3rd Test: India v Pakistan at Bangalore

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Re: 3rd Test: India v Pakistan at Bangalore

That does it. This boring test match will be a draw. Misbah-ul-Huq has been having an incredibly good tour, now with a century. India win both the ODI and test series and look forward to facing Australia. Pakistan will feel semi-proud about not losing last 2 test matches, but they've got a mountain of work to do to make their team more relevant on international scene.

India have lead of 89 runs and starting the 2nd inning, but there is too little time left. India should've cleaned up Pakistan twice (with a follow-on) in this test in order to win it. Anyway, little glimmer of light for Indian bowling is 5-for for young Ishant Sharma in what is almost a debut test match for him. Not exactly a debut test, but close enough.
 
Re: 3rd Test: India v Pakistan at Bangalore

Pakistan all out for 537.

Yeah, there's no way we're getting anything other than a draw in the remaining 4 sessions. India has started their second innings very slow, 5-0 after 3.3 overs.
 
Re: 3rd Test: India v Pakistan at Bangalore

Dravid has scored 27 runs in 82 balls so far. What an utter waste!!!
 
Re: 3rd Test: India v Pakistan at Bangalore

Dravid may be slow, but Ganguly has picked up 63 at a pretty good clip.

India is 131-2 at stumps.
Their lead is 220.
 
Re: 3rd Test: India v Pakistan at Bangalore

Yes, it is clear that Kumble is using this opportunity more for improving Dravid's sagging confidence than anything remotely related to the test match. It's obvious that the match will be drawn and series won by India. If there was even slightest hint of aggressive intent on Kumble's part (kind of a pilot lesson before facing ruthless opponent like Australia) he could've promoted Ganguly or Yuvraj ahead in batting order instead of sending in Gambhir, Dravid. You can argue about it both ways. He could prepare for Australia by being a fearless, dashing risk-taker. Or he could prepare for Australia by asking some of his most experienced, trusted stalwart like Dravid to improve their confidence very quickly. He has taken the safer route, and I suppose that is indeed the right thing to do. It's painful to see Dravid crawl at such a slow pace though.
 
Re: 3rd Test: India v Pakistan at Bangalore

Dravid's misery is over.

He took 121 balls to make 42 runs in his hometown. Certainly not the best of forms, could be bit of headache for India in the big upcoming tour.
 
Re: 3rd Test: India v Pakistan at Bangalore

Chandu;196901 said:
Dravid's misery is over.

He took 121 balls to make 42 runs in his hometown. Certainly not the best of forms, could be bit of headache for India in the big upcoming tour.
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Now Ganguly goes, 4/178, a lead of 267.

Two new batters at the crease now, they being Yuvraj Singh and VVS Laxman. It's also Yuvraj's birthday today, he is 26 years old.
 
Re: 3rd Test: India v Pakistan at Bangalore

India declared at 6/284. Yuvraj didn't last long, he was out for two and VVS Laxman retired hurt on 14. Karthik was able to register 52 and his dismissal saw Kumble close the Indian second innings.

Pakistan are 3/78 in reply, needing to reach a target of 374 for victory. Kumble has all three wickets so far with Yasir Hameed the highest scorer with 39.

Less than 26 overs left in the game, Pakistan will probably only block from here and maybe the captains will reach an agreement just before the start of the last hour.
 
Re: 3rd Test: India v Pakistan at Bangalore

With those three wickets falling, I kind of think Kumble should make Pakistan face his bowling for the rest of the day. Why take three wickets and then let them off the hook? Maybe Ishant Sharma can take another 5 wickets.
 
Re: 3rd Test: India v Pakistan at Bangalore

cleazer;196958 said:
With those three wickets falling, I kind of think Kumble should make Pakistan face his bowling for the rest of the day.
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There was always a danger that maybe they could've treated the target as a 50 over ODI match (or even a Twenty20 match!?!?!) and caused a major embarrassment for India. As always, Misbah continues to be one nemesis for India to deal with.
 
Re: 3rd Test: India v Pakistan at Bangalore

Oooh, Kumble gets Faisal Iqbal for 51.
That's 4!
 
Re: 3rd Test: India v Pakistan at Bangalore

Holy %$#@!
Kamran Akmal out for a duck on the very next ball.
That's 5 for Kumble!!!
 
Re: 3rd Test: India v Pakistan at Bangalore

Yousuf finally comes in to bat today and fends off the hat trick ball.
Pakistan 144-5. Quite likely, the duo of Misbah-ul-Haq and Yousuf will bat through the rest of the day. They're good enough. But with five quick wickets from Kumble already, you never know...

