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[Affiliate Program]
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Test #1531 India vs Australia at Mumbai. Report by Sanchal K. Aussies Steamroll India for thier Sixteenth Win Australia come into this first test match against India at Mumbai with 15 test wins in a row and hoping to make this their sixteenth.India on the other hand are fighting charges of cooruption,a captain who has many things other than cricket on his mind and most importantly without it's strike bowler Kumble. Steve waugh won the toss and elected to field to give his pace attack a go at the Indians.The Indians got of to a good start with Das and Ramesh putting on 42 for the first wicket and more importantly saw of McGrath.But Fleming come on as first change and got Ramesh caught at first slip by Mark Waugh.He then got Dravid brilliantly caught by Ponting.Hometown hero Tendulkar came to a rousing reception and was in roaring form smashing 57 of 66 balls studded with 7 fours before getting bowled by Fleming.He was particularly harsh on Warne who re-lived the nightmare of 3 years ago.But Gillespie broke the Indian middle orders' back when he removed Das and Ganguly of consecutive balls.The Indian tail uncharacteristically wagged a little with Mongia hiiting 33 before McGrath and co. finished it of.For the Aussies Gillespie and Fleming took four wickets each with McGrath picking up two. The Aussies got of to a terrible start losing Slater of the third ball of the innings to Srinath with the score on zero.But the aggressive Hayden and the solid Langer took the score to 97 before Langer fell to Harbajan.The Aussies then lost wickets regularly at one end as Hayden made merry at the other.With the score at 197/5 the match was tantalisingly poised but a superb century from Gilchrist and his partnership with Hayden took Australia past the Indian total and gave them a great cahance of winning this match.For India Srinath took six wickets,but the rest were unimpressive. The Indians staring a deficit of 126 started of cautiously putting on 32 for the first wicket.But once Das was caught in front of his stumps by Gillespie the flood gates opened and India lost 3 wickets for 8 runs and never recovered.The Aussie bowling trio picked up wickets at regular intervals and only a spirited knock from Harbhajan kept India from complete humiliation.For the Aussies Gillespie took four,McGrath three and Fleming two wickets each. Needing 54 runs to wrap up the match, the Aussies batted like they had to catch a flight and smashed the required runs in just 9 overs inspite of losing 3 wickets in the process. Jason Gillespie was named the man of the match for his eight wickets.Aussies leave Mumbai with their 16'th win and visions of their first series win in India in 31 years. |
Revised:
Saturday, 16 March 2013. |
