Yesterday, Australia started their second batting innings. They started off well with a lead of 23 runs against the Indians. Shane Watson and Simon Katich put up a very good partnership of 87 runs. As the 1st wicket partnership for the Australians went on, the match looked like as if it will end with a draw. After the fall of their first wicket, Australians kept on loosing wickets. In-fact the wicket falling rate was getting reduced as they started to loose wickets quickly. Apart from the first wicket partnership, there was no other partnership played from the Australians side. Before tea, Australia lost all its wickets and ended up its second batting innings with a total of 192 runs. All the bowlers who bowled in this innings from India took wickets. Harbhajan Singh was very economical bowler as his economy rate was just 1.73 runs per over and also took 2 wickets.
India needed 215 runs to win the match with a day and one session in hand. India started off their batting play very badly as Indian opener Gautam Gambhir got out in the very first over and returned to pavilion without scoring any run. Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag's partnership did not last long as it was broken. By the end of 4th day, India lost 4 wickets and were in deep trouble.
On day 5, India was completely dependent on Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman. But Sachin Tendulkar could not stay for longer time as he departed after scoring 38 runs. India was in trouble when they lost their 8th wicket when they reached only 124 runs. Later VVS Laxman and Ishant Sharma added some resistance and put up a very good and much required partnership of 81 runs. This added some runs to the total, but after this Ishant Sharma fell leaving VVS Laxman to fight the battle by himself. India needed 21 runs with one wicket on hand. But Pragyan Ojha played beautifully and supported VVS Laxman who completed the task successfully. OMG!! it was an nail biting match, finally Indians were victorious. India scored 226 runs with the loss of 9 wickets. Thanks to VVS Laxman who proved that he an reliable batsman in the test cricket. India won the match by 1 wicket. Zaheer Khan became man of the match.
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