The third test between India and Australia in Delhi ended in a damp draw even as both the teams attempted their best to bring a conclusion to the match. The match climbed quite a few notches of excitement on the final day as Anil Kumble announced his retirement out of the blue.

India appeared to have no plans of setting a target for Australia till yesterday, which became evident when they sent Ishant Sharma as the night watchman. Resuming their play from overnight score of 43-2, they lost Dravid (11) quickly. First innings super-scorer Gautam Gambhir (36) was gone too before lunch. However, Laxman and Tendulkar held firm the innings as they forged a 52-run stand. Tendulkar (47) was replaced by Ganguly who added another 32 to the tally with a couple of sparkling boundaries. Kumble called it done as India reached 208 for 5 and thus Australia faced an improbable target of 245 from 23 overs.

India looked in commanding position after they made 613 runs in the first innings. However, their hopes of clinching the series 2-0 were dashed after Australia put up 577 in reply.

Both the teams called off the game when Australia was 31-0 with 15 overs of play still to go for the game with Hayden (16) and Katich (14) at crease. Kumble bowled his last over and unfortunately could not add anything to his kitty of 619 wickets. His last ball was a full toss to Matthew Hayden which went for a four. It was a spectacular sight yesterday when he came out to ball with eleven stitches in hand.

This test was full of individual shows. Gambhir and Laxman raised double toasts each, five Australian batsmen scored fifties and Kumble announced his retirement plans. Laxman was anointed the man of the match for his unbeaten 200 and 59 in two innings.

The Border-Gavaskar Trophy effectively is still in India’s hands. Australia needs to pull off a victory in the fourth and final match which begins on Thursday in Nagpur to have an equal claim on it. India is in a very strong position after a spectacular batting display and Australia have regained their confidence as their batsmen have regained form.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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