The Great Game Called Cricket...

Years from now, when people think of Yusuf Pathan's maiden one-day century, they are unlikely to remember much more than the sheer brutality of it all. Yet, there was so much more to the innings than the clinical straight-hitting, which admittedly was in a league of its own. A batsman's response when his weaknesses are targeted can say a lot about his state of mind. While Yusuf dismantled New Zealand when they served him freebies in his hitting areas, the clarity he showed when tested with the short ball was even more telling.

Dead rubber or not, there was lot riding on this for Yusuf when he came out to join Rohit Sharma in what was panning into a veritable shoot-out between the two to stay in the hunt for a full-time middle-order opening. India required 208 off 183 when Yusuf took guard - not the situation cut out for a batsman termed a fifth-gear slogger who cannot handle the bouncer.

It is a reputation that has tagged Yusuf for long now. After losing favour following the tri-series in Zimbabwe, he returned to domestic cricket and did what came naturally to him - he flayed India's local attacks in all formats. The manner in which he scored his runs - 195 off 138 balls in a Ranji game, 89 off 42 to lift a derailed Twenty20 chase, and a 63 off 30 in the Challenger Trophy - did not help his cause as much as reinforce the tag of flat-track bully. Had he been plonking his front foot forward and tucking into over-pitched deliveries, or had he found a way past the short stuff? He got his chance to address that question today.

It helped Yusuf that he checked in against spin, before facing the trial by bounce. Daniel Vettori tried trapping him with arm-balls, getting the odd delivery to skid in with the late-evening dew. Nathan McCullum was flighting his offbreaks, asking to be lofted over a vacant long-on. With India still well off the greens, Yusuf resisted the bait. He began with measured dabs on either side of the wicket, picking Vettori's variations from the pitch and reaching out to deal with McCullum. By the 25th over, he had moved to a quiet 8 off 13 balls, before Vettori brought back the seamers.

Andy McKay, New Zealand's fastest bowler, came on and square-leg was pushed back to the boundary. McKay's third ball to Yusuf was a slow bouncer, which he spotted early but chose to let go. Two balls later it came again. McKay's left-arm, around-the-wicket angle, at around 140 kph, makes the bouncer a tough delivery for any right-hand batsman. Six months ago, Yusuf would have pressed forward, looking for the driving length, before arresting his momentum and getting into a tangled attempt at a pull without transferring the weight back. No such confusion this time: he stayed put on a more balanced and crouched stance at the crease, and ducked under it with intent.

McKay tried it again in the 30th over, and having warmed up to the chase by now with a flat six off Vettori, Yusuf took the challenge. He was however beaten by the pace and failed to make contact with the pull. Yusuf's reaction gave nothing away - no self-admonishing, no air-practice to perfect the shot - he just stood his ground and looked down the track as McKay's follow-through ended closer to the batting crease than normal. The next ball was pitched up, the surprise delivery to catch the batsman waiting on the backfoot for another bumper, but Yusuf knew the two-card trick was being played, and lofted it cleanly over mid-off.

Rohit departed, the rains came down and broke play for an hour with India needing 113 from 14 overs. While Saurabh Tiwary fidgeted around with nervous energy, one could sense calmness in the way Yusuf faced up to a few throwdowns before play resumed.

Vettori's first ball on resumption was launched over long-on, bringing up Yusuf's half-century. In the 39th over, he asked for the batting Powerplay, and flexed his muscles by depositing the fifth ball of Kyle Mills' over, over the roof behind wide long-on. Tim Southee tested him with fuller lengths and three quiet overs ensued, as Yusuf played out incisive yorker after yorker without panicking. In the 43rd over, he made up for lost time, swinging Mills' shoddy lengths for 21 runs through the leg-side. India moved ahead of the D/L par-score, and from there it was a canter to victory, despite Tiwary's scratchiness at the other end.

Fittingly enough, the century came off a McKay bouncer that was dispatched over wide long-on. It angled in sharply from wide of off stump, and Yusuf moved back and across, without lunging forward as he once used to. The crack of the ball pinging the meat of the swinging blade gave way to warm applause from a crowd that had earned its treat for having waited through the rains. Yusuf threw his arms up and soaked in the moment. It is a shot that will be replayed several times in India in days to come. It is the shot of a man who had stared his biggest challenge in the face and found a way to deal with it.

They said he couldn't perform in international cricket. They said he was good only for IPL and domestic cricket. He proved them wrong tonight. Yusuf Pathan engineered an improbable win for India with a violent hundred, his first in ODIs, and perhaps sealed a World Cup berth for himself. It looked grim for India when they were tottering at 188 for 5 in the 34th over, after the fall of Rohit Sharma, but Pathan pulled off a heist. One game doesn't guarantee a successful future of course, especially considering that this New Zealand attack wasn't potent enough to test his weakness against short balls, but Pathan left his past behind with a potentially career-changing innings on a drizzly Bangalore night. His century overshadowed a superbly-crafted 98 from James Franklin that had allowed New Zealand to reach a daunting total.

Pathan declared his intent with two brutal shots. The first came in the 37th over, when play resumed after a one-hour rain break that didn't reduce any overs and left India needing 113 runs from 14. Yusuf launched a Daniel Vettori delivery into screaming fans beyond long-on and clubbed a length delivery from Kyle Mills over the roof at cow corner. A couple of quiet overs followed but Pathan roused himself in a violent 43rd over: he smashed Mills for three fours - a lofted hit overs cover and two flicks past short fine-leg - before crashing a length delivery for six over midwicket. And when he brought up his maiden hundred with a pulled six, off Andy McKay in the next over, the game was all but over. He found support in Saurabh Tiwary, who intelligently rotated the strike, and the pair gave India a 4-0 lead in the series.

It was an incredible effort considering India had lagged behind for a major part of the chase. McKay's twin strikes to remove Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli in the 10th over and Nathan McCullum's double-strike to dismiss Yuvraj Singh and Parthiv Patel, who hit his maiden fifty, had pushed India on the back foot. And when Tim Southee had Rohit Sharma hitting straight to mid-off, New Zealand would have been thinking about the win, but Yusuf crushed their hopes with a blinder.

As good as their batting was in the end overs, their death bowling nearly lost India the game. Franklin's knock provided the perfect climax to New Zealand's spirited approach; the openers attacked to take them to 91 for 2 in the 14th over and the middle-order adapted to the fall of wickets - rebuilding at a slower pace before Franklin's final flourish.

Franklin looted 22 runs in the final over, bowled by Nehra, with some wickedly entertaining big hits: he smashed the second delivery to the straight boundary, the third over long-off, the fourth to midwicket, and the fifth to the wide long-off boundary. It was not, however, a knock of such fury and adrenalin from the start. He had built his innings with conventional shots, such as the one in 47th over, when he was batting with the tail and was under some pressure. He sashayed down the track to Yusuf Pathan, who had just picked up two wickets, and nonchalantly flicked him wide of the deep midwicket fielder. No manic rush or desperation, he simply carried on with his style, sweeping the spinners and flicking and square-driving the seamers to get to his fifty. Only in the final two overs did he explode. It seemed he had done enough to win the game for his team, especially after India's top-order had collapsed, but Yusuf seized the day.

Gautam Gambhir has said being captain for India's ODI series against New Zealand has not given him any extra motivation to perform with the bat. "As a player or a captain I have always given 100%. Captaincy has not changed my batting," he said. "I am striking the ball well and would have batted like this under any captain."

Gambhir scored his second successive unbeaten century, in the third ODI in Vadodara on Saturday, to give India an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series.

In Saturday's match, India's bowlers restricted New Zealand to 224 in their 50 overs after putting them in to bat. Gambhir admitted it was an advantage bowling first on the Vadodara wicket but praised his bowlers for setting up the win. "When there is dew in Baroda it does a bit in the morning; it's red soil. It was a good toss to win but it was a great effort from our bowlers to restrict them to 225-odd.

"[Zaheer Khan] is the best left-arm fast bowler in the world now. [R] Ashwin has a lot of variety and can bowl well during Powerplays and the slog overs. If he keeps doing that he will be a big asset to the team. Munaf [Patel] bowled great at first-change. It's tough to get figures of 1 for 28 in 10 overs on a subcontinent wicket. Yusuf [Pathan] contributed with the ball, as well."

Gambhir kept a slip in almost throughout the New Zealand innings and said the aggressive tactics were prompted by New Zealand's depth in batting. "There was still a bit of dampness out there and we wanted to take wickets as New Zealand bat deep down with Kyle Mills coming in at No.10."

With Ravindra Jadeja in the side for the third ODI, Yuvraj Singh was not called upon to bowl any overs, despite having taken three wickets in the first game in Guwahati. It is still uncertain whether India will play seven batsmen or an allrounder in the 2011 World Cup, and Yuvraj's bowling could be a deciding factor in the balance of the team. Gambhir said Yuvraj was still an important part of the ODI setup. "Yuvi is an experienced player and an integral part of the side. He has been a great help to me as captain."

With several senior players rested, the series against New Zealand is an opportunity for the India selectors to look at some of the fringe players ahead of the World Cup, and Gambhir welcomed the competition. "It's good to have competitions for various places. If the selectors have a headache in this aspect, it's a very good sign for Indian cricket," he said. He, however, hinted India may not experiment too much with the side for the last two ODIs despite the series being won. "We should try and put our best team on the park as it is an international game and we are playing a quality side."

