Ganguly, Pathan build victory path for India

Dec 10:  The duo of Ganguly and Pathan pile agony on Pakistan bowlers by completing their maiden double ton and Test century

Bengal Tiger Sourav Ganguly (239) roared again in Bangalore by notching up his maiden double ton while Irfan Pathan (102) came up with his scintillating first Test century to concoct a victory path for India guiding the team’s total to massive 626 in their first innings on the second day of the third and final Test match played at the Chinnaswamy stadium here on Sunday.

In reply to India’s first innings, Pakistan were 86 for the loss of one wicket at the draw of stumps with Salman Butt remained unbeaten after scoring yet another half-century alongwith skipper Younis Khan at 7. The visitors lost Yasir Hameed (19) early as Anil Kumble smartly trapped him leg before in front of the wicket.

The southpaw’s duo of Ganguly and Pathan piled up misery for the visitors, stitching a 178-run partnership, after hammering their docile bowling attack all over the park with some of the huge sixes of the series thus far. Ganguly’s massive 239 made him the highest by an Indian left-hander after he surpassed Vinod Kambli's 227.

Pakistan bowling attack in absence of Shoaib Akhtar's pace struggled to make any impression. The threesome attack alongwith part-timers Butt and Hameed tried their hard to add some punch but their efforts went in vain since both the batsmen were at their menacing best to rip apart any line of attack at that particular moment.

There was no room for the error as the batsmen cold-bloodedly punished the slightest of error. Ganguly eased to his maiden double-century in Tests with a glorious straight drive off Arafat.

Earlier in the morning the bad run of Dinesh Karthick continues, as he was caught behind off Arafat. Anil Kumble fell to a Kaneria googly and Harbhajan Singh was then cleaned up to give Yasir Arafat five for the innings.

Hameed and Butt survived some anxious moments early on against Pathan and Sharma. Butt came up with some beautiful drives on his way to another 50, but Kumble once again outfoxed Hameed.

Skipper Younis joined Butt in the middle during the closing hours, but from now on Pakistan team has a Herculean task ahead of them to salvage at least pride by forcing the match towards a draw. Firstly they will have to work out to avoid follow-on and later they will have to push for the draw.

It’s not that they couldn’t not be able to do it as they did it in Kolkata in the second test itself but its only that how they apply themselves in the ongoing match.

SCOREBOARD

India —Ist innings: W. Jaffer lbw b Arafat 17, G. Gambhir c Akmal b Sami 5, R. Dravid c Misbah b Arafat 19, S. Ganguly b Kaneria 239, V.V.S. Laxman b Arafat 5, Yuvraj c Faisal b Sami 169, D. Karthick c Akmal b Arafat 24, I. Pathan c Akmal b Kaneria 102, A. Kumble lbw b Kaneria 4, Harbhajan b Arafat 4, I. Sharma (not out) 0, Extras (b-13, lb-19, nb-6) 38; Total (in 150.2 overs) 626.

Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-44, 3-51, 4-61, 5-361, 6-427, 7-605, 8-615, 9-620, 10-626.

Pakistan bowling: Akhtar 10-3-23-0, Sami 36-5-149-2, Arafat 39-5-161-5, Kaneria 46.2-8-168-3, Younis 2-0-14-0, Butt 10-1-36-0, Hameed 7-0-43-0.

Pakistan — 1st innings: S. Butt (batting) 50, Y. Hameed lbw b Kumble 19, Younis (batting) 7, Extras (b-4, lb-2, nb-4) 10; Total (for one wkt. in 27 overs) 86.

Fall of wicket: 1-59

India bowling: Pathan 9-4-18-0, Ishant 7-3-39-0, Kumble 8-4-19-1, Ganguly 2-0-2-0, Harbhajan 1-0-2-0.