Kumble has numbers of 5/51 from 12 overs, by the way.
 
Re: 3rd Test: India v Pakistan at Bangalore

Holy Toledo!
Yuvraj bowls Misbah-ul-Haq for 38 in the next over!
Pakistan 148-6. They're running out of batsmen here!
 
Re: 3rd Test: India v Pakistan at Bangalore

Yasir Arafat has been cleaned up by Yuvraj, 2 wickets on his birthday. If Mohammad Yusuf goes, India have a very good chance of winning this match. Can't believe Kumble has grabbed such a crazy and quick 5-for in his hometown already.
 
Re: 3rd Test: India v Pakistan at Bangalore

Holy expletive deleted!
Yousuf survives a whole over aginst Kumble, but that left Yasir Arafat to face Yuvraj in the next over and Yuvraj bowled him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pakistan 154-7
 
Re: 3rd Test: India v Pakistan at Bangalore

Oooh, the light is offered at 162-7.
Highly unlikely they'll come back out to play more. I guess that's the end of the test.
A thrilling final session considering it was supposed to be a mere formality!
 
Re: 3rd Test: India v Pakistan at Bangalore

Game has been called off. Pakistan finish at 7/162, Anil Kumble ends up with a nice haul of 5/60.

Sourav Ganguly gets Man of the Match for his double hundred in the first dig and his 91 in the second. He is also name the Man of the Series.

That is all as far as this series in concerned. India now have the tough ask of touring Australia while Pakistan go back to their domestic competition.
 
Re: 3rd Test: India v Pakistan at Bangalore

Chandu;196721 said:
That does it. This boring test match will be a draw.
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Hahahahaha!!! The end result prediction was correct (like you need to be a rocket scientist to be able to predict that). But in the end it was anything but boring.

Now that the strange test match is over, I would like to do some post-mortem of things we said here, as well as Kumble's introduction into test captaincy. Of course, hindsight is 20/20. (No, not that "cricket" kind of 20/20. ;) ) We have the luxury of watching from our seats, instead of being out in the middle and knowing details about what players are saying, how the track is behaving.

Ljp thought Kumble wasted too much time not declaring 1st inning, instead of letting all wickets fall. Hindsight shows that Kumble was in fact correct. If he had declared, Pakistan's 1st inning batting showed India probably wouldn't have had a lead. Kumble didn't really have a true bowling attack he was comfortable with. He was given a kid in Ishant Sharma, out of whom he had no idea what to expect. He ended up picking 5 tail ender wickets, but it was too little, too late. In the absence of Zaheer Khan, RP Singh on a flat track, it could've been over-confident and arrogant to declare early. Also, to Kumble's credit, Pathan was batting magnificently and very fast. He was working towards his 1st ever test century. Considering all of these factors together, it could've been criminal on Kumble's part if he declared inning prematurely.

As far as why Kumble waited till too late to declare 2nd inning as cleazer questioned: This is definitely a "hindsight is 20/20" item. Who could've predicted Kumble would pick up such a fast 5-for on a track that had been so flat and dead? As I said before, there was always a danger that Pakistan could've treated it as a limited over match causing massive embarrassment to India.

If anything, it shows that Kumble's captaincy tactics are more conservative than aggressive. It's clear he is going to be very safe and conservative down in Australia. A big shortcoming of his side is that it's not the best fielding side in the world. The bowling attack has been going through weird rotation due to injury and other issues. Wicket-keeping is very suspect. Dhoni has had problem of allowing many byes in general. In the last match, Dhoni wasn't even there. But the substitute Karthik was atrocious in the 1st inning allowing so many extras. A big name like Dravid hasn't been doing too well. Given all these weaknesses, it makes sense that Kumble is more conservative than aggressive. He has to try to make best of what he has been given. Of course he still has got a lot to learn as a captain. I think he will do it on the job in Australia.

Overall, I give positive marks to Kumble for his introduction to test captaincy. Now, let the Australia vs India series begin!!!!
 
Re: 3rd Test: India v Pakistan at Bangalore

Ljp86;196427 said:
No room for RP Singh? What about Ashish Nehra, whatever happened to him?
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I think RP Singh had some in injury problems.

Good question about Ashish Nehra. He had a bad ankle injury and missed a lot of domestic season himself. So no chance of him being thrown to the dogs (facing international competition like Australia) in that condition.
 
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