By Qaiser Mohammad Ali, IANS
Bangalore : Batting in contrasting styles, Yuvraj Singh smashed his third Test century and Sourav Ganguly his 15th as India amassed 365 for five wickets on the opening day of the third and final Test against Pakistan here Saturday.
Yuvraj (169, 203 balls, 252 minutes, 28x4s, 1×6) showed his class and form while Ganguly (125 batting, 214 balls, 294 minutes, 20x4s) continued to consolidate his position in the team.
All Yuvraj’s centuries have come against Pakistan while it was Ganguly’s second against them. They were associated in a record 300-run partnership for the fifth wicket that virtually crippled the Pakistani bowling attack, in which Shoaib Akhtar could bowl only 10 overs.
Akhtar was taken to a local hospital for an MRI scan after bowing just 10 overs in the morning at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. The test revealed nothing except spasms, but he did not bowl again.
In Shoaib’s absence, Yuvraj, who came into the squad for injured Sachin Tendulkar, and Ganguly made merry, hitting 48 of the 56 boundaries during the day.
Debutant pacer Yasir Arafat was the only bowler who impressed initially. He bowled an inspired, incisive spell to claim three wickets as India were reduced to 61 for four before the Yuvraj-Ganguly pair rallied them.
All the smiles in the Pakistani camp were restricted to the first session. After lunch, it was India all the way, cheered on by a vocal 30,000-plus crowd.
Yuvraj, who had to sit out of the first two Tests in spite of being in fine nick in one-dayers against Pakistan, was in fabulous touch right from the moment he took the guard. He was in an attacking mood as he played flowing drives, forceful cuts and a lot of paddle sweep shots.
Ganguly too gave as much opportunity to his protégé as possible and preferred to play the supporting role. Yuvraj completed his third century (137 balls, 167 minutes, 18x4s) with an extra cover driven boundary off Arafat.
Ganguly and Yuvraj were involved in the highest partnership for the fifth wicket at this venue. They also broke the highest ever partnership for this wicket against Pakistan.
Ganguly finally reached his 15th century with an extra-cover boundary off part-timer Yasir Hameed (178 balls, 247 minutes, 18x4s).
Pakistani fielding also wilted under the Ganguly-Yuvraj attack in the third session and many times the ball went through the legs of the players.
Yuvraj was eventually fell in the closing moments of the day when he top-edged an intended flick to the on off Sami for an easy catch to Faisal Iqbal at gully.
Ganguly and Karthik saw off the day without further damage.
It was Sami provided the breakthrough in the morning when he had Gautam Gambhir, playing his first Test since 2005, caught behind.
Jaffer, who scored a double century in the drawn second Test in Kolkata, and local hero Rahul Dravid then tried to resurrect the innings.
Jaffer got a ‘life’ when Sami dropped him off Akhtar when he was on two. He seemed to be settling down hitting a couple of boundaries, but both he and Dravid left in quick succession.
Dravid edged debutant Arafat to first-slip Misbah-ul-Haq and the pacer from Rawalpindi, coming for injured Umar Gul, struck again in the nest over, as Jaffer padded up to an in-swinging deliveryto be legbefore. Two overs later, the 25-year-old pacer accounted for V.V.S. Laxman, when the stylish Hyderabadi chopped the ball on to his stumps.
At lunch, it was an uncomfortable Indian dressing room with the team struggling at 65 for four. Thereafter, it was all India with the two elegant left-handers completely dominating the Pakistani attack.
SCOREBOARD
India (1st innings):
Wasim Jaffer lbw b Arafat 17
Gautam Gambhir c Akmal b Sami 5
Rahul Dravid c Misbah b Arafat 19
Sourav Ganguly batting 125
V.V.S. Laxman b Arafat 5
Yuvraj Singh c Iqbal b Sami 169
Dinesh Karthik batting 3
Extras: (b 9, lb 7, nb 6) 22
Total: (for five wickets in 90 overs) 365
Fall of wickets: 1-8 (Gambhir, 7.4 overs), 2-44 (Dravid, 16.2), 3-51 (Jaffer, 18.3), 4-61 (Laxman, 22.2), 5-361 (Yuvraj, 87.4)
Bowling:
Shoaib Akhtar 10 3 23 0
Mohammad Sami 22.5 4 103 2 (4nb)
Yasir Arafat 22 2 98 3
Danish Kaneria 23 5 75 0
Younis Khan 2 0 14 0
Salman Butt 5 1 10 0 (1nb)
Yasir Hameed 5 0 26 0 (1nb)
Umpires: Simon Taufel (Australia) and Rudi Koertzen (South Africa)
Third umpire: G.A. Pratapkumar (India)
Fourth umpire: Suhas Phadkar (India)
Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (Sri Lanka)