New Zealand clinch series after a thrilling 5-wicket win

New Zealand today snatched a dramatic last-ball victory in the second Twenty20 cricket match to clinch the series 2-0 against India, who very nearly pulled off an incredible win in the dying moments of the thriller.

     

Chasing a modest 150 to win, the hosts were cruising along comfortable before the Indians changed the complexion of the game with some tidy spin bowling and Irfan Pathan's double strike in the 18th over.

     

Needing 12 runs off Pathan's last over, the Kiwis rode on Brendon McCullum's unbeaten 69 to scrape through to record their third consecutive victory against the world champions The home team won the thrilling match by five wickets.

     

The result of the ding-dong battle at Westpac stadium could have been different had substitute fielder Rohit Sharma latched on to a difficult catch off McCullum, which would have carried the game to the eliminator stage.

     

Put into bat, India's formidable batting failed to click for the second time on the trot, leaving New Zealand with a

fairly simple task of scoring 7.50 runs per over.

     

Only Yuvraj Singh hit 50 off 34 balls and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (28 not out) and Virender Sehwag (24) were the other notable contributors. The New Zealand run chase began with a flourish with McCullum and Jesse Ryder (26) putting on a brisk 53-run partnership.

     

Ryder hoicked Irfan Pathan for a six in the very first ball and then hit Zaheer Khan for two fours in the next over as he played a cameo off 15 balls before being dismissed by Khan. Indians were lucky to have their second wicket when Kiwi umpire Gary Baxter adjudged dangerous Martin Guptill (10) leg before off Harbhajan Singh despite a big inside edge.

     

Guptill went for a pull, missed the shot and Indians made a furious appeal. Baxter had a long look at it and surprised everyone by raising his finger, upholding the appeal. Ravinder Jadeja, who replaced Rohit Sharma in the side, bowled in tandem with Harbhajan to put brakes on the Kiwi scoring rate.

     

With the spinners drying up the runs, the game gradually tilted towards India after Pathan's twin blows left the home team with a difficult task of scoring 23 runs off 12 balls. Pathan dismissed Taylor and Jacob Oram (0) on consecutive balls at the start of the 18th over, setting up an exciting climax to the match.

PTI Umpiring howler accounts for Tendulkar yet again

Colombo: For the third time in a row, Sachin Tendulkar was on Tuesday done in by poor umpiring in the current one-day series against Sri Lanka, being declared leg before wicket in yet another dubious decision.

Tendulkar was declared leg-before in the first ODI in Dambulla when the ball was clearly pitched outside the leg stump, he fell LBW against in the second ODI when the ball was missing the leg stump and was again ruled leg-before by Sri Lankan umpire Gamini Silva on Tuesday when the ball was going down the leg side by an even wider margin. 
The three umpiring errors have meant that Tendulkar has made scores of 5, 6 and 7 in the series so far. 
True to his character, Tendulkar has not shown any dissent although his disappointment was palpable. 
India's coach Gary Kirsten was seen shaking his head in disbelief after watching television replays of Tendulkar's dismissal in the dressing room.


The champion batsman, who had been in excellent form in the recent series against Australia and England, suddenly finds himself going through a lean patch for no fault of his. 
Tendulkar has compiled 16,433 runs in 421 one-day matches at an average of 44.05, while he has an even better average of 54.27 in the longer version of the game in which he has accumulated 12,429 runs in 156 matches.

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India won the match

The environment at Chepauk on the 5th day was wonderful.Our stand was Jam packed.Compared to yesterday, there was a good turn-out today for the match.The chennai crowd was fully satisfied by the performance of our Indian team for the last 2 days.Eventhough England was the Dominant side before yesterday, Shewag turned the match,His quick Knock of 83 was Fantastic.The Runs came very quickly on the last session of 4th day.This created full Confidence in our team.By the start of 5th day, we can see the stress on England. Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh stitched together an unbroken 188-run stand for four wicket to put India on the threshold of a memorable win against England on the fifth and final day of the first cricket Test at Chennai on Monday.

