Monday, March 21, 2005
An exciting finish to Kolkata cricket match
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India v Pakistan is one of the most popular among cricket matches. These matches are tough and competitive. Remember the India v Pakistan match played during the world cup (2003), this match was rivalling very close to India v Australia (Finals) in popularity. For those who consider test cricket to be slow and not so exciting, I have news for them. If they watched the recently concluded Kolkata match, I am sure they would reconsider their opinion.
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| Rahul Dravid "The Wall" as he is popularly called scored centuries in both innings ( 110 and 135 ) and joined the elite club of world cricket having done this twice. There were 4 centuries scored in the match, 2 by Rahul Dravid, one by Younis Khan and the other by Yousuf Youhana. The 7 wicket haul by Kumble in the 2nd innings was also a highlight of the match.The test match finally which India won by 195 runs had its share of a typical India Pak excitement. The first day of the match ended with India 344-4, Sachin passing the 10,000 run milestone. Though the first day belonged to India, Pakistan came back on the 2nd, they bowled out India for 407 adding only 63 runs to the overnight score and losing 6 wickets. To add insult to injury Pakistan batted well ending up with 273-2 with Youhana and Younis scoring centuries. The match seemed to be in Pak's favor at this point of the game. But on the third day India did well getting Pak all out for 393 and scoring 133-3. The game seemed to be open at this point. The day 4 saw Dravid scoring his 2nd century (in the same test) and a fine knock from Kartik. India eventually got to 407-9 decl. Now Pakistan had a steep target of 422 to win the match and the way Shahid Afridi was playing, Inzamam, Youhana and others yet to come, anything seemed possible. But the last day was Anil Kumble's day with a match wining 7/63. Pakistan were bowled out for 226. Harbhajan, Balaji and the others bowled well. Though India is 1-0 up in this series, Pakistan will fight back strongly in the last match at Bangalore which starts in a few days. |
