s total was 90 in second inning. Sehwag and Gambhir partnership was the backbone of India’s victory. Out of India’s total of 598 (329, 269) the duo scored 381 runs, more than half scored by other batsmen.

Sri Lanka bundled India for 269 in the second innings. India was bowled out for 329 runs in their first innings and restricted the Sri Lankans for 292 in their first innings.

In the first inning, Kumble and Harbhajan dismissed nine batsmen of the opponent team. Only Warnapura (66), Sangakkara (68) and Jayawardene (86) stayed for long durations on the crease and played crucial innings for their team. But even they couldn’t cross India’s total of forst inning.

In the second inning, after dismissal of Sehwag and Gambhir, Dravid and Tendulkar were on the crease and they took the team’s total to 200 for two. However, both these batsmen returned to pavilion, only few minutes before the end of the Day-3 play.

On fourth day, Ganguly and Laxman began the morning session but after adding 21 runs to the score, Laxman was trapped before wicket by Mendis. The other players were soon dismissed and India managed 269 runs in the second innings and gave a target of 307 to Srilanka.

Sri Lanka was slow in second inning. Score was 37 at lose of four. Samaraweera and Dilshan provided some resistance to the innings and took team’s total past 100. At the Srilankan score of 113, Ishant Sharma dismissed Dilshan and provided the crucial breakthrough. The entire Srilankan team returned to pavilion by scoring 136 runs. Harbhajan finished with four wickets in the second innings as Sri Lanka was all out on 48 overs.

The third Test will start in Colombo on Aug. 8.

Tags: cricket match, Harbhajan, India, Sehwag, Sri Lanka, Test Match

India lost the crucial Asia cup against Sri Lanka by 100 runs today in Karachi in National Stadium. Sri Lanka which set an easy looking target of 274, won the Asia cup Tropthy for the fourth time. The final match was all set for a Sunday delight to get a view of powerful Indian batting and Sri Lankan fielding but disappointedly the Indian batsmen really had no answer to Ajantha Mendis, who is selected as Man of the match and Man of the series as well.

Earlier India lost the Kitply Cup against Pakistan and lost the finals at Dhaka by 25 runs. India’s skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bowl first.

India was at good field at the start. Danger man Kumar Sangakkara was back to pavilion in just the second over of the match by Suresh Raina. He has made only 4 runs. Ishant Sharma removed Mahela Jayawardene for just 2 runs and send Chamara Kapugedera on a long walk back to the pavilion for a score of 5. With Kapugedera’s departure, the scoreboard read 66 for the loss of three in 11.4 over.

The lanky fast bowler Ishant Sharma seemed to be on fire as he took the wickets of skipper Mahela Jayawardene, Chamara Kapugedera and Chamara Silva in quick succession. Jayasuriya hit three sixes and two fours in the same over bowled by RP Singh. He scored 125 runs off 114 balls at total racing his 27th century in One-Day Internationals.

Virender Sehwag finally broke the 131 run partnership between Sanath Jayasuriya and Tilakratane Dilshan by forcing Jayasuriya to hole a catch into the hands of Ishant Sharma in the deep. Dilshan scored 56 important runs before sent back to pavilion by Dhoni.

Pathan bowled the last over of the innings and scalped Muttiah Muralitharan off the fifth ball of the last ball to finish the Lankan innings before 50 overs.

At that point India needed 274 runs in 50 over to lift the Asia Cup.  India lost their first wicket at the score of 36 in the 5th over.

Virender Sehwag departed after he struck a speedy half century to give India a good and quick start. Only Sehwag crossed his half century making a score of 60 runs out of 36 balls including 12 fours.

Yuvraj Singh came to the crease after Sehwag’s departure and followed him to the hut two balls later. Ajantha Mendis sent six players to the pavilion. Suresh Raina was another victim of him who made only 16 runs.

Although the final pair of Ishant Sharma and Pragyan Ojha offered some resistance to the Lankans, it was not sufficient to take the Indians home. Kulasekara took the last wicket in the form of Ishant Sharma by castling him to bring an end to the Asia Cup championship.

Dhoni made a score of 49 out off 74 balss. Other players could not show their best on the ground. India can only reach 173 runs in 39.3 overs before getting all out.

Mendis was awarded the man-of-the-match for his six wicket haul for 13 runs in six overs. He was also the man-of -the-series for taking 17 wickets in the tournament.

Tags: Asia Cup, Asia Cup 2008, Asia Cup Finals, Cricket, Dhoni, India, MS Dhoni, Pakistan, Sehwag, Sri Lanka

India won its second Asia Cup beating Pakistan today after a gap of 20 long years, a first since 1988. Sehwag contributed this grand success with his wonderful inning at a score of 119 runs off just 95 at the National Stadium in Karachi.

Pakistan set a target of 300 runs against India after elected to bat first in Karachi at a loss of four wickets. Pakistan opener Shoaib Malik, who gave a magnificent century, has to go back to pavilion while playing after getting troubled with his cramps and he left the ground disappointed. He made 125 runs out off 119 including 16 fours and 1 six.

