India won the second test match and squared the series, it was not about the test match win or squaring the series that mattered to Team India and the Indian Cricket fans but it was about India getting dislodged from the Number 1 spot in the ICC Rankings. India always have been bad starters in a test series and to India's disadvantage India never played a long test series like the Australian-English Ashes series(5 match test series)that could be one of the issues winning a test series outside India.(I know guys would argue there are practice matches but the practice matches are used to select the team's strength and not many players take those matches seriously).Team's mindset has changed from Ganguly's Captaincy and they have taken winning outside the country as a challenge and that's when the chase for the number one ranking started. Dhoni might get a chance to win the Test Team of the year award but the ground work has been done long time back.
Coming back to Second Test Match, the Indian team looked more desperate for the win than their counterparts. India won the test match but still not sure why there were so many changes for the second test but there was only one change in the playing eleven(VVS in palce of Saha). I thought Murali Vijay, Ishant sharma and Amit Mishra should have been replaced by Dinesh Karthik, Sreesanth and Ojha respectively but Dhoni thought otherwise.
Analysis of the match:
Day 1: Peterson and Amla scored tons and SA were cruising @ 218/1 but the last session changed things for India and they were reduced to 266/9 at the end of day.
Day 2: Tailenders added 30 more runs for SA and India's openers added 78 and Sehwag blasted quick 165, Sachin scored one more ton and India ended the day @342/5.
Day 3:VVS scored a patient century and Dhoni gave him good support and India declared late and they could only bowl 5 deliveries before bad light stopped play.
Day 4:Rain and wet outfield forced the teams out for most of the day and only 35 overs were bowled and SA were 135/3 at the end of the day. Amit Mishra got the most important wicket of Kallis before close of play.
Day 5:India needed seven more wickets to win and SA needed to score more runs or occupt the crease to force a draw. Zaheer couldn't bowl which meant India were one bowler short and Dhoni had only three regular bowlers to get the remaining seven wickets. I wanted to witness Team India's Victory but for the first one n half hr session, I didn't see any wicket falling that forced me to bed but I wanted to see the last few overs,so I got up early to watch the match. There was lot of drama towards the end, Indians were getting more and more desperate for the win, Amla was rock Solid reached one more century in the series and almost forced a draw but Harbhajan's 5 wicket haul, two wickets from Ishant and good support from Amit Mishra sealed an Innings victory for India and more importantly they held on to their top spot in the ICC Rankings.
Man of the Match and the Series: Hashim Amla for the number of runs he scored and the amount of time he spent @ the crease.
Player's performance analysis has been done by the cricinfo staff and they were accurate.
India Win Thriller despite Amla's Heroics
Cheers
Vishal
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