Australia need to score another 369 runs tomorrow to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy by winning the fourth test match against India in Nagpur. They were set a target of 382 after India summed up their second innings at 295. Added to the 86-run lead from the first innings, the visitors face a daunting task of sealing this victory.

India started on a clean slate as Virender Sehwag and debutant M Vijay took off from naught. The game sailed smoothly, runs poured in regularly and India looked invincible at 116-0. Sehwag neared his century when he became Brett Lee’s lone victim at 92. Vijay (41) and Dravid (3) had been tolled before him and the downfall had already begun, in a fashion pretty similar to the first innings. Next in row was Laxman who went for a measly 4. The most unfortunate dismissal was Sourav Ganguly’s who was caught and bowled by debutant Krejza on the first delivery in his career’s final innings. After Sachin got out at 12, India was reeling in trouble at 166-6 at tea time.

Skipper MS Dhoni (55) and Australia’s perennial tormentor Harbhajan Singh (52) then got together and stabilized the slumping innings. The duo added 108 for the seventh wicket as they took India to a 361-run lead. India lost the next 3 wickets within 21 runs to finish at 295. Krejza donated runs again today as his figures of 4-134 brought his debut match tally to 12 wickets and total runs conceded to 349. Watson claimed 4-42.

Australia was remaining with two overs in the day as they faced a mammoth target of 382 runs to save the Cup. Zaheer’s first over saw three boundaries as Australia reduced 13 runs from the total. The game had to be stopped because of bad lights with 4 balls to go in the day’s play.

Australia has an improbable task on hands to accomplish. Targets exceeding 380 have been chased only thrice in the entire history of the game and Australia are under obvious pressure since this is their last chance at the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. India will keep the Cup anyway and they would certainly like to be the sole owners as they try to win or draw the match tomorrow.

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

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