Laxman helps India pull off a miraculous win!

Tags: Australia tour of india - 2010, AUS v IND 1st Test at Chandigarh - Oct 1 - 5, 2010, Australia, India, Vangipurappu Venkata Sai Laxman

Published on: Oct 06, 2010

Scorecard | Commentary | Graphs

India pulled off a miraculous 1-wicket victory in the first Test at Mohali with VVS Laxman guiding them home with a sensational unbeaten 73 from 79 balls!

India pulled off a miraculous 1-wicket victory in the first Test at Mohali with VVS Laxman guiding them home with a sensational unbeaten 73 from 79 balls! Laxman's partnership with Ishant Sharma stretched the distance after Lunch and brought India to 11 runs away from victory before the hosts were hard done by a wrong lbw decision. Ishant after scoring a spirited 31 from 92 balls (with 5 fours) was hit on the pad by a reversing inswinger from Hilfenhaus that was definitely sliding down leg. But Umpire Ian Gould erred and gave that out lbw and thus breaking the 81-run stand for the 9th wicket!

But India would not complain about the Umpiring decision as they were absolutely lucky when Pragyan Ojha, the last man was plumb infront of middle to Mitchell Johnson when six runs were needed for a win! Instead Umpire Billy Bowden thought that there was an inside edge which wasn't to be and India got a boundary because of an over throw in an attempted run out at the batting end! Two balls later, the winning runs came in the form of two leg byes off the pads of Ojha to fine leg to finish the match in the 59th over.

Zaheer Khan picked up the Man of the Match for taking eight wickets.

Morning Session, Day 5

Australia are just two wickets away from winning the first Test at Mohali and there is only a slender hope for India for a miracle with still 54 runs to get. VVS Laxman (48* from 46 balls with 6 fours) is batting freely though at one end to cut down the target quickly and of late has been getting tremendous support from no. 10 Ishant Sharma (14* from 35 balls) and the pair have so far put on 38 runs for the unbroken 9th wicket. To follow this pair is last man Pragyan Ojha who has the capacity of hanging in there with his stubborn defence.

The visitors got their first breakthrough of the day after 27 minutes when night watchman Zaheer Khan (10) dabbed a straighter one from Nathan Hauritz to slip in the 24th over. After his exit, Laxman walked in and threatened to run away with the game along side Sachin Tendulkar. The pair added 43 runs in just 6.1 overs before Tendulkar (38 from 64 balls with 5 fours) got caught at gully after getting cramped up in an upper cut off Bollinger.

The match swung Aussies' way when MS Dhoni got confused in a single call because of Suresh Raina running for VVS Laxman far away from squareleg. It was a straight drive from Laxman and MS Dhoni had to suddenly run for the single after shockingly seeing Raina come almost to his end. MS Dhoni (2) was then short of his crease at the batting end because of a direct throw from Hilfenhaus from straight mid on. Harbhajan Singh had another failure with the bat, this time fending a rising delivery from Bollinger to the slip cordon and India slipped to 124 for 8 with any chances of victory from there vanishing in thin air. However, VVS Laxman has kept on playing his shots and with Ishant being sensible at his end, the target is coming down steadily to put a bit of pressure on the bowling side.

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