New Zealand's one-day woes continued into a ninth straight game as their batting failed to cope with moist early-morning conditions in Vadodara. Zaheer Khan, coming back after injury, and Munaf Patel swung and seamed the ball all right, but New Zealand will look back at how unremarkable their response was. With the pitch easing out in the afternoon, Gautam Gambhir made the chase look ridiculously easy, becoming only the eighth captain to score centuries in back-to-back ODIs.

From the time he won the toss and put New Zealand in, Gambhir hardly put a foot wrong, keeping his perfect captaincy record and India's unbeaten home season intact. New Zealand's openers gifted their wickets, the middle order went into a shell, and even though James Franklin and Nathan McCullum added 94 for the eighth wicket, it was never going to be enough. Not with Gambhir making room and peppering the off side with drives and cuts, bringing up his fifty in 30 balls, out of India's 64 then.

Watching Gambhir bat, the struggle New Zealand went through early in the morning seemed far away. Brendon McCullum, making a comeback himself, laid out a welcome mat for Zaheer, guiding a widish delivery straight to second slip. Martin Guptill ran himself out soon after.

Between those dismissals, Williamson set the template for the day. His front foot went across to the first ball he faced. It swung in enough down the leg side to be called a wide, but Williamson had fallen over trying to correct the movement. Neither Williamson nor Ross Taylor could get rid of that tendency during their short stays. Taylor's wicket, though, came in a tame fashion as he tried drive Zaheer on the up. The shot was played away from his body, and an inside edge ensued.

Taylor's No. 4 position has been a matter of debate, with arguments that he should take more responsibility and bat at No. 3. Williamson's inability to counterattack only seemed to highlight that notion. For the third game running, he got off to a slow start, and did little to hit Munaf off his plan.

Munaf loves to bowl back of a length, just outside off, and wobble the ball slightly either way. He tends to get a bit rattled when somebody uses that predictability to come down and hit him. In this series, though, no one has come close to doing that. And once Williamson allowed Munaf to do what he wanted, that lbw call seemed a matter of time with the batsman regularly falling over.

Modern captains tend to go into the containment mode once the 15th over ends irrespective of how many wickets they might have got. Gambhir, who had put New Zealand in, was refreshingly old-school. When he saw R Ashwin turn the first ball, he set Test-match fields for Scott Styris and James Franklin. Yuvraj, at leg slip, soon came into action taking a sharp low catch to send Styris back. Daniel Vettori did a B McCullum, guiding Yusuf Pathan straight to slip for another sharp catch for Yuvraj, who later returned to leg slip to get rid of Gareth Hopkins too.

Having fallen behind the over-rate, though, Gambhir omitted to use four of Zaheer and Nehra's overs. Facing part-time spinners on a pitch that had eased out a bit, Franklin and N McCullum had little trouble building a partnership. It was almost as if Gambhir was not concerned at all by their stand.

The way he turned out with the bat, Gambhir need not have worried either.

After having been at the wrong end of Gambhir's off-side play in Jaipur, New Zealand tried to cramp him up, and found that Gambhir was equally adept at scoring through the on side. He flicked the second ball he faced fine for a boundary. In Kyle Mills' next over, he picked the gap between mid-on and midwicket. In Mills' next, Gambhir started making room and went into his favourite off side. He capitalised on the correction on the next delivery, moving to 23 off 11.

Andy McKay got the same treatment: wide ball, four; too straight, four; wide again, four. With time, Gambhir's favourite chips over extra cover and midwicket came out too. He might have seemed to slow down after reaching his fifty, but he took only 58 further deliveries to get to the hundred.

M Vijay didn't struggle like he did in Jaipur, but had to stay content with being the lesser partner in the opening stand. And like he did in Japiur, Virat Kohli came out and scored a half-century in the company of his captain as India cantered home.

The Tendulkar moment of the day
It came from his fan Kane Williamson. The delivery from Ishant Sharma kept low even as it cut back in from outside off. Williamson crouched, tried to get the bat in the way but the ball shot under it to clatter on the stumps. Williamson bent his knees and slowly sunk his bat on to the ground. It reminded you of Tendulkar's reaction when he gets bowled by deliveries that don't climb as much as expected.

Guptill's horror moment of the day - I
The delivery from Pragyan Ojha landed comfortably outside the leg stump and turned in to the hit the pad. Simon Taufel, who has been slipping up often these days, sent Martin Guptill packing. It was a golden duck for Guptill.

Guptill's horror moment of the day - II
This time around he was at the non-striker's end as a runner for Jesse Ryder. The ball from Harbhajan Singh turned well clear of bat or pad and bounded off to short-leg but Nigel Llong raised the finger. The unlucky batsman was Ross Taylor who smiled ruefully as he walked off. The best reaction, though, came from Guptill: his mouth opened wide agape, his eyes almost bulged out and he slowly sank to his left.

The catch of the day
Gautam Gambhir was just hit on his body by a hard shot from Taylor at short leg when Harbhajan Singh produced a bat-and-pad prod from Gareth Hopkins. Gambhir moved quickly to his right and lunged out with an outstretched hand to pouch it. He got celebratory whacks on his helmet from his team-mates.

The drop of the day
Gambhir had retired to the dressing room to get treatment after sustaining that injury on taking a hit from Taylor. He returned and was placed at short extra cover. Ryder crashed one from Harbhajan straight at him at a comfortable height but he clanged it. VVS Laxman held his head and Harbhajan stared ruefully at Gambhir.

The celebration of the day
Suresh Raina had lured Ryder to give a catch at mid-off and was immediately enveloped by his team-mates. They then proceeded to ruffle his hair and then started to slap his head in unison. Doug Bollinger would have been happy. For, Raina had once tried to pull Bollinger's hair out, or so it seemed, after a dismissal in the IPL. Bollinger had just weaved some "fake" hair on his bald pate.

Finally the actors returned to the original script. The groundsman was the first person to get the revised lines: the ball turned and bounced, kicked and spat angrily, not from day one but the third evening onwards. With a big lead in the bag, the Indian bowlers got into character without wasting time. They were all over the New Zealand batsmen, who were surrounded by all kinds of close-in fieldsmen. The arm balls arrived too to trap the unsure, who crumbled under pressure, as almost everybody thought they were supposed to right through the series. The umpires felt the heat too, which is expected with the ball dancing and a gang of fielders around the bat.

As the three spinners shared the wickets - Suresh Raina being the third - and Ishant cleared up the tail, the Test win that India had to wait for for longer than expected arrived remarkably quickly, half an hour after lunch on the fourth day. It was also India's third-biggest win.

Pragyan Ojha has spent most of his young career bowling on slow and low tracks, and has come across as restrictive and robotic. It might still be too early to call - given the buffer of runs and the assistance from the pitch - but Ojha showed today he can attack too. He started by outsmarting Brendon McCullum, who tried the old bullying tactic of hitting early boundaries and trying to get the fielders out of his face. Ojha kept pitching the ball up, flighting it, giving it the best chance to turn and bounce. McCullum played back, and Ojha did the thing to do on a turner, slip in the straighter one. Dead plumb.

However, because the pitch was offering so much turn, the decision to give Martin Guptill lbw was ordinary. Being Ojha's regulation offbreak, it could either have pitched within the stumps or hit the stumps. As the replays showed, it was hitting the stumps all right, but after having pitched outside leg.

Harbhajan, who set the template of mixing in the straighter ones yesterday, came to get nightwatchman Gareth Hopkins with a flighted, dipping offbreak. Gautam Gambhir, who showed signs of return to form with the bat during this match, made the lunging bat-pad catch to his right, two balls after he was hit a by a full-blooded sweep from Ross Taylor.

Taylor, who was troubled by the outswing from Sreesanth in the morning, decided there was no point in hanging around and waiting for the one that jumps at him and takes the edge. So he started moving across and throwing his bat around, along the way surviving one plumb lbw when he missed a sweep right in front of the stumps. As it turned out, he didn't have to wait for the one that jumps and takes the edge: he was given caught bat-pad off the pad.

Taylor was so bemused he laughed all the way back to the pavilion, and Guptill, Jesse Ryder's runner, was so stunned he found it tough to close his gaping mouth. Ryder was the only batsman who looked at ease against the turning ball, but he got out trying to dominate the part-time spin of Raina, the second time he has fallen to the bowler.

Raina was not done yet. In his second over, he bowled the straighter one too, trapping Daniel Vettori in front, the third time he has taken the New Zealand captain.

Tim Southee swung the bat a little bit, hitting three sixes, but he only delayed the inevitable. This game will also be remembered for Chris Martin's first duck against India in six Tests.

With the breaking of New Zealand's resistance complete, India have not lost any of their last nine series. However, given the big difference in the two teams' rankings, the 1-0 result earned India a two-point penalty in the ICC Test rankings.


Smart StatsIndia's win was their third biggest in Tests and their second in home Tests, behind the innings-and-219-run win over Australia in Kolkata in 1998.

India have not lost a single series since the 2-1 result in Sri Lanka in 2008.

New Zealand lost seven wickets for 86 runs in the first session, collapsing from 38 for 1 to 124 for 8.

The defeat was New Zealand's fifth heaviest in Tests and their worst against India.

Their previous defeat by an innings to India was in 1956 in Chennai.

Harbhajan Singh went past Malcolm Marshall's tally of 376 wickets and is now 13th on the all-time list of Test wicket-takers.