Pakistan was very slow at start until Shoaib had given superb shots one by one with a strong partnership with Younis who made 59 runs to achieve a respectable score for the team.

The second opener butt only scored 35 runs out off 64. Mohammad Yousuf was run-out due to a misunderstanding on the pitch for a score of 30 runs in just 20 balls. The home team had managed to amass a good score of 261 as Shahid Afridi came in to bat in the final five overs with Misbah-ul-Haq to support him.

Both, India and Pakistan were tough competitors for the Asia Cup. Indian team had made two changes for today’s match. Manpreet Goni and Robin Uthappa are swapped by Yuvraj Singh and Ishant Sharma.

Virendra Sehwag was the hero of the match who scored 119 runs out off only 95 balls including 12 boundaries and 5 sixes. Suresh Raina also given a magnificant score of 84 runs out off 69 balls. The duo hit the ball one after another and acheived a 150 mark quickly.

After Sehwag, M S Dhoni came with his bat to crease with Yuvraj Singh. Dhoni who remain on ground till the target achieved, had scored 26 runs out off 30 balls while Yuvraj scored 48 runs in 47 hits.

India crossed the target within 42.1 overs and won the match by 6 wickets. Suresh Raina was declared the Man of the match.

Tags: Aisa Cup, Dhoni, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, Raina, Sehwag, Yuvraj

The third match of IPL was pulled by Delhi Daredevils owned GRM Holdings by 9 wickets. Gautam Gambir and Shikhar Dhawan remained tight on the crease to beat the Rajasthan Royals owned by Emerging Media Group at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in New Delhi. Watch the complete coverage of the match by clicking here.

Gambhir and Dhwan gave their half centuries making 58 and 52 runs respectively and helped the team to reach the easy target of 129 runs in 15.1 overs set by the Rajasthan Royals. Both shared a partnership of 112 runs.

Captain of the winner team, dashing Virendra Sehwag, however, dismissed soon but he started brilliantly hitting 3 consecutive boundaries and gave 12 runs out off 4.

Rajasthan Royal won the toss and elected to bat first but failed to raise a good score and ended with only 129 runs.

The openers, Yousuf (11) and kohli (7) departed at a low score giving a dull start to the game.

In spite of presence of legendary leg spinner Captain Shane Warne who scored only 14, Royal yielded 37 in first five overs and a slow score of 57 in 10 overs at the loss of four.

Only the young Ravindra Jadeja gave a little cheer to the team but he was also soon departed giving top score of 29 out of 23 including his 2 fours and two sixes.

Dinesh Salunkhe also contributed 26 runs and remained not out.

Other players including Trivedi (3), Rawat (2), Kaif (9), Lehmann (1), Watson (21) couldn’t show any appreciable performance.

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Tags: Daredevils, Delhi, Dhawan, Gambhir, Rajasthan, Royals, Sehwag, Warne

Indian team have finally written success story on Kanpur’s Greenpark pitch on the third day of third test against South Africa winning the test by eight wickets to level the series 1-1.

First test in Chennai was a dull draw followed by second test won by South Africa while the last and final test today is won by India to level the series.

After dismissing the rivals at a small score of 121 in second innings, India reached the target of just 62 runs for the loss of two wickets.

In the second inning of India, opener Virendra Sehwag gave 22 runs including two brilliant sixers off 12 balls. Wasim Jaffer was dismissed after making 10 runs. Suarav Ganguly (13) and Rahul Dravid (18) remained not out and took the team to reach the required target.

However the day started when Indian batsman continued from previous score of 288 for nine wickets of the first inning. Last wicket pair of India, Sharma and Sreesanth joined to frustrate the South Africans for a 46-runs partnership leading India to a score of 325, 60 runs ahead. South Africa had made 265 runs in its first inning.

In the second inning of South Africans, team is soon wrapped up at 121 as the Indian spinners dismissed the players one by one.

The pitch proved to be very favorable for the Indian spinners especially Harbhajan Singh. In 21 over of his bowling he gave away 43 runs at an economy of 2.04 taking away the four wicket giving India a serious chance of leveling the series.

South Africa remained under pressure from the very start of their batting. Harbhajan took 4 wickets while Virander Sehwag knocked out 3. Ishant Sharma and Sreesanth also took away 2 and 1 wicket respectively.

McKenzie was the first one to be knocked out by Sreesanth after making 26 runs. A hard blow came to Proteas when Amla is sent back to pavilion without opening his account by Harbhajan Singh.

Getting rid of Kallis(15) first and then bowling Smith(35) round his legs Sehwag proved how lethal he is.

Ishant Sharma took 2 wickets of Boucher (5) and Morkel (0). Sreesanth also dismissed Harris at no score.

Harbhajan took away the ninth wickets in the form of Steyn(7) while it was Virendra Sehwag who dismissed the last wicket of Ntini(0). Prince remained not out on the pitch with 22 runs.

