India vs Australia, 1st Test at Mohali, , Oct 01 2010 - Ball by Ball Commentary

"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. .."

That was from the bulletin by Brydon Coverdale. To read more do click here.

Don't forget to breath now! The dressing room erupted. And it emptied soon after. Laxman has been mobbed by his team-mates. And as a colleague reminds me, if ten Indians were taken out, Australia would have won! Er .. true but whatever happened to poetic license and all that.

Nearly throughout his stay, Laxman had drained out all emotion from his face. Even when Dhoni was rushing towards him in vain to get across for the single, laxman was motionless. When Dhoni ran past him after getting out, Laxman just turned and looked into a distance and at nothing in particular. It was a nice little moment. You could feel that he was in a zone. You could sense his focus. You could see his state of mind. Only when Ojha made that error of running so close to the landmark, Lax lost his cool. He quickly composed himself, spoke to Ojha, patted him on the back and settled the nerves. At the end of it all, he turned towards the dressing room and held his arms aloft. Then he turned and enveloped Ojha and Raina with a big hug. All the three were screaming their heads off. In the background, Kirsten reached out to high-five Ishant before hugging him.

Presentation ceremony to begin.

Ricky Ponting: "It was one of the exciting test matches I have played. 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 out the scorecard out of the mind. The partnership between Ishant an Laxman was great and it made the difference I guess. Bollinger's injury probably didnt help us there; we needed a fresh bowler to give it a shake but that's the game."

Dhoni: It was one of the best. This game was full of emotions. We lost Ishant in the first innings; the way we bowled in the second and third session was remarkable and that got us back. We could have got the first-inings lead but we didn't. The bowlers again did well to bowl them out in teh second innings. Our batting collapsed but Laxman and Ishant . . Laxman is a remarkable batsman, whatever a field you set, he can keep scoring. He did a very good job for us. For me it was a very special (innings). We just wanted teh dressing room to be calm and cool. Ishant played loads of deliveries and in between got boundaries as well. It worked out well for us. Frankly speaking, when the game started no one expected we will have a result in 4 and half days. The bowlers from both sides have done well to get a result in this game."

Man of the match is Zaheer Khan: "Winning is very important; it was a great game of cricket. Both teams fought hard and we did just enough to end up on the winning side. I was just waiting for the ball to reverse; that's what MS was also waiting. And it did. It worked for me. 250 wicets .. tis been hard work. I am happy that the hard work that I have put in on my fitness over the last 6 weeks has paid off. Everyone were nervous in the dressing room; we tried to remain calm and hoped that the two batters would gets us through."

Hopefully they will speak to Laxman in a short while. I will wait and see if they do. So do wait.

Nope no luck. So, that's it from us. See you for the next Test. On behalf of our scorer Sanjay, this is Sriram Veera signing off. Good bye and good luck.

All the three batsmen meet for a chat. Laxman puts his hand over Ojha';s shoulder and talks to him for a long time. he then pats him on the back

Replays show that that ball would have comfortably missed the leg stump! oh well..