He has 258 wickets in home Tests, which puts him fifth on the list of bowlers with most wickets in home Tests.

The 51-run stand between Andy McKay and Tim Southee was New Zealand's seventh half-century stand for the ninth wicket against India.

Smallest margin of victory (by wickets)
Winner Margin Opposition Ground Match Date Scorecard
England 1 wicket v Australia The Oval 11 Aug 1902 Test # 74
South Africa 1 wicket v England Johannesburg 2 Jan 1906 Test # 88
England 1 wicket v Australia Melbourne 1 Jan 1908 Test # 97
England 1 wicket v South Africa Cape Town 1 Jan 1923 Test # 149
Australia 1 wicket v West Indies Melbourne 31 Dec 1951 Test # 345
New Zealand 1 wicket v West Indies Dunedin 8 Feb 1980 Test # 873
Pakistan 1 wicket v Australia Karachi 28 Sep 1994 Test # 1268
West Indies 1 wicket v Australia Bridgetown 26 Mar 1999 Test # 1453
West Indies 1 wicket v Pakistan St John's 25 May 2000 Test # 1497
Pakistan 1 wicket v Bangladesh Multan 3 Sep 2003 Test # 1658
Sri Lanka 1 wicket v South Africa Colombo (PSS) 4 Aug 2006 Test # 1812
India 1 wicket v Australia Mohali 1 Oct 2010 Test # 1972
England 2 wickets v Australia The Oval 11 Aug 1890 Test # 34
Australia 2 wickets v England Sydney 3 Dec 1907 Test # 96
England 2 wickets v South Africa Durban 16 Dec 1948 Test # 306
Australia 2 wickets v West Indies Melbourne 10 Feb 1961 Test # 506
India 2 wickets v Australia Mumbai (BS) 10 Oct 1964 Test # 567
Australia 2 wickets v India Perth 16 Dec 1977 Test # 811
West Indies 2 wickets v England Nottingham 5 Jun 1980 Test # 880
New Zealand 2 wickets v Pakistan Dunedin 9 Feb 1985 Test # 1012
West Indies 2 wickets v Pakistan Bridgetown 22 Apr 1988 Test # 1097
Pakistan 2 wickets v England Lord's 18 Jun 1992 Test # 1190
Australia 2 wickets v South Africa Port Elizabeth 14 Mar 1997 Test # 1360
England 2 wickets v South Africa Centurion 14 Jan 2000 Test # 1483
Sri Lanka 2 wickets v Pakistan Rawalpindi 26 Feb 2000 Test # 1485
England 2 wickets v West Indies Lord's 29 Jun 2000 Test # 1503
India 2 wickets v Australia Chennai 18 Mar 2001 Test # 1539
Australia 2 wickets v South Africa Johannesburg 31 Mar 2006 Test # 1795
Australia 3 wickets v England Manchester 16 Jul 1896 Test # 51
England 3 wickets v South Africa Johannesburg 26 Feb 1910 Test # 108
England 3 wickets v Australia Melbourne 29 Dec 1928 Test # 178
England 3 wickets v South Africa Port Elizabeth 5 Mar 1949 Test # 313
Australia 3 wickets v West Indies Brisbane 9 Nov 1951 Test # 340
South Africa 3 wickets v England Manchester 7 Jul 1955 Test # 410
Australia 3 wickets v West Indies Georgetown 31 Mar 1978 Test # 822
India 3 wickets v West Indies Chennai 12 Jan 1979 Test # 841
England 3 wickets v Pakistan Leeds 26 Aug 1982 Test # 933
Pakistan 3 wickets v England Karachi 2 Mar 1984 Test # 978
Pakistan 3 wickets v Sri Lanka Faisalabad 2 Jan 1992 Test # 1182
West Indies 3 wickets v England Port of Spain 5 Feb 1998 Test # 1398
England 3 wickets v West Indies Port of Spain 13 Feb 1998 Test # 1399
Pakistan 3 wickets v Zimbabwe Harare 21 Mar 1998 Test # 1412
England 3 wickets v Sri Lanka Kandy 7 Mar 2001 Test # 1532
South Africa 3 wickets v Sri Lanka Centurion 15 Nov 2002 Test # 1626
West Indies 3 wickets v Australia St John's 9 May 2003 Test # 1645
England 3 wickets v Australia Nottingham 25 Aug 2005 Test # 1762
Australia 3 wickets v Bangladesh Fatullah 9 Apr 2006 Test # 1797
New Zealand 3 wickets v Bangladesh Chittagong 17 Oct 2008 Test # 1888
Pakistan 3 wickets v Australia Leeds 21 Jul 2010 Test # 1965
Records includes the following current or recent matches:
India v Australia at Mohali, 1st Test, Oct 1-5, 2010 [Test # 1972 - Live]
» India 216/9 (58.4 ov, PP Ojha 5*, VVS Laxman 73*, MG Johnson 0/50) - Match over
England v Pakistan at Lord's, 4th Test, Aug 26-29, 2010 [Test # 1971]
England v Pakistan at The Oval, 3rd Test, Aug 18-21, 2010 [Test # 1970]

Australia's bowlers had been wary of VVS Laxman, despite his bad back, going into the fifth day at Mohali, Ricky Ponting has said. Laxman overcame his injury to play another nerveless innings against his favourite opposition and shepherd the tail to victory.

"Just having some dinner last night with a few guys I was sitting with, I really felt that [we should beware] the wounded player [Laxman], and batting down the order I felt he would make a big contribution today," Ponting said. "I was trying to make sure that we weren't thinking they were going to be a batsman down again in the second innings and get too carried away."

Laxman batted at No. 10 in the first innings and sat out the fourth morning as Australia set India a target. He could not bat at his usual No. 6 position on the fourth evening as India's chase ran into rough weather. The Indian team said he would bat on the last day if required, and he walked out at the fall of the nightwatchman Zaheer Khan. Laxman stood tall as India lost wickets and guided the tail to victory.

"Even with that [bad back] today he showed what sort of class player he is," Ponting said. "He has been a bit of a thorn in our side there's no doubt about that, I guess him and Sachin [Tendulkar] would be the two who've done the most damage over the years, a couple of guys who've played a lot against us and have got good records against us. I hope his back's pretty sore for next week as well and he can't play."

Things went against Australia through the fifth day. Doug Bollinger, who had joined the team late after the Champions League, was forced off the field with an abdominal strain in the middle of a very good spell. Then, with India's last pair requiring six runs to win the game, Pragyan Ojha survived a close lbw shout and Steven Smith missed a direct hit that could have ended the match, but ended up conceding four overthrows.

"That's what we expect from our guys, we expect that when there's a half chance there that they'll want to take it. There's no blame at all towards Smith for having a shot at the stumps, if that was me I would have done exactly the same thing.

"It probably doesn't help," Ponting said of Bollinger's hurried preparation for the game after the Champions League. "But he had been bowling, and that was one positive for Doug, that he had been playing competitive cricket. He probably hasn't been bowling the amount of overs in the Champions Leauge that some of the others have had coming over here, but he has been playing and arrived a couple of days before the game.

"I thought his spell today was probably the best he's bowled during the game, so disappointing for him to go down at the end there. I went to grab his hat off him for the start of his next over and he said he felt some pain in one of his abdominals, and being a fast bowler and having that sort of injury I just sent him off the ground straight away."

The match was marred by some questionable umpiring decisions. Michael Hussey and Gautam Gambhir got rough calls on the fourth day, while Ishant Sharma was sent on his way today with the game in the balance, before the lbw appeal against Ojha. After a match of such close margins, Ponting reaffirmed his faith in the UDRS, the use of which had been refused by India at the start of this series.

"I'm a big supporter of the UDRS, I actually queried the ICC before the series started about the reason why we weren't using the system," Ponting said. "One thing I know about the system so far is that you definitely get more correct decisions in a game of cricket than you do without it, we understand how difficult a job it is for the umpires out there. There's no doubt, take this Test match alone, with the use of the system here I think we would've have a lot more right decisions in the game."

MS Dhoni hailed the duo of VVS Laxman and Ishant Sharma for their match-winning stand of 81 that helped India fight back after being reduced to a seemingly hopeless 124 for 8. Laxman played a decisive role in guiding India to a second successive win while chasing, following up his unbeaten century against Sri Lanka at the P Sara Oval with 73, also undefeated, to seal a one-wicket win and spark off wild celebrations.

"VVS was really remarkable in this match. He helped the team overcome a batting collapse. Laxman remained at the crease, hit boundaries, rotated the strike and kept the scoreboard moving all the time," Dhoni said after the match. "For me, it was a very special innings by Laxman."

Laxman's performance stood out as he played with a sore back, a niggle that forced him to drop down the order in the first innings and bat with a runner in the second. He was supported admirably by Ishant, who scored a determined 31 to revive India's hopes after Australia's seamers had put their team in sight of a win. "Ishant showed good character when the batting collapse took place. It was no doubt a big task. Only two-three batsmen remained and Laxman was on the other end. But they supported Laxman well and that worked for us," Dhoni said. "Our heart rate went up. Nobody could imagine such an ending in four-and-a-half days when the match started."

India's target of 216 was not the most intimidating but Australia's fast bowlers hit back on the fourth evening to limit India to 55 for 4, and continued to make steady inroads on the final day to leave the hosts reeling. Ricky Ponting, the Australia captain, rued the unavailability of Doug Bollinger - who had to leave the field with abdominal stiffness - against the lower order. "We failed to take a couple of wickets quickly," he said. "Bollinger's injury probably didn't help us there; we needed a fresh bowler to give it a shake but that's the game.