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Tendulkar hit a boundary to not only notch up his 41st Test century but also bring about the winning runs, triggering off wild scenes of celebrations in the galleries.   The seizable crowd at the Chepauk had plenty to cheer about as the Indians went about chasing down the fourth highest target in the fourth innings in Test history.   While West Indies have the record of the highest run chase of 418/7 against Australia at St. Johns in 2003, India is second in the list for successfully chasing 406 against the West Indies at Port of Spain in 1976.   The only other team to have scored more than 400 runs in the fourth innings is Australia who scored 404/3 against England at Leeds in 1948.   It was the highest ever fourth innings target achieved at any venue in the country, 276 by the West Indies at Delhi in 1987-88 was the previous best.   India's best effort in winning a test match at home when batting last was 256-8 against Australia at Mumbai in the 1964-65 series, but it did make 347 to tie the 1986 Test against Australia in Chennai.   The two teams will now travel to Mohali for the second Test beginning on December 19. Resuming at the overnight score of 131 for one, India suffered an early setback when Rahul Dravid (4) got out cheaply yet again. Dravid was out edging Andrew Flintoff to wicketkeeper Matt Prior in third over of the day.   But Gambhir and Tendulkar took upon the challenge and at one stage maintained a run rate of around five runs per over, attacking the England bowlers. The duo added 42 runs for the third wicket.   Gambhir and Tendulkar never looked under any pressure and took singles and twos without much problem, besides sending the odd bad balls to the ropes.   Tendulkar, in particular, was enjoying his batting as he punished the bowlers whenever they gave width to him for playing shots.   Tendulkar survived a half chance soon after India crossed the 150 mark. With Graeme Swann hitting the right areas, the little master stretched to defend but the ball took a sharp turn and hit the outer edge of the bat to fall inches in front of Ian Bell at silly point. Tendulkar was on ten then.   Gambhir was shaping well as he added 24 runs with Dravid and 42 with Tendulkar but one lapse of concentration saw him back in the pavillion.   After bowling two short-pitched deliveries in previous over, James Anderson kept up the pressure on Gambhir attacking on the off side corridor, and the Indian opener paid the price for a lapse in concentration.   Gambhir moved across and his half hearted steer end up to Paul Collingwood who moved to his left at slips and took a good catch at gully.   Though there was a slight drop in run flow at the fall of Gambhir, Laxman adapted to the conditions quickly and was in no mood to take any risk against Monty Panesar, who maintained a tight length.    England captain Kevin Pietersen withdrew his bowlers whenever they gave away runs denying the Indians to settle down. But Laxman, in particular, was focused and used his feet for well-timed drives.   With both Tendulkar and Yuvraj holding the aces against the English bowlers, India were in sight of a historic win. Tendulkar who struck his 52nd fifty and crossed 1000-run mark this year, played the anchor role using his experience to gather runs mostly through singles and twos.   England heaved a sigh of relief when Graeme Swann scalped Laxman (42 balls, 4X4) who was out to a bat pad catch by Ian Bell.   Yuvraj, after reading the pitch for a while, continued with India's plan of counter-attack and Tendulkar played a good foil keeping one end intact.   For a while, Monty Panesar and Swann kept up the pressure and momentarily arrested the flow of runs. But once Tendulkar and Yuvraj brought about their 50 stand with Yuvraj sweeping Panesar to the fence, the duo started to cut loose

JUMBO RETIRES

 Our Indian Skipper Anil Kumble(nick name JUMBO) retires from test cricket today. It will be a memorable day in his life. He took 10 wickets against Pakistan in this ground. It is one of his favourite grounds. 

     Kumble, 38, retires with 619 Test wickets at 29.64, the most by an Indian and the third most of all time behind Muttiah Muralitharan (756) and Shane Warne (708). 

His decision was made after a humbling few months in which he led India to a heavy Test series defeat in Sri Lanka and then struggled to make an impact as a bowler against the Australians, despite his team's success in taking a 1-0 lead into the final match of the series in Nagpur. 

After missing India's 320-run victory in the second Test in Mohali due to a shoulder injury, Kumble returned to action in his haven of the Feroz Shah Kotla ground, but was unable to take a wicket until he grabbed three in the latter stages of the Australian innings - his only victims of the series. 

Kumble has also been affected by a variety of knocks and cuts to his left hand, which in this match required 11 stitches for a deep wound to his little finger. 

Yesterday Kumble took the field with his left hand encased in bandages and was in obvious pain whenever he needed to use the hand. 

  He was given a fantastic welcome by his Team mates accompanied by standing ovation from the ground in the last session. He bowled his last ball to Mathew hayden. It was a full toss ball, it was hit four by hayden.

   It will be really a hard moment for him. They drawed the match when aussies were 31 for no loss. Every one bid farewell to jumbo. It was Zaheer khan and Dravid who lifeted Kumble first then followed by Dhoni. He lifted Kumble on his shoulders. This showed how affectionate he was with his team mates.

  I think they will have a rocking farewell party tonite. I wonder how it will be in Nagpur, when our Former captain Saurav Gangully(DADA) plays his last Test match. Lets see if Dada removes his T-shirt and revolves it.........

Sourav Ganguly retained in Test Squad for Australia Series

Senior cricketer and India's successful test captain Sourav Ganguly was retained for the test series against Australia. The new selection committee headed by Krishnamachari Srikkanth, retained Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman in the 15-member squad. Delhi's leg spinner Amit Sharma and Tamil Nadu's S Badrinath also got the nod. The team was selected only for the first two test matches against Australia.

There was a big debate in the cricket circle over Ganguly's inclusion in the team. Since he was not included in the Rest of India squad for the Irani Trophy, people thought it could be the end of road for the Prince of Kolkata. However, the new selectors did the right job by picking him in the squad. If we believe the media reports, Ganguly will retire from international cricket after the Australian series.

A player like Sourav Ganguly definitely deserves a fitting farewell rather than an unceremonious exit. Srikkanth had encountered such situation in the past and he knew how painful it is for a player to face such humiliation and ill-treatment. Let's hope that Ganguly silences his critics by solid performance in the upcoming test series and then call it a day with full pride and dignity.

Indian Team:

Anil Kumble (c), Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, S Badrinath, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, RP Singh, Munaf Patel, Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra