India keep Australia at bay in Bangalore

Two stoppages due to bad light after tea and a negative approach by the Indian batsmen helped the first Test against Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy end in a tame draw at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Monday.

Zaheer Khan won the man of the match award for his all-round performance. The pacer took six wickets and scored an unbeaten half-century.

A sporting declaration by Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting set the hosts to get 299 for victory but the hosts could manage only 177 for four off 73 overs.

VVS Laxman remained unbeaten on 42 off 142 balls with five fours while Sourav Ganguly was on 26 with two fours when the umpires called-off play and the Indians fell short by 122 runs from winning. For the visitors Brett Lee, Stuart Clark, Mitchell Johnson and Cameron White picked a wicket each.

Bad light stopped play 42 minutes after tea with India on 148 for four but the light improved and the umpires decided to resume the match with India needing 155 runs for victory off the last 25 overs. After nine overs were bowled, the light deteriorated again, and the umpires stopped play for the second time only to restart the match 22 minutes later with the hosts on 165 for four off 67 overs.

One expected Sachin Tendulkar to surpass Brian Lara's record Test aggregate of 11, 953 to become the highest scorer in Test cricket but that was not to be. Needing 15 more runs for the record, Tendulkar became Cameron White's first Test victim when his lofted drive was gobbled up in the short cover region by Michael Clarke for 49, which came off 126 balls including four boundaries. It was indeed a very soft dismissal considering that he was well set for a big score.

all courtesy : cricketnext