VVS weaves his magic again ! There's no other word to describe the way he constructed his innings, marshalled the strike and generally held the lower order together.
I've never seen him so animated at the middle - yelling at Pragyan Ojha for not taking a single that was there for the taking, gesturing towards his runner to convert ones into twos and twos into threes etc. To me, it showed how much he valued an Indian win, coming as it would against the Aussies. That he reserves his best against the Australians is part of folklore now. But even by his high standards, this innings stood out. He was on painkillers and using a runner. The fifth day Mohali pitch was crumbling and the Aussie quicks were breathing fire. Save for Ishant Sharma, wickets were falling all around him but VVS stood firm. The silken drives, the wristy flicks were all on display. My admiration for the man just went up a few notches.
Sure, Tendulkar's 98 in the first innings, Zaheer's 8 for and Ishant Sharma's 30 odd runs were very important contributions. But in my book, VVS took India home, which is what matters
05/oct/2010. Mohali.
Aus 428/10 | Ind 405/10 | Aus 192/10 | Ind 216/9
Ind won by 1 wkt. Man of the match: Zaheer Khan
India leads 1-0
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