"Full credit to India; they outplayed us today. We tried our best. It was satisfying effort from the boys. I told them to just take the scorecard out of the mind. The partnership between Ishant and Laxman was great and it made the difference."

VVS Laxman overcame his sore back to become the hero of a nail-biting one-wicket victory for India, who retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in dramatic fashion in Mohali. In one of the most memorable finishes in recent history, Pragyan Ojha picked up two leg-byes off Mitchell Johnson to seal the result, which until that delivery could also have been a tie or an Australian win.

The match was firmly in Australia's grasp when the No. 10 Ishant Sharma joined Laxman with 92 runs still required, but the pair ground Australia down and left a dejected Ricky Ponting still winless as a Test captain in India. The visitors' hopes were raised again when Ben Hilfenhaus (4 for 57) trapped Ishant lbw - although the ball would have missed leg stump - with 11 runs needed.

In the final, chaotic scenes, Australia continued to attack, desperate for one wicket. They thought they had it two balls before the winning runs were struck, when Mitchell Johnson rapped Ojha on the pads only to have a strong lbw shout denied. Adding to the commotion, Ojha wandered out of his crease and a throw from gully that would have found him short missed the stumps and ran away for four overthrows.

When the winning leg-byes arrived, the Indian players streamed onto the field as the Australians thrust hands on heads. For sheer on-field tension, the finish ranked up there with Australia's last-minute SCG win of 2007-08. But that match was overshadowed by claims of poor sportsmanship; this time there should be no such post-script.

On that occasion Ishant was the last man out as the sun set over Sydney; in Mohali he was every bit as important as Laxman, with a defiant innings of 31 in their partnership of 81. But Laxman was the star. The Australians will wonder how they let such a golden opportunity slip; the answer lies in the hands, or wrists, of one of their chief tormentors of recent years.

Entering the final day, Ponting's men feared Sachin Tendulkar, who went to stumps unbeaten on 10, much more than they were concerned about Laxman. They knew that in the first innings VVS had been very, very sore. He'd batted at No. 10, with a runner, and was hampered in his strokeplay. Two days later, the man with the most unique initials in cricket was very, very stubborn.

Again he had a runner, Suresh Raina, but just as important were the eight boundaries he struck in his 73, which came from 79 deliveries. Had he not started to farm the strike in the dying stages, he would have finished with a strike-rate of more than 100 for only the fourth time in his 188 Test innings.

Laxman flicked the ball through gaps and was always looking to counterattack as Ponting continued to set aggressive fields. His approach was critical, for Australia had all the momentum in the hour before lunch when Doug Bollinger, who did not take the field after lunch due to abdominal stiffness, made two breakthroughs, including the key wicket of Tendulkar for 38.

But try as they might, Australia under Ponting simply haven't been able to close out a victory in India. In 2008 he was over-defensive, failing to push for wickets and grab opportunities when they arose. This time Ponting didn't do much wrong; Laxman was just too good.

India began the day needing 161 runs and for an hour they were cruising, as Tendulkar and Laxman brought the target down with a rapidity that alarmed Ponting. Nathan Hauritz had picked up the night-watchman Zaheer Khan, caught at slip, but was leaking runs and when he conceded 14 off an over, Ponting knew the fast men were his only option.

Cheers went around the ground as Tendulkar passed 1000 Test runs in a calendar year for the sixth time in his career, and it seemed that he was destined to deliver India to victory. But his desire to score quickly brought his undoing, when he tried to cut Bollinger over the cordon to the vacant third-man region.

The ball was too close to his body and he steered it to gully, where Michael Hussey grabbed the sharp chance. Tendulkar was gone, and the atmosphere cooled down slightly as the runs began to dry up. Then came the second big moment of joy for Australia, when the presence of a runner cost MS Dhoni his wicket.

Laxman drove Bollinger to mid-on and his runner Raina took off for what should have been a comfortable single. But Dhoni appeared confused by Laxman remaining in his ground and the hesitation was enough to give hope to the fielder Hilfenhaus, whose superb direct hit at the striker's end finished Dhoni's stay on 2.

When Bollinger's fast, well-directed bouncer had a fending Harbhajan Singh caught at slip two balls later, Australia were in control. Laxman and Ishant had other ideas, and the rest is history. The great shame is that this is only a two-match series.

Smart Stats

* This was India's first one-wicket victory in Tests and the 12th such result overall. India's two closest victories previously were by a margin of two wickets, both coming against Australia.
* This was the 17th occasion when India has won a Test after conceding a lead. In eight of these matches, they have batted second and on the other nine occasions, they have batted first. Nine of these victories have come against Australia.
* The 81-run partnership for the ninth wicket between VVS Laxman and Ishant Sharma was the second-highest against Australia, behind the 89-run stand between Harbhajan Singh and Irfan Pathan in 2004. It was also the second-highest ninth-wicket stand for India in the fourth innings of Tests.
* During that 81-run stand, Ishant played 71% of the total deliveries (92 out of 130).
* Laxman is one of the few batsmen who averages more in the second innings in Tests. He averages 45.67 in the first innings, but 50.47 with five centuries in the second innings.
* India have a win-loss ratio of 4.00 in Mohali, the best among all home venues that have hosted ten or more matches.
* Sachin Tendulkar became the only batsman to aggregate 1000 runs in a calendar year for the sixth time, surpassing Ricky Ponting, Brian Lara and Matthew Hayden, who have done so on five occasions each.

"The sheep are so thin this year," goes a joke among Eastern Cape farmers, "we can fax them to the abattoir." The jibe, like the farmers themselves, is a hardy perennial. It has to be. Without a robust sense of humour, nothing survives, much less prospers, in the Eastern Cape.

A province that bulges like a bicep along South Africa's wind-whipped south-eastern coast, beyond which lay the skeletons of so many stricken ships, is no place for the soft of heart, mind, body or soul.

Any team representing it faces critics as prosaic as they are stoic. So there will be no tears in the wake of the Warriors' implosion in the Champions League Twenty20 final at the Wanderers in Johannesburg. Besides, they'll tell each other unblinkingly down on the farm, this was no accident. On the night, the Chennai Super Kings were the better team by a margin rather greater than eight wickets. More like the 300 kilometres that separates Port Elizabeth from East London.

To Chennai, undeniably, goes the accolade of the best franchise Twenty20 team in the world. Whoever said this format of the game doesn't deliver worthy champions? Fact is, Chennai have spent the Champions League gliding to victory after victory as effortlessly as Fred and Ginger. Not for them the sweaty scramble of the close-run thing. They lost just once, to Victoria. That is if ending up on the wrong end of so dubious a yardstick as a one-over eliminator can rightfully be called losing.

Chennai's closest scrape with authentic defeat came at the hands of the same Warriors in their Port Elizabeth backyard. R Ashwin and Muttiah Muralitharan got them out of that jam, and they won by 10 runs.

The Wanderers pitch is an entirely different animal to the one that spends its lazy days stretched out in the sun at St George's Park. However, quality bowlers remain just that, whatever the surface, and Ashwin and Muralitharan were again key to Chennai's success on Sunday.

The sting of the match was drawn as early as the sixth over, when Davy Jacobs lurched into a reverse sweep off Ashwin, got it badly wrong, and was trapped smack in front having scored 32 of his 34 runs in furiously hit fours. Jacobs has carried the Warriors on his spare frame these past two weeks. He maintained a defiant, bristling presence, and was never shy to show the guts required to chase glory. But on Sunday, he needed to score twice as many runs as he did to give his men a fighting chance. That is unfair to him given that cricket is played by teams and not individuals, a point Jacobs has made himself when he has read between the lines of questions asking indirectly whether he is bigger than the side he leads.

In the Warriors' sumptuous win in their semi-final against the hitherto unbeaten South Australia Redbacks, that most certainly was not the case. Against Chennai just 24 hours later, it most certainly was. Ashwin, L Balaji and Muralitharan tied the Warriors down for 25 balls after Jacobs' dismissal. The 26th brought a dodgy boundary as Colin Ingram's thick edge off Muralitharan squirted to the ropes. But Murali laughed his wild laugh last, dismissing Mark Boucher and Justin Kreusch in the space of five deliveries to reduce the Warriors to 82 for five. Game, as they say in the comics, over.

Chennai's run chase was not unlike the last stage of the Tour de France, a ceremonial chore conducted on the Champs-Elysees during which no one challenges the man who has, in the eyes of his opponents, already won the race. So it was as Chennai whittled away at their small target, of which M Vijay and Michael Hussey scored all but 26 in a deeply blue-collar stand. Whoever said Twenty20 cricket couldn't be boring?

The fact that Jacobs tossed the new ball to Makhaya Ntini, who went for 22 runs in two bilious overs in the semi-final, seemed in itself an acceptance of an impending thrashing. You might say the Warriors went like lambs to the slaughter.

Not sure about familiarity, but success breeds contempt. Throughout this tournament the critics seemed to be waiting for Chennai to stumble so they could have the chance to turn around and say, "Look I told ya, these guys were plain lucky. Now they have been exposed". It's not so much an anti-team sentiment, but one against their captain MS Dhoni. Many admire his captaincy; some reckon he is pretty lucky.

