Sopcast Player-------WI vs RSA

Sopcast Player-------WI vs RSA

Chandigarh Lions vs Delhi Jets

So it finally happened. A jam packed stadium with some dazzling performances by Kareena Kapoor and even Laloo Prasad Yadav, the Minister of Railways, came in to say a few encouraging words. The first match was between Chandigarh Lions and Delhi Jets. The Lions won the series opener by 8 runs. In a closely fought contest the Chandigarh side held onto its nerve to defend a smallish total of 134 runs. Darrel Tuffey was given the man of the match award for his 3 wickets and tight bowling.

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India vs Pakistan, Second Test, Days 1 and 2

The first two days have completely belonged to the Indian batsmen. Wasim Jaffer started day 1 reaching 192 and completed his second double ton on Day 2. Then it was upto VVS Laxman and Saurav Ganguly to treat the Kolkatta crowd to a couple of delightful centuries. Dinesh Karthik was the only Indian batsman to miss out on getting a big score. But that did not stop the rest of the Indian batting lineup to impose themselves on a weak Pakistan attack.

There seems to be no hope for Pakistan of winning the second test. Their only option is to bat this test out. But even that is not going to be easy as the pitch is crumbling at an alarming rate. A lot depends on Younis Khan, who is the acting skipper in this match, and Mohammad Yousuf.

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Pakistan vs India, 2007, First Test

The first test has finished in an emphatic 6 wicket win for India. The home team dominated 3 out of 4 full days of cricket. It all started with the toss when Shoaib Malik decided to bat first and misjudged the way the pitch was going to behave. The Indians, however, must be considering themselves lucky to lose the toss. Pakistan never got going in the first innings and thanks to some sensible batting from Misbah ul-Haq the visitors managed to score 231 in their first knock.

India, however, failed to take the initiative and scored 276 thanks to fifties from VVS Laxman and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. A first innings lead of only 45 runs would sound very disappointing but it did play a major role in the run chase. All credit must be given to the young Pakistani side that restricted India to such a low first innings total.

Pakistan then started their second innings positively as the openers got rid of the deficit. However, just when things were looking good, Anil Kumble happened to Pakistan. The leggie got the opening that the team so desperately required. After the openers departed, the rest of the batsmen failed to capitalize on the foundation and Pakistan finished at 247, giving India a low target of 203. But Shoaib Akhtar got rid of Dinesh Karthik with only 2 runs on board. Jaffer, Dravid, Tendulkar and Ganguly played their part in enabling India to reach the target with almost all of Day 5 to go.

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Pakistan vs India, Test Series

Well the ODIs are finished and now we move onto the real test of cricketers, aptly titled the Test Series. India vs Pakistan. Cannot get any better than this. Looking at the statistics of last 10 years, India and Pakistan have faced off 12 times, 4 wins to India, 5 to Pakistan and 3 draws. In other words, its pretty much even stevens at this stage.

Pakistan were pretty comprehensively beaten by India in the recently concluded 5 match ODI series and the Indians would be keen to take this winning momentum into the test series as well. With a long tour of Australia ahead of them, a win against arch-rivals Pakistan could just be the tonic that the country would need if they have any hopes of defeating the mighty Aussies.

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TVU player ------------India vs Pakistan