Laxman, Ishant help India snatch victory from defeat against Aussies in Mohali Test

MOHALI - Team India on Tuesday won the nail-biting first Test match against Australia by one-wicket, powered by a brilliant 81-run ninth-wicket partnership between the evergreen V.V.S. Laxman and Ishant Sharma.

The 216-run chase in the fourth innings of the match was well scripted after back injury-hit Laxman (73 not out) joined hands with Ishant (32) following a pre-lunch batting collapse on the fifth day at Mohali.

Sachin Tendulkar’s untimely exit, followed by M.S. Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh’s wickets had India reeling at 124-8 with 92 runs still to get.

The task did look difficult, but Laxman, helped by Suresh Raina as his runner, and Ishant handled the rest of the inning well to inch closer to the target.

Both the batsmen played showing class and managed to score 81 runs in 22 overs, before Ishant was dismissed 11 runs short of the target.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting tried to block the available options after last man Pragyan Ojha (five not out) came in to bat by heavily stacking the onside field for him.

However, Dhoni’s men won the nail-biter in style with a couple of leg-byes while Ojha was on strike to deny a victory in India for Ponting.

Talking about the match, Dhoni said that it was one of the best Test matches that he has ever been part of.

“This game was full of emotions. Ishant showed a lot of character and VVS was very special always. VVS has the ability to rotate strike and churn the runs at any stage, he did a wonderful job for us, the way he batted was very special,” Dhoni said

“It was a big task at lunch for us, with two wickets left, we just wanted the dressing room to be calm and cool. Ishant battled it out there and got crucial boundaries at important times. Heart rate goes up whenever India and Australia play, frankly speaking when the game started none of us thought we would have a result in four-and-a half days,” he added.

Meanwhile, Ponting admitted that this was the most nerve-racking test he had ever played in, and that India deserved full credit for the victory.

“We tried our best. It was satisfying effort from the boys. The partnership between Ishant and Laxman was great and it made the difference I guess. Bollinger’s injury probably did not help us there. We needed a fresh bowler to give it a shake, but that’s the game,” he added.

India leads the two match Test series 1-0, with the second match to be played from October 9-13 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

Brief Scorecard:

India-Ist Innings: 405 (Tendulkar 98, Raina 86, Mitchell Johnson 5-64)

IInd Innings: 216-9 (Laxman (73 not out), Tendulkar (38), Ishant (32), Ben Hilfenhaus 4-57)

Australia- Ist Innings: 428 (Shane Watson 126, Tim Paine 92, Zaheer Khan 5-94)

IInd Innings: 192 (Watson 56, Ishant 3-34, Zaheer 3-43). (ANI)