Like most successful teams, Chennai did have their share of luck. They had just five days of preparation, but the itinerary allowed them to ease into the team with two facile wins against the two weaker teams in the competition.

In the third game Victoria almost choked but hung on to take the game to a super over where they thumped Chennai. The critics jumped in to savour that moment; 'Dhoni's luck ran out,' they said. 'He should have given Doug Bollinger that over, what a messy captaincy decision'. Some even speculated that Bollinger had stormed off to the dressing room at the end of that over and that he was not happy with the skipper. The retelling of that story had a malicious glee to it.

Dhoni, though, offered a perfectly understandable rationale to using Ashwin. "He is used to bowling in the Powerplay. He is an aggressive bowler, he has the variety and he is always ready to bowl whenever you throw the ball to him. He wants to perform; he has grown as a player over the last three IPLs."

Chennai's next game was against Warriors. There was more ammunition to the 'he is lucky' brigade. Warriors chose to play a game within a game; they needed 109 to qualify and didn't extend themselves too much to try to win the game. They seemed content chasing qualification. The critics said if Warriors had to win to qualify, they would have won the game and shoved Chennai out of the tournament. May be they would have. May be they wouldn't have. We will never know one way or the other. .

Luck certainly came their way in the next game in the semi-final against Bangalore. The pre-game talk had revolved around how Dale Steyn would harass the Chennai batsmen with his pace and bounce. He didn't bowl a single delivery as he hobbled off after suffering a concussion on the field. It was a freak event. With Steyn's exit, Bangalore had run out of gunpowder. Game over.

That evening Dhoni said Steyn could have made things tricky for his batsmen but that's not his concern. A reporter said the semi-final was boring. Dhoni's repartee, "So you think we should have run ourselves out?!" It was said with a smile.

Tonight, he was a happy man. He said his plan was to keep the spinners for the middle overs so that they could apply the squeeze, as some of Chennai's seamers weren't quick enough to use the semi-new ball effectively. It worked perfectly.

When asked for the nth time how he keeps his cool, he said, "There is a dressing room to show your emotions! As a captain, you are as good as your side. This is a very good bunch of people and as a captain you just want to channel all the energy into the same direction. The players put in great effort and frankly it feels very good to be the captain of Chennai Super Kings."

The win was extra-special too, as this will be the last time these particular players turn out for Chennai. "It was indeed a very emotional moment," Dhoni said. "It was the last game for many of us players as a team. However much you try, we can't retain all. These three years were great; we played good cricket. You develop a special bonding with each other. The dressing room atmosphere was great; not everybody could get a game but there was no ill feeling. Every one enjoyed each other's company. To end on a high feels really special."

It was a reverse sweep that changed the entire complexion of the game. Davy Jacobs had started off imperiously and catapulted Warriors to 45 in the sixth over. Then R Ashwin got one to turn quickly towards the leg stump, Jacobs went for the reverse sweep, but was trapped in front. It's a shot that he had successfully played in the previous game; the adventurous unorthodox spirit is his calling card, and he has reaped much success with that approach. But tonight it hurt his team. This can be a cruel game, sometimes.

After Jacobs fell, Muttiah Muralitharan suffocated the Warriors with his skill, and L Balaji maintained the pressure with a disciplined spell in the middle, keeping the Warriors to 128, which was never going to be enough. And it wasn't. This is the last time this group of players will turn out for Chennai, and they gave themselves a nice farewell present.

Warriors' Achilles heel is their lower order. Johan Botha bats at no 6; the batting isn't that deep. And so, the middle-order chose caution over valour and Chennai closed in. L Balaji, who grew in confidence with the Warriors' non-violent approach against him, slipped in a few quiet overs with his steady line and length stuff. Ashwin continued to tease them with his variations and Muttiah Muralitharan came on in the 10th over to harass them with his ability.

He kept his doosras to a minimum, and ripped offbreaks across at varying pace. Success came in the 14th over: Mark Boucher, who has fallen most to Muralitharan than any other bowler in his career, was bowled, and Justin Kreusch was beaten by the dip and flicked straight to midwicket.

There was a brief little moment in the 17th over when things stirred at the bull ring. "Fast cars and big shots, that's Craig Thyssen," Jacobs had said earlier in the week. Tonight Thyssen went after Balaji to pick up three boundaries - a pulled four, a delicate late steer and a muscled six over midwicket. The home supporters in the crowd started to find their voice: They chanted out "Let's go Warriors" and tried to inspire the local team but Thyssen's cameo was too late and too little to matter in the bigger scheme of things. In hindsight, Ashwell Prince's fall - he was bowled missing a slog against a full toss from Doug Bollinger- also proved critical as there was too much pressure on the middle-order.

The only chance for Warriors after that effort was take early wickets. They didn't. M Vijay and Michael Hussey shut them out of the contest with assured knocks. Both play spin well. Vijay used his feet to repeatedly drive inside out while Hussey, as ever, worked the angles. There was a brief moment at the end when Vijay and Suresh Raina fell in quick succession and you wondered, 'Hold on, do we have a twist here?' The equation jumped from a comfortable 26 from 31 deliveries to 13 from 12. However, Hussey and Dhoni calmly escorted Chennai home. A score of 128 wasn't enough to test Chennai. Jacobs' wicket was the key.

Half-way through the evening, Jacobs' blitz at the start already seemed a distant memory. As ever, he had moved around on his nimble feet and ripped shots with slaughterhouse finality. He smashed Doug Bollinger and Albie Morkel to all parts of the ground. There were his usual shuffle-and-smash shots, but there were also some skillful upper cuts and neat cover drives. Things looked so bright for Jacobs and his team in the sixth over but the lights went out very quickly.

MS Dhoni has made it to ESPNcricinfo's India all-time XI, beating record-holding wicketkeepers Syed Kirmani and Kiran More, by virtue of his superior batting. Dhoni was picked by seven members of the 11-person jury, which was unanimous in voting Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Vinoo Mankad into the XI.

The No. 5 spot divided the jury the most, and Vijay Hazare, who played only eight innings in that position (one of them in the Adelaide Test of 1948, where he made two centuries), was preferred over the likes of Gundappa Viswanath, MAK Pataudi, Dilip Vengsarkar, Mohinder Amarnath and VVS Laxman.

The opening positions are taken by Virender Sehwag (10 votes) and Gavaskar, a blend of attack and defence, while the presence of Rahul Dravid (nine votes) and Tendulkar at Nos. 3 and 4 makes India's the only batting line-up among the eight leading countries, for which ESPNcricinfo has picked all-time XIs, to have over 42,000 Test runs between the top four.

Only one bowler from India's legendary spin quartet of the 70s makes it to the XI. Offspinner Erapalli Prasanna, with 189 wickets in 49 Tests, joins Anil Kumble (nine votes), Javagal Srinath and Kapil to form the bowling line-up. Allrounder Mankad, who took 162 wickets at 32.32 with his slow left-armers, completes the spin-dominated attack.

India's XI is the only one to feature just two fast bowlers. Australia had fast-bowling allrounder Keith Miller to back Dennis Lillee and Glenn McGrath, and South Africa had Mike Procter to help Shaun Pollock and Allan Donald.

Among the notable omissions, who did not make it to the XIs of any of the jury members, were former captain Mohammad Azharuddin; Bishan Bedi, perhaps the most highly rated of the spin quartet; and wicketkeeper Farokh Engineer.

ESPNcricinfo readers were invited to vote on the shortlists and their XI matched the jury's in all but one: Laxman was the readers' choice for No. 5 instead of Hazare.

The jury included former Test players Sanjay Manjrekar and Arun Lal, former Mumbai player and coach Vasu Paranjape, sports journalists Pradeep Magazine, Ayaz Memon, R Mohan and Suresh Menon, cricket historian Ramachandra Guha and television commentator Harsha Bhogle.

Read more about the XI here.

The XI: Sunil Gavaskar, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Vijay Hazare, Vinoo Mankad, Kapil Dev, MS Dhoni, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Erapalli Prasanna.

Readers' XI: Sunil Gavaskar, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Vinoo Mankad, Kapil Dev, MS Dhoni, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Erapalli Prasanna.

Nominees

Openers: Sunil Gavaskar, Vijay Merchant, Virender Sehwag, Navjot Sidhu.

Middle order: Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Gundappa Viswanath, Vijay Hazare, MAK Pataudi, Mohinder Amarnath, Polly Umrigar, Sourav Ganguly, CK Nayudu, Mohammad Azharuddin, Dilip Vengsarkar.

Allrounders: Kapil Dev, Dattu Phadkar, Vinoo Mankad, Manoj Prabhakar.

Wicketkeepers: Naren Tamhane, Kiran More, Syed Kirmani, Nayan Mongia, MS Dhoni.

Fast bowlers: Javagal Srinath, Kapil Dev, Zaheer Khan, Mohammad Nissar, Amar Singh.

Spinners: Anil Kumble, Bishan Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, Subhash Gupte, Bhagwath Chandrasekhar, Harbhajan Singh, Dilip Doshi, S Venkataraghavan, Vinoo Mankad.

India's comfortable victory over Sri Lanka has been soured by a controversy over Suraj Randiv's massive no-ball, which proved to be the winning run and left Virender Sehwag stranded on 99, though the batsman slammed it over long-off for a six. Sehwag celebrated what would have been century No. 13, only to be told later the six didn't count. After the match, he said Randiv had bowled the no-ball deliberately, and that the move "has no place in good cricket".