It was India’s fifth win over South Africa in 21 Tests, their fourth at home, as against 10 losses and seven draws. It was only the eighth Test in Kanpur (out of 20) to have produced a result with India winning five of them and preserved the home team’s record of having not lost a Test match here. For complete update of the match please visit Cricket Updates.

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Tags: Amla, Cricket, Dravid, Ganguly, India, Jaffer, Sehwag, Smith, South Africa, Test

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

First test match of Future cup series in M A Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai ended after a dull draw between South Africa and India on Sunday. South Africa played cautiously in its second batting. At the end of the match South Africa scored 331 runs at loss of five. McKenzie with 155 runs and Boucher with 11 runs were remain unbeaten on the pitch as the match was finalized.

During the second batting of South Africa, the openers Smith and McKenzie gave a speed start. Smith was dismissed yesterday after making 35 runs and Amla joined McKenzie then. Before the team agreed to draw, McKenzie hit 13 boundaries and a six during his 445-minute stay at the crease. He hit a double century in his previous Test.

South Africa got its first stroke from India by losing Amla at Kumble’s ball. Amla delivered 81 runs to the team. Kallis and Prince couldn’t contribute much after Amla. Both were dismissed by Harbhajan after making 19 and 5 runs respectively. De Villiers gave his 11 and was claimed by Sehwag.

The pitch at the MA Chidambaram Stadium did not have any significant help for the bowlers on the first four days and was not expected to behave any different on day five.

The match will always be remembered for Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid. Sehwag, who smashed 319 in India’s first innings, was deservedly named man of the match. He broke his own record of 309 runs in 2004 in Multan against Pakistan, although he couldn’t cross Lara’s record of 400 runs. Sehwag had taken India to a mammoth 627 in reply to South Africa’s first innings total of 540.

Dravid who completed his 10,000 runs in Test, is the third Indian and world’s sixth batsman to achieve the milestone. With this, the former Indian captain has also completed his 25th century.

The second Test will be played in Ahmedabad from April 3-7, with the third Test in Kanpur from April 11-15.

Tags: Amla, Boucher, Chennai, Dravid, First Test, Future Cup, Ganguly, India, Kallis, Sehwag, South Africa, Test

The dashing opener Virender Sehwag had given a strong reply with his bat to 540 runs of South Africa. On the third day of match of Future cup series (see complete coverage of day three), Virendra Sehwag has shown super performance by recording a triple century on the board. The Nawab of Najafgadh, and Sultan of Multan, completed his brilliant triple century on 278 deliveries only. He is still stick to the ground with 309 runs in hand. India scored 468 for 106 overs at the end of the third day.

Sehwag already told his expectations for the team to bat till fourth day of the match to lead in the first test and he had proved his words with his bat.

Sehwag is now the third batsman who made two triple centuries. Other two players include Sir Don Bradman and Brian Lara.

Sehwag had given a stiff reply to all the questions on his fitness. With this, he had also turned down all the criticism by media and other people who are criticizing him for fitness. While in Australia, Dhoni said that Sehwag was unfit, now what will he say after today’s performance??

India continued his battle from its overnight score of 82 at no loss. Sehwag was at 52 and Jaffer scored 25 till yesterday. India scored 176 runs till lunch without any loss. South African players were dying to take off wickets. Wasim Jaffer is the first loss of India after lunch on Harris’ ball and caught by Kallis. He had given an appreciable contribution of 73 runs completing his half century.

After Jaffer, it was Dravid who joined today’s star, Sehwag. Dravid is still on the ground with 65 runs completing his half century.

Sehwag’s historic performance can lead to top stories of the success in the series. It is expected to get a good score for India on the board and of course a tough competition to South Africans.

Tags: Cricket, Sehwag, South Africa, Team India

After South Africa posted a huge score of 540 in its first innings on Second day of the first test at the M A Chidambaram stadium in Chennai on Thursday, India also replied the rivals with strong bat. India ended the day on 82 without any loss in 21 overs.

Virender Sehwag scored a sparkling half-century of 52 including 6 fours and a sixer. A brilliant start by Jaffer and Sehwag lead to a score of 82.

South African team has scored 304 runs at a loss of four on the first day. The team was dismissed all after making 540 runs today.

In the first session of the play, South Africa scored 100 runs on the board on the loss of single wicket in form of the overnight batsman De Villiers. He made 44 runs and bowled out at the ball of S Sreesanth and catch by Dhoni.

Hashim Amla had given his second highest test score of 159 with a marvelous century against India. Amla, 85 at Wednesday’s close has boosted SA to reach the target of 540. He completed his century after making 14 fours at 173 balls. He struck 20 boundaries from a total 262 balls of his play.

After Hashim, 70 runs by Boucher also helped to achieve the score. The other low order African batsmen couldn’t do much for the team.

From Indian team, Harbhajan emerged as the pick of bowlers claiming five wickets at 165 runs in 44.5 overs. Anil Kumble finished with 2 for 106 balls from 45.

Watch the full coverage of the day two of the first test between India and South Africa.

Tags: Amla, Harbhajan, India, Jaffer, Kumble, Sehwag, South Africa