India lifts the Indianoil Cup

Pakistan narrowly escaped from the facing defeat in the third and final test match of Indian oil Cup here at Bangalore. Indians earlier had set 374 as target for the Pakistan with half centuries from Dinesh Karthick and Sourav Ganguly. Ganguly today surpassed the thousand run mark for this calendar year for the first time in his career. Ganguly was out for 91 off Mohammed Sami. Later Dinesh Karthick came in. This was the last chance for him to prove himself as a worth-while batsmen. He played a ferocious knock of 52 off just 66 balls. He smashed Kaneria and many other bowlers all over the park before getting out to Yasir Arafat for 52. Kumble declared immediately after Karthick's dismissal. The score was at 284 for 6.
Pakistanis looked to play for the draw but ended up trying to save the game from an outright defeat. The homeground helped Kumble a lot. He dismissed Hameed for 39 runs for the fifth time in this series. Yonous Khan who replaced Hameed fell cheaply for a duck. He played a quicker one straight back to Kumble, looking for turn which was not there. Paksitan didn't have much trouble at that time. Salman Butt battled out time. But a brilliant catch by dinesh Karthick of a Kumble's delivery sent him back to the pavillion. Faisal Iqbal and Misbah ul-Haq scored the runs quickly. But Faisal was dismissed by Kumble after making a well crafted 51 runs. Kamran Akmal followed him to the pavillion in the very next ball. Kumble completing his five wicket haul. Yuvaraj Singh did something with the ball that casteled Misbah's stumps. The next over of Yuvi saw the dismissal of Arafat. Pakistan was reeling at 162 for 7. Bad light stopped play and after that light never recovered for the play to start. Finally the umpires called off the play and the match was declared as drawn and Indians were awarded the Indianoil Cup.
Sourav Ganguly was awarded the man of the match and man of the series awards for his contribution with both bat and ball. Indian squad for the Australian tour to be announced later today.

Kolkata test ends in a draw

The second test match between India and Pakistan in Kolkata ended in a draw and the Indians are still 1-0 ahead of the Pakistanis. The second innings of both teams were dramatic. Indian batsmen went for some quick runs and lost the wickets of Dinesh Karthick and Wasim Jaffer early. But Sourav Ganguly and Dhoni steadied the ship for India. They scored at a steady pace before Shoni was castled by Shoaib Akthar's delivery. Then Dada went on to score 46 and when he got out, captain Anil Kumble declared the Indian innings at 184 for 4 with an overall lead of 343. Pakistan needed 344 to level the series. But the Indians drew first blood when Yasir Hameed hit straight back to Zaheer khan. He was quickly followed by Kamran Akmal, Salmann Butt and Misbah. At one stage Pakistanis were reeling at 78 for 4. Then came the captain Younus Khan. He played a brilliant innings and remained unbeaten till the end. On the other end Mohammed Yousouf played second fiddle. Both of them ensured that no more wickets were lost and drew the match comfortably. The third and final test will be played in Bangalore, home town of captain Kumble and Rahul Dravid. Let us hope for a 2-0 win