"Yes, it was done deliberately," Sehwag said, shedding the blase attitude with which he had reacted to the incident immediately after the match. "Because [of the size of the no-ball] ... that much from the crease. Till now in Test matches he hasn't bowled a no-ball [Randiv bowled two at the P Sara Oval], he hasn't bowled no-balls in one-day cricket, on 99 only why did he bowl a no-ball? And not a small no-ball, not a small margin, from one foot ahead."

Sehwag had blasted 29 of India's 33 runs in four overs leading up to the 34th to move to 99, and the team was five short of the target. He has reached several of his famous hundreds with sixes, including the maiden triple-century by an Indian in Tests, and there was an air of anticipation in Dambulla as Randiv started the 34th over. The first ball slipped past the batsman outside off and beat Sangakkara as well for four byes to bring the scores level. The next two deliveries were carved straight to the point fielder, before Randiv overstepped by about a foot to end the match; Sehwag's six off the no ball was futile.

"They [Sri Lanka] have done it because no team wants anybody to score hundreds against them," Sehwag said, "but they did that, they are happy and we are happy, we won the game, we got the bonus point."

When asked whether he felt Randiv had instructions from senior team members to bowl the no-ball, Sehwag said this was the second time Sri Lanka had ended a match by giving away extras to deny an Indian batsman a century. Sachin Tendulkar had finished unbeaten on 96 in a one-dayer against Sri Lanka in Cuttack last year after the match ended with Lasith Malinga bowling a wide down the leg side which went to the fine-leg boundary.

"I'm not the captain of the opposing team, so I can't say, but something must have been said by either the captain or the senior team members," Sehwag said. "It has happened before, when Sachin Tendulkar was left on 99 not out [actually 96] in Cuttack, they bowled four wides down the leg side This is not the first time Sri Lanka has done this, they may have done it with other teams but with India it is the second time."

Kumar Sangakkara denied playing any role in the incident. "I hope it was not deliberate," he said. "That's not the way I would like to play cricket. If that was intentional, and I have to find out about that, it has got no place on the field of cricket. I will also have to see if there was any talk about it on the field prior to that delivery."

Sangakkara also defended Randiv, saying the offspinner was not the sort of person to bowl a deliberate no-ball. "Knowing Suraj, he is a really nice guy. I have no doubt that it was not intentional. Maybe he was trying to bowl the doosra, and maybe get some bounce off it. But if there has been some talk about it on the field before the start of that delivery by other players, or maybe a bit of coaxing, I will have to address that very, very strongly in the dressing room."

Sehwag said he was not aware of the rule that stipulated the match was over once the no-ball was bowled, though it counts as a delivery faced. Sangakkara also appeared bemused by the rule, saying it had robbed Sehwag of a century. "I think if a batsman scores the runs, he scores the runs, whether it is a no-ball or not. I think if he scores runs off it, it should count for the batsman. The way Viru batted, he deserved to get a hundred."

India's bowlers and Virender Sehwag led the recovery from a dispiriting defeat against New Zealand, helping their team overpower Sri Lanka and secure a bonus point to leave each of the three sides with a win at the end of the first round of matches. MS Dhoni's luckless run at the toss continued, but Kumar Sangakkara's decision to bat gave India first use of favourable conditions on a breezy, overcast Dambulla day and their bowlers cashed in. Sehwag then followed up with a steady innings that released the pressure created by early wickets and steered India to what was, in the end, a comfortable win.

The ease with which India completed their win was in contrast to the struggle at the start of the innings, when batsmen found it difficult to negotiate the swing and movement their own seamers had troubled the hosts with. Dinesh Karthik's edginess at the crease gradually developed into visible frustration and the one delivery he could have dispatched with ease, he slashed straight to third man. India's two competitors for a middle-order slot, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, followed in successive overs and it appeared the Sri Lankan seamers had set up a low-scoring thriller.

The wickets falling at the other end prompted Sehwag to restrain himself, except against a couple of free-hits. He reserved punishment for deliveries that were over pitched or wide. Those were a rarity, though, and it was not until the sixth over that he cracked Kulasekara for his first boundary. There was greater reliance on timing and using the pace of the seamers than on raw power: Sehwag's boundaries down the ground were firm pushes and not flowing drives, and the areas through point and midwicket were pierced with consistency by his favoured cuts and stylish whips.

Sehwag's recovery effort was supported by Suresh Raina in a half-century stand that infused the innings with fluency. Raina nudged the ball around, and gave the more assured Sehwag a fair share of the strike, before a rush of blood drove him to pull straight to deep square leg with the score on 91.

A flurry of boundaries from Sehwag's blade, however, crushed any Sri Lankan hopes. Again, it was the loose deliveries that were punished and the momentum had swung India's way. Suraj Randiv dropped short and was slashed for successive fours, and Mathews doled out long hops, one of which was smashed over the ropes. India were coasting towards victory and Sehwag towards his century, but the end was not without drama. With Sehwag on 99 and India requiring a run for a win, Randiv overstepped by a massive margin, depriving Sehwag of a century even though he was thumped over the long-off boundary.

The ending was as dramatic as the start of the game, when Praveen Kumar castled Upul Tharanga with an outswinger off the first ball of the day. The challenge was thrown at Sri Lanka under cloudy skies and the batsmen struggled against the swing and deviation off the pitch. Mahela Jayawardene showed glimpses of his solidity during his brief stay but was trapped in front by a Praveen delivery that moved back in late. Extra pace accounted for Sangakkara, who top-edged a pull to be caught in the deep. The assurance that featured prominently in his knocks during the Test series was absent during Samaraweera's stay; the seamers had him hopping around until he almost contrived to spoon a short-of-a-length delivery to short midwicket.

Tillakaratne Dilshan was not comfortable at the crease, but countered the swing better than the rest, whipping Praveen's inswingers through square leg and then latching on anything short, scoring three boundaries off the pull. He settled in and was at greater ease once the left-arm spin of Pragyan Ojha was introduced, making room to cut from the stumps and maintain a steady flow of runs with Angelo Mathews. But Dilshan succumbed to temptation when the ball was tossed up, and top-edged a slog-sweep to scupper a recovery he had initiated.

Ravindra Jadeja bowled a nagging line and had Sri Lanka in further trouble, dismissing Mathews and Chamara Kapugedera with straighter ones. Though the tail, led by Randiv, resisted, it proved inadequate in the wake of Sehwag's response.

They didn't scream madly as they do nowadays after winning a cricket match. They didn't run on to the field. They just walked out one by one, not a hint of surprise on their faces.

MS Dhoni walked out first, padded up and probably relieved he didn't have to bat. Then came the man who has perhaps enjoyed VVS Laxman's batting more than anyone else. Rahul Dravid couldn't stop smiling. He clapped all the way as he walked towards the middle where Laxman first shook hands with the umpire Simon Taufel and then walked towards Virender Sehwag, his runner, and Suresh Raina, his batting partner, both of whom hugged him. Then came Sachin Tendulkar, thankful that the job that he had started was finished. The slightest hint of incredulity came in the form of a mock-bow from M Vijay.

Laxman just smiled and thanked everyone, suggesting, as usual, that it was no big deal. That, though, is the effect his batting has on his team-mates. "Nothing calms you like Laxman," wrote Dravid when Laxman brought up a century of Test caps.

It was, in fact, a very big deal. While listening to Kishore Kumar in the dressing room, nursing the back spasms he had developed while fielding on the fourth day, he saw the nightwatchman Ishant Sharma get out, reducing India to 62 for 4, chasing 257 on a testing fifth-day pitch. Laxman knew he hadn't scored a century in Sri Lanka, or scored more than 74 in the fourth innings of a Test match. He knew of India's miserable record batting fourth. This before going out for perhaps his last innings in the country.

Soon, he saw Tendulkar play a nervous defensive shot to the on side, with four men ready to pounce on it. Tillakaratne Dilshan dropped one of the easier offerings any forward short leg could expect. Both the batsmen then took charge.

Suraj Randiv was bowling the spell of his life. From round the stumps he got sharp bounce and turn. Leg gully, forward short leg, and short midwicket waited. If you went over them, there were three other fielders on the on-side boundary. Randiv was accurate, landing everything on an imaginary penny on the pitch. He gave almost nothing to cut, or wide enough to drive through the off side. The plan was laid, the cover field was vacant. Laxman still kept flicking him through the on side. It was fascinating to watch, especially after Ishant had just flicked one straight to short midwicket.

All through his troublesome previous tour in 2008, Laxman kept doing the same to Ajantha Mendis, who was having the series of his life. Laxman didn't seem to pick the variations, but kept flicking, ending up with a better average than any of the middle-order batsmen. Still he kept finding ways to get out to Mendis, as he did it in the first innings here, making it seven dismissals to the bowler.

Laxman, though, trusted his wrists and kept playing the shot against Randiv, teasing the fielders, keeping it along the ground. When he hit uppishly, he missed the fielders. Despite that troublesome back, he still managed to bisect forward short leg and leg gully with the sweep. And he didn't abort the pull shot that consumed him in Galle.

A few scores were settled too. Off Mendis on a fifth-day pitch, he scored 39 runs off 44 balls. He might not still have read Mendis from the hand all the time, but any hint of a loose ball was punished. "I don't think I was struggling against him," he said of facing Mendis. "In all the innings I got out to him in different manner. It was not that I was getting out in the same fashion and [that he was] exposing my weak link. I didn't do anything different, I just played my natural game and to the merit of the ball."

Lasith Malinga, who had made Laxman look ungainly in Galle, went for 18 off 21. Two of Malinga's bouncers were pulled imperiously between fine leg and deep square leg, that too with a bad back.

As India started getting closer, the grit started giving way to grace. From jaw-clenching, the innings went to jaw-dropping. The wristy drive through extra cover, the flicks through the on side, and the leg glance took him closer to the hundred. In between, the odd ball jumped and there was the odd hiccup, like Tendulkar's departure immediately after he took a break to get treatment on his back.

"If you see, Sachin got out once I took the runner," Laxman said, as if blaming himself. "But I was in such pain that I thought the best decision in team's interest was to have a runner, instead of just giving away the wicket due to pain. Luckily, the partnership with Suresh Raina developed."

Laxman has his routines, like his shots, that he adamantly follows. At the end of every over, he taps his bat on the crease about a dozen times. Even when he had the runner, and finished the over at square leg, he would walk to the other crease and tap the bat in gently, holding it from the top of the handle. He did that 47 times today. Each time the bowler would start the over knowing his best chance of picking up a wicket was through the other batsman. And throughout those 47 overs, the dressing room knew the chase was in safe hands.

VVS Laxman has spent almost all his career as the most disposable member of the team. He has one bad Test, and the knives come out. Fans and critics alike find Laxman's the easiest place to question. Thankfully, his team-mates and the selectors know his worth. Easily India's best batsman on bad or testing pitches, he rescued India once again, following his fifty in the first innings with a match-winning, series-levelling, flawless century on a tense final day.

"I have had it [people questioning my place in the side] since the start of the career," Laxman said, laughing. "I have started dealing with them much better. But what matters really is how the team feels about you. And there is no doubt that the team members feel how important my contribution to the team is. I really don't think [about] what the people are thinking outside the dressing room.

"Initially it was tough to play with that insecurity feeling. Sometimes I imagined that if [I had been] given a free hand, I would have probably got much more runs. But after the first four-five years of international cricket I started dealing with it much better and now these things don't really bother me. I have played more that 100 Test matches, which very few in India do."

Laxman has rescued India before, in more challenging conditions too, but he rated this as an important knock. "This innings stands out because of the situation we were in not only in this Test but also in the series," he said. "The way we came back and won the Test. The partnership between me and Sachin [Tendulkar] changed the momentum of the game. Very satisfying feeling. More importantly feels good for the team because we really worked hard during the entire tour."

Laxman had not only two good spinners and Lasith Malinga to contend with, but also the pain that the back spasms that he developed while fielding during the fourth day brought him. He got treatment on the field, took painkillers, but the medicines have limitations. They don't kick in immediately. He just had to forget about that pain.

"It was painful," Laxman admitted. "I stared my innings well, but during the partnership I had a lot of discomfort and the spasms didn't allow me to move freely. Once I was into my 30s it became very painful.

"It was difficult [the decision to ask for a runner]. You don't want to create confusion and also not break the rhythm. If you see, Sachin got out once I took the runner. But I was in such pain that I thought that the best decision in team's interest was to have a runner instead of just giving away the wicket due to pain."

It was an extra sweet feeling because at the same venue two years ago, Laxman fought pain from an injured ankle, scored a valiant 61 not out with the tail, but it proved to be agonisingly inadequate in the third innings of that match. He spoke more about playing in pain in this match.

"During the game I took a couple of painkillers," Laxman said. "Nitin [Patel, team physio] came and gave me a quick treatment. But I don't know how much the pills helped as it takes 30-40 minutes before the painkillers start to show their effects. But the situation and the importance of the game, sometimes supersedes your pain. Sometimes you just focus on the process and goal in hand and it takes you over the pain barrier."

Sachin Tendulkar on Laxman

* "Laxman played well in both innings. The context becomes even more important since it was the decisive Test. Even if it was a draw, we would have lost the series but the manner in which he helped us level the series, it was phenomenal. The kind of innings he played in both knocks was remarkable. I have seen Laxman bat for many years and I have seen plenty of such knocks. He has scored on difficult tracks and helped India win. Just like the spectators enjoy it, I also enjoy his batting."

MS Dhoni was full of praise for VVS Laxman, calling him "very, very special", after the latter's sublime century helped India win the third Test and level the three-match series against Sri Lanka.

Laxman finished with an unbeaten 103 and got enough support from Sachin Tendulkar (54) and Suresh Raina (41 not out), to propel India to a five wicket win over Sri Lanka.

"He (Laxman) proved today why he is called very, very special," Dhoni said. "He always comes up with innings that have a huge bearing on the game. It was very important for him to score runs as the team needed it most to level the series. I think it is a very special innings. Hopefully, he plays plenty more innings like this for us.

"I think the way he batted he paced his innings really well. He was struggling a bit with back spasm but still he wanted to go on without a runner. But after lunch there was a time when he had to go for a runner. I think there was pain and there was pressure at the same time," he said.

Dhoni also singled out the contributions from Tendulkar and Raina, who smashed Chanaka Weledegadara for six over long-on to bring up the victory.

"I think Sachin too batted really well and after he got out, Raina came in and supported Laxman. Raina batted well. In the initial few balls he played a few big shots but after that he calmed himself down and batted sensibly."

According to Dhoni, coming back to draw the series meant both the batsmen and the bowlers had done their jobs. "If we had lost this series it would have been because of our batting line up not performing really well,' he said. "If it was a draw series which meant that both the batsmen and the bowlers did decently."

He added that the bowlers couldn't really be blamed for not taking wickets as there wasn't much help from the pitches, especially for the fast bowlers.

"I think in the first Test the batsmen could have done much better. I cannot really complain about the bowlers because in all the three Test matches we bowled first on a fresh track where there was not much help for the fast bowlers initially or the spinners. But this was one track where there was a bit of help for the spinners right from the very first day," he said.

Suraj Randiv was the only Sri Lanka bowler to threaten India on the last day, and finished with figures of nine for 162 in just his second Test. But Dhoni said India had enough experience to handle the problems Randiv posed.

"Randiv bowled really well. But we have got a batting line up where most of the players have played over 100 Tests. Or some are very close to playing 100 Tests. So, they are experienced enough to make their own plans."

Dhoni said India's strategy on the last day was to see out the initial overs, after which the ball got soft, making batting a whole lot easier.

"The first few overs were very important because the ball was quite hard which meant the spinners got a bit of bounce and turn. We just wanted to go through the initial overs and play our shots when the ball gets soft."

Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara has admitted that poor batting on the fourth day cost his team the third and final Test against India at the P Sara Oval.

"On the fourth morning I thought in the first session if we had just tried to bat till lunch the ball would have got softer and we could have scored a lot more runs. But unfortunately, we played some poor strokes," Sangakkara said. "We were a bit too tentative at times and the batting in the second innings by the seven batsmen, except for Thilan (Samaraweera) was probably the main cause for us getting only 267. Otherwise we could have batted out the day and put the heavy roller on today and declared.

"We had a couple of chances today with Sachin (Tendulkar) and Suresh Raina. That would have made the match a lot more interesting. But the way they batted was excellent. They played positively and kept scoring runs. Unfortunately, apart from Suraj (Randiv) and Lasith (Malinga) we weren't able to exert pressure from the other end, either to take wickets or cut down the runs."

Sangakkara stated he would have liked to have got close to 300 but added that, "given the situation we were in, it was a great effort by Ajantha (Mendis) and Thilan to get us to 267. Again you know a few chances went begging, which would have allowed us to get another 50 runs lead in the first innings.

"Unfortunately, it's been like that in the last two Tests. A few chances here and there and they ended up crucial."

Sangakkara pointed out the dropped catch by Tillakaratne Dilshan off Sachin Tendulkar as one of those key chances.

"It would have been nice to get Sachin out with something like 110 runs to play with, 120 runs at that time. Those things happen in cricket, no one wants to miss a catch at this level when you are playing with so much at stake. The chances we put down in this Test and the last one, proved to be crucial and costly. We have to make sure it doesn't happen again," he said.

As far the bowlers were concerned, he praised the bowling effort of Randiv who took five wickets in the Indian second innings and nine in the match.

"Suraj's greatest asset has been his confidence and self belief. He's got great bounce and he will have to improve on his control a bit more to ensure he keeps building the pressure with dot balls and wicket-taking balls. Once he gets that done, I think he will be even better than what we see him now as."

Sangakkara denied that the defeat had given India a moral victory. "Not really, one all is one all. It's neither here nor there. I thought right throughout the Test we took more wickets and scored more runs. We created a lot more opportunities as well. But converting those opportunities in these two Tests wasn't there. It was the only window India had to come back into this series."

ndia emerged victorious to level the series on a gripping final day at the P Sara Oval. VVS Laxman battled the pressure as well as an injured back in a tense chase and, with support from Sachin Tendulkar and Suresh Raina, countered the probing Suraj Randiv to reach his 16th century and seal a memorable win - India's fourth-highest successful chase in Tests.

India needed a recovery each time Laxman stepped out to bat this series, and he delivered once again: his most valuable innings coming in a situation that was the most challenging. The nerves of a tough chase were more evident in his partners, who offered chances and survived moments of edginess, as opposed to Laxman, whose solidity guided India home.

