Zeecric Bureau
New Delhi, Nov 26: Sachin Tendulkar slammed a half-century and helped India win the first Test match against Pakistan. The home team won with six wickets to spare, owing to fine knocks by Tendulkar, Ganguly, Laxman and Jaffer, and priceless contributions by Anil Kumble, MS Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh. It was a team effort, which overshadowed the visitors’ performance by leaps and bounds.
Skipper Anil Kumble was named the Man of the Match for his lethal bowling that was crucial for the victory. He was indeed a deciding factor in giving his team an edge over Pakistan early on in the series.
The only hiccup of the morning was the lone wicket of Sourav Ganguly, who was claimed by Shoaib Akhtar at a score of 48 runs. The Pakistan speedster was the pick of Pakistani bowlers and took all the four wickets in the final innings of the game.
Anil Kumble achieved the rare feat of winning his maiden Test match as captain, putting end to all doubts about his leadership. His experience and skills proved to be a blessing for the Test campaigners, keeping the record of Test wins at Kotla intact since 1996.
Earlier, the penultimate day of the Test match had seen the fortunes favouring the Indians as they cemented their place for a win. Requiring only 32 runs for victory, the home team had a great chance of winning with seven wickets to spare.
The experienced duo of Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar took India to a comfortable 171 runs for the loss of three wickets at the end of the fourth day of the first Test match at Feroz Shah Kotla ground at New Delhi. The duo added 78 runs between them with Ganguly scoring 48 runs as Tendulkar gave him company at 32 runs. The home team required just 32 runs on the final day of the match for a victory.
Tendulkar passed the rare feat of becoming the second highest run scorer in Test matches ahead of Australian legend, Allan Border. He is behind West Indian star batsman Brian Lara, who leads the run tally in the longest form of the game. With the form that the Master Blaster is in, even that target seems achievable.
Tendulkar and Ganguly built on a partnership to steer India away from possible collapse. They carefully read the deliveries and punished the loose ones. Together, they took the Indian total to 125 runs at drinks time.
It was celebration time for Akhtar as he claimed his third victim in the form of Dravid. He bowled the classy batsman with a beautiful in-swinging delivery at a score of 34 runs. India were at 93 runs for the loss of 3 wickets, needing 110 more runs to win the match.
Jaffer slammed a good half-century and completed 53 runs before Butt produced a blinder to get rid of him. The wicket came just in time, as the game seemed to be slipping from the hands of Pakistan. Speedster Akhtar was the man who once again got the breakthrough for his team as he claimed his second victim of the innings.
The duo of Dravid and Jaffer built on a good partnership to give their team a good start in the first Test against Pakistan. They took the total to 62 runs without any further damage after the early dismissal of opener Dinesh Karthik.
Pakistan’s ace paceman Shoaib Akhtar drew first blood for the visitors as he got the wicket of Dinesh Karthik who could add only a run to the Indian scorecard. He edged an outswinger into the safe hands of Kamran Akmal as the bowler went in his trademark celebratory mode. India were just two runs for the loss of a wicket. Rahul Dravid came in to fill in for him.
Earlier in the morning, the last wicket fell in the form of a run out for Pakistan due to good work in the field by Tendulkar and Dhoni. This restricted the Pakistan total to 247 runs, giving India a target of 203 runs to score in order to win the first Test match. The visitors’ team was all out in the first session of play on the fourth day and the all round effort of the Indian team was rewarded for the time being.
Sourav Ganguly got Pakistan in deep trouble as he got the wicket of the outstanding batsman from the second innings, Misbah-ul-Haq, followed by Sami. With the last wicket remaining for the visitors, Indian camp was over the top with happiness. The two wickets fell in the same over for Pakistan.
India’s Zaheer Khan struck gold early on in the starting overs of the 4th day of the Test match as he took two crucial wickets. The glory for ace spearhead came in the form of Sohail Tanvir and Kamran Akmal, who could not offer resistance to his lethal bowling. Pakistan had a lead of 188 runs for the loss of 7 wickets.
Tanvir got out while trying to pull a short delivery and ended up lobbing the ball in Harbhajan’s hands. He had scored 13 runs prior to getting out and had looked like a good accomplice to the in-form batsman Misbah-ul-Haq.
The first jolt of the morning for Pakistan came in the dismissal of Kamran Akmal in the first over of the 4th day. Zaheer Khan made the batsman play to a fuller but slower delivery that was tempting, in the process, Akmal mistimed his shot and the ball flew in the safe hands of the best fielder in the home team, Yuvraj Singh.
The wicket brought the Indian camp on a high early in the morning as they sensed a quick wrap-up of the Pakistan innings and chasing a small lead.
