Cricket Blog

Day 1 ReportThe test series is finally here and Day 1 belonged to India and Kumble. Losing the toss, the home team was asked to field first. However, that turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the seamers ripped through the Pakistani top order with Zaheer Khan doing most of the damage and Munaf Patel providing able support.

After the Pakistanis were reduced to 83/5, there looked to be no recovery and the Indian bowlers continued to apply the pressure. A classy knock from Misba ul-Haq saved the day for the visitors as they managed to reach 210/8 in 85.4 overs with Mohammad Sami offering some resistance.

Before the day began, India were on the backfoot due to RP Singh and Sreesanth not being able to prove match fitness. India then had to go with Munaf Patel who was called in as replacement. I would have loved to see Irfan Pathan back in the team on the back of his terrific comeback into the ODI team. However, Munaf justified his inclusion by bowling a tight line and length and supported Zaheer Khan superbly.

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So India have bounced back and the see-saw battle between these two countries continues on. But a 2-1 lead in a 5 match series is always handy. The turning point in the match was the first six that Yuvraj hit off Abdur Rehman and from there on the momentum shifted tremendously.

The toss was won by Shoaib Malik and he elected to field first citing reasons that his team chases well and he wanted to make use of the early conditions. Pakistani new-ball bowlers lost the plot early on as they gave away far too many runs to the best opening combination in ODI history. Both Sachin and Saurav made use of the chances given to them, especially Saurav who was dropped of the first ball by Kamran Akmal.

Sachin took his own time to settle down but the boundaries started to come and he looked set for a big innings. Before he played a loose shot to give Sohail Tanveer his first wicket. Akmal, in complete contrast to the dropped catch, leapt to his right to snatch it out of midair. The man in form, Gautam Gambhir, walked in to replace the Little Master.

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Australia’s train was derailed yesterday by none other than Pakistan, perhaps the most unpredictable team in the history of cricket. As we have seen right throughout the tournament, barring New Zealand, captains have shown preference to field first. Shoaib Malik won the toss and did exactly that as he put the mighty Australians in. In a game like Twenty20 it is always a benefit that a strong batting team has to bat first as they have no idea what score to target or how the pitch is going to behave.

Australian openers have been sensational in their past couple of matches, but so have been Mohammad Asif and Sohail Tanveer. Tanveer, probably had his best match of the tournament, picking up 3 key Australians wickets - Gilchrist and Hayden in his opening spell and Hussey in his final spell. The wicket of Hayden in just the second over made sure that the Australians were on the back foot a little.

Gilchrist, Ponting, Symonds, Hussey and Hodge got starts but, except for Hodge, none of them went on to stay till the end and that probably made the difference between victory and defeat. Just the one six was hit by Australia, which is extremely surprising as sixes have been the norm so far in this World Cup. The Pakistani bowlers were very good and the fielding has been decent so far in the tournament.

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