Laxman seemed to have more time than the rest to play his shots, and he picked gaps in the spread-out fields with comfort during a constant search for singles and twos. The wrist worked its charm early in his innings with a couple of delightful drives off Ajantha Mendis on either side of the pitch, and he latched on anything short, pulling Lasith Malinga for two boundaries behind square. Randiv's extra bounce was neutralised with a quick adaptation to varying lengths and the use of soft hands. Mendis' googlies were read early, and Malinga's slightly wayward line was dominated with flicks, glances and pulls, along with a safe negotiation of his intermittent yorkers.

Laxman suffered back spasms shortly before he lost Tendulkar, and relied on Virender Sehwag as runner. As India approached the target, Laxman moved towards his century with sublime timing, easing the spinners through covers, and brought up the landmark with a tickle to fine leg.

Randiv was the most threatening of Sri Lanka's bowlers and assumed the role of lead spinner in just his second Test. He delivered the ball quick from a high angle and was potent on a track generating bounce. Randiv's three wickets on the fourth day had put Sri Lanka ahead and they would have been on top had an initially patchy Tendulkar not been dropped at forward short leg. He attacked from round the wicket, targeted the rough and got the ball to spit from a middle-and-off line. India's approach throughout the day had been positive and Tendulkar's hunt for runs, though reflecting his determination to keep India on track, kept Randiv interested. Tendulkar closed the face often, used the paddle, made room to cut Randiv from the stumps and even stepped out of his crease. He inside-edged Randiv to one that spun in but Tillakaratne Dilshan failed to hold on to a straightforward chance, a moment Tendulkar shrugged off with a lovely off-drive next ball.

The feature of the Tendulkar-Laxman partnership was the ease with which they took singles, 48 of them in a 109-run stand. The fielders at mid-on and mid-off were placed deep enough for the batsmen to steal a run, and Kumar Sangakkara also had a deep point, who was kept busy. The steady flow of fours tempered Sri Lanka's plan of attack, and the vacant areas were exploited through a series of nudges, cuts and dabs. One such attempt, however, brought about Tendulkar's downfall as he gloved a sweep to the wicketkeeper to give Randiv his maiden five-for. But a counter-attack by Raina in a stand that dealt mainly in boundaries crushed Sri Lanka's hopes.

Raina's previous two Test innings had an assuredness unusual for a debutant but he batted more like one at the start of his knock today. Raina tried to attack from the outset, an approach that could have triggered another twist to a topsy-turvy Test. He edged a wide delivery from Malinga that scraped the hands of slip and charged down the track the next ball to swing and miss. Those lapses prompted more caution and he opted for aggression only when the field came in. Raina launched the spinners twice over mid-on, smashed Mendis down the ground and ended the game before the tea break by dispatching Chanaka Welegedara into the stands at midwicket.

Laxman's performances in both innings were crucial but the game was set up in two decisive phases by Sehwag. His blistering century set a tempo to the Indian first innings that enabled them to scale down a formidable Sri Lankan total in quick time. And his dismissals of the Sri Lankan openers, Dilshan and Tharanga Paranavitana, on the third day deprived the hosts of the strong start they needed to post an intimidating target. All this on a competitive pitch, which gave India's bowlers enough assistance to grab 20 wickets despite the absence of their most experienced bowler and the unavailability of a first-choice seam attack.

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Sachin Tendulkar deserves a World Cup victory under his belt but to realise this dream the batting icon needs players like Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni to fire in 2011 home event, says former Kiwi fast bowler Danny Morrison.

"Sachin Tendulkar, the master, deserves to have some sort of winners' medal hanging round his neck but it's not all about him. Cricket is a tough game and it's also about whether Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni can deliver for India. Can they do it for Sachin?," Morrison said at an ICC audio-cricket show.

The cricketer-turned-commentator also feels that India will be strong contenders to lift the World Cup.

"I think India has the best opportunity to lift the World Cup this time round. It has to be good for them playing on home turf. It adds pressure but that's part of hosting.

"You feel that India want something special to happen and this year I think you've got to go with the India team to emulate the 1983 side led by Kapil Dev," said Morrison, who claimed 126 ODI wickets and 160 in Tests.

India will co-host the 2011 edition along with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in February-March.

Ricky Pointing expects his reign as Australian captain to end if he is not holding the Ashes at the SCG in January. Ponting was in charge during the 2005 and 2009 defeats in England, and led his side to a 5-0 whitewash at home three years ago.

Despite being one of the game's all-time greats with the bat, Ponting knows his future depends on the result of the 2010-11 series. "I'd probably be looking for a new job if we lose again," Ponting told the Daily Mail. "It's as simple as that. I've got the biggest eight months of my career coming up."

Australia face Pakistan and India in two-Test series before the Ashes begin at the Gabba in November and the series is followed by the World Cup. "It doesn't get any bigger than that and everything I do between now and April will be geared at getting the most out of myself and, most importantly, the group," he said. "If I'm able to do that I think there are some pretty special things on the horizon for this team."

While the Ashes series is likely to determine what Ponting does next, he said he was not weighed down by the significance of the contest. "I haven't thought about any added pressure on me," he said. "I'm just thinking about being the best player I can be and having a significant impact on the Ashes series as a batsman and as a leader. That's all I can control. I know what it takes to be a good player in a big series and I know what it will take for the rest of the guys."

England have beaten Australia in their most important encounters over the past year. The run began with their Ashes victory at The Oval and continued with a win in the World Twenty20 final and the current one-day series success.

Ponting said England deserved the latest triumph but does not think they have earned bragging rights in all forms of the game. "We're still ranked the best side in one-day cricket and No. 2 in Test cricket," Ponting said. "Until England get their heads above us in all of the tables then superiority will be with us."

Support for John Howard's appointment to the vice-presidency of the ICC fell away "significantly" in the last week with at least a couple of the boards, which eventually opposed the move, changing their stance in that time. What brought about the change, however, is not yet clear.

Howard's appointment was rejected on Wednesday by six of the ICC's ten Full Members, thought to consist of the subcontinent boards of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as well as South Africa and the West Indies. Zimbabwe is said to have provided the most vocal opposition privately and led the movement and, though they didn't sign the letter that brought matters to such a head, they are believed to have played a prominent part in the decision.

At least two boards are said to have given assurances to David Morgan, the outgoing ICC president in the last week, that they would support Howard only to change their minds eventually. "There had been a significant shift downwards in the level of support - that is a shift of support away from John Howard in the last week," Morgan told Cricinfo, though he didn't identify where the support fell away, or why it did.

Ehsan Mani, the former ICC head who remains close to senior figures within the ICC, said the PCB and BCB - who had said they would seek government advice over the issue - had assured Morgan recently of their support, but backed down. "Both Bangladesh and Pakistan had assured David Morgan recently that they would support John Howard and I find it strange that they eventually opposed the move," Mani told Cricinfo. "Were their arms twisted over the course of the last week? What made them change their stance?"

None of the opposing members or the ICC has spoken publicly about the objections and under ICC rules they are not required to. Sri Lanka's concern arose from Howard being a figure from outside cricket's administrative fraternity. Others such as Zimbabwe and South Africa are believed to have based their disapproval on Howard's past political leanings, particularly with the government of the former.

The anger within the Australia and New Zealand boards, however, stems from not being given any concrete objections privately either. "There's been no clear indication of what objections there were and that is disappointing in many ways to Australia and New Zealand," said Morgan, who stepped down from his post on Thursday.

"They went through a rigorous process to choose between two excellent candidates and I am disappointed that I was unable to push that nomination through. The new president [Sharad Pawar] and I had supported the nomination [the ICC press release of the time had expressed support to the process rather than the nomination] but unfortunately I was unable to see it through," Morgan said.

The issue doesn't show signs of being resolved any time soon. CA, it is understood, will continue backing Howard, though the ICC again urged the two boards to reconsider their nomination by August 31. Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, refused to be drawn into speculating what would happen if Howard's name was put up again. "I think that's speculative and we must wait for August 31 and see what comes forward," he said at a press conference in Singapore.

Morgan believes one casualty of this conflict may be the system of putting forward a candidate for the post, which has already been through a number of guises since the mid 1990s. Currently nominations are put forward by a pair of regionally-aligned countries on a rotational basis: Howard was Australia and New Zealand's choice. Pakistan and Bangladesh are next in line to put forward a nomination; one candidate will emerge from India and Sri Lanka; England and West Indies, and South Africa and Zimbabwe are the remaining regional pairings. In the past more general systems have been used, as well as variants of a regional policy.

"The rotational system was used for the first time this time," Morgan said. "There is a commitment to retain it but I have my doubts that it will stand."

There are broader concerns from yesterday's development, in particular the apparent realigning of loyalties along lines that were thought to have mattered less in the last decade, those of race. The power of the Asian bloc was said to have weakened as the BCCI and CA drew closer in recent years to benefit from a profitable and exciting rivalry.

But CA chairman Jack Clarke said yesterday that his board would be "cautious" in their dealings with the BCCI in future. "I think the lessons to be learnt for CA would be big ones after this incident," Mani said. "Australia threw all their eggs into one basket over the last few years and it's come back to bite them because they lost support from other boards while pursuing the BCCI.

"But I think it is important for cricket to do some serious soul-searching and for the administration to draw a line somewhere about how one board can effectively have so much strength to be able to run the entire game. There needs to be a counter-balance."