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Pakistan in India 2004-05: Pakistan Vs India -
1st Test at Mohali - Day 3 |
Report by Karthik Narayan
March 10th 2005:
Pakistan 312
trail India
447/6 (Sehwag 173 Tendulkar 94) by 135 runs
Full Scorecard
Day three started half an
hour early to make up or lost time in this test.
The highlight of the morning was that the
Pakistani bowlers had India quiet for the first
fifteen minutes or so, at least until Sehwag
completed his century and raised his bat.
From then on, it was back
to normalcy – the sound thrashing to the
Pakistan bowlers began yet again, and yet
another wonderful day for Sehwag. Dravid also
completed what was a good 50, but soon after he
completed his 50, he played a horrifying shot to
a ball well outside off stump off Mohammed Sami,
and Asim Kamal took a good catch at gully.
Ideally, Pakistan should
have put pressure on Tendulkar when he came in,
for he is coming back from injury. But the
master batsman settled down and played a few
stunning shots. Sehwag has this uncanny knack of
rubbing his confidence on the batsman at the
other end, yesterday it was Gambhir and Dravid
and today it was Tendulkar. By lunch, India was
ahead of Pakistan with Sehwag and Sachin in full
flow.
Soon after lunch, Tendulkar
completed a steady fifty. India went into top
gear thereafter, with wickets in hand. The two
put up hundred runs together at more than five
an over! Only Kaneria did a good job in the
bowling department for Pakistan. He frustrated
Sehwag by cutting down the flow of runs and that
prompted him to try a few things off Razzaq.
Sehwag’s attempted pull went wrong, as the mis-hit
became an easy catch to Youhana at mid on – and
that was the end of a magnificent commanding
innings. That also ended a good partnership
between Master and Pupil of 118 runs.
The scoring rate dropped
alarmingly and the Pakistan bowlers managed to
curb runs and make Sachin and Ganguly work hard
for runs. Runs came dragging in singles and the
odd boundary once a while. India lost Ganguly
thanks to some brilliant bowling by Kaneria.
It was great to see Sachin
back among the runs even though it was
understandably very slow indeed. Unluckily for
him, when he was on the verge of his 35th
Test Ton, Naved-ul-Hasan induced an edge of
Sachin’s bat with the very first over of the new
ball and a World Record for maximum centuries
went begging. India was 417/5 when Dinesh
Karthik joining Laxman at the crease. Sami took
care of Dinesh Karthik after he made just six
runs, and then Indians faltered from a good
position to end up at 447/6 at stumps on Day 3.
Irfan Pathan and Laxman managed to keep out any
more wickets falling to remain not out. When the
light was offered at around 17.30 local time,
the batsmen accepted it and walked back to the
pavilion.
India has
a lead of 135 runs with four wickets in hand.
But for the stint of Sehwag and Sachin, today
was Pakistan’s best day of all the three days
thus far. Ideally, they would like to wrap up
India’s first innings quickly tomorrow.
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