It was a day which all Indian fans and players were looking forward to. A day that would decide whether India would stay at the top of the pedestal or not. And my god what a day it turned out to be. Initially it looked like the South Africans would take away the honors when were nearing the lunch interval without losing any of their overnight batsman. Then came sher e jalandhar, who picked up the wicket of Ashwell Prince, who tried to play across the line and was caught at mid off by Ishant Sharma. This created an opening for the team. Soon after AB devilliers was dismissed LBW by Amt Mishra and suddenly South Africa was 5 down at lunch.
Post lunch it was the turn of JP Duminy and Dale Steyn both of whom became victims of Bhajji. Behind all this excitement there was a batsman who had made up his mind to test india's patience and temperament, Hashim Amla who was unperturbed by all the chaos. He along with Wayne Parnell prevented SA from any more mishaps as they went to Tea 7 down.
Post tea was the most exciting session of Indian test history as it would decide who will end the season as Number 1. The session started ideally for India with Ishant sharma picking Wayne Parnell and Paul Harris in quick succession and suddenly to the great excitement of Indian fans SA were 9 down with almost 2 hrs of play left in the day. It seemed as if India being no1 is just a matter of time. Then as they say "The match is not over till the fat lady sings", this proverb fit perfectly for India at that time. The last wicket partnership of Hashim Amla and Morne Morkel started blossoming, and slowly they started creating some panic amongst the Indian ranks. All the tactics applied by Dhoni was fetching no results. In a bizarre incident Sehwag intentionally pushed the ball to the boundary so that India can keep Morkel on strike. Such were the stakes. Finally it was the second last over of the day and may be India’s last throw of the dice. Morne Morkel on strike and Bhajji bowling. Suddenly morkel is wrapped on the pads by bhajji and a loud appeal goes on and the umpire raises the finger and India win the test and with it retains the number one spot. Bhajji was just jumping with joy and ran directly towards the Press Box and he was followed by the entire team. Indeed a great victory for India.
A word for Hashim Amla who played brilliantly and almost made South Africa win the series
Indeed, a superb test match and a very colsely fought test series, an idea which the results would not give. one thing I like abt this Indian team is that they fight til the end. An art taught to Indian Cricket by 'Dada' and well forwarded by RD and Jumbo and Dhoni is fantastic. Athough the SA tail wagged for a while, but the result was inevitable and we had almost 20-25. more minutes to ball when the last wicket fell. And now the one-day series is being contested with the same intensity. Beware Australia... we are cuming.
ReplyDeleteGreat day indeed for Indian cricket and a fabulous match...my classmates and I were up in celebration in the middle of a lecture :)
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