Yuvraj, Ganguly put India on top
Sunday, 9 December 2007
BANGALORE, Dec 12 (Cricinfo): The Chinnaswamy Stadium has been witness to some exceptional batting down the years, from Sunil Gavaskar's 96 to Michael Clarke's century on debut, via Sachin Tendulkar's destruction of Shane Warne (1998). The last time India played here, Younis Khan's monumental 267 inspired a famous Pakistan triumph, but Saturday, he could only watch ruefully as Yuvraj Singh and Sourav Ganguly stroked sublime centuries to wrest control of the final Test.
Yasir Arafat's three wickets on debut had shaken the innings to its very foundations before lunch, but from the depths of 61 for 4, Yuvraj and Ganguly constructed a magnificent run edifice. With Shoaib Akhtar off the field after lunch with back spasms, Pakistan's gamble of playing just four specialist bowlers was horribly exposed in the final two sessions.
Younis, who did his best to make sure that shoulders didn't droop too much, was left to reflect on a difficult chance that he failed to hold on to at slip when Yuvraj had made just 12. Danish Kaneria was the luckless bowler, and insult was added to injury over the course of an afternoon when the Indians cut and drove fours at will.
Yuvraj started extremely nervously, understandable given that he hadn't played a Test since the West Indies tour in 2006. A tuck off his hips from Arafat got the scoreboard ticking, but it was only when he played a glorious shot down the ground off Mohammad Sami that he began to resemble the man who has tormented Pakistan over the past few years.
Yasir Arafat's three wickets on debut had shaken the innings to its very foundations before lunch, but from the depths of 61 for 4, Yuvraj and Ganguly constructed a magnificent run edifice. With Shoaib Akhtar off the field after lunch with back spasms, Pakistan's gamble of playing just four specialist bowlers was horribly exposed in the final two sessions.
Younis, who did his best to make sure that shoulders didn't droop too much, was left to reflect on a difficult chance that he failed to hold on to at slip when Yuvraj had made just 12. Danish Kaneria was the luckless bowler, and insult was added to injury over the course of an afternoon when the Indians cut and drove fours at will.
Yuvraj started extremely nervously, understandable given that he hadn't played a Test since the West Indies tour in 2006. A tuck off his hips from Arafat got the scoreboard ticking, but it was only when he played a glorious shot down the ground off Mohammad Sami that he began to resemble the man who has tormented Pakistan over the past few years.