Sachin Tendulkar passed 15,000 Test runs as India closed in on a comfortable victory over the West Indies in the first Test at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium yesterday.
The world’s leading runscorer in Tests and one-day internationals became the first to touch the new mark with a single off leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo to move to 28 on his way to 33 not out at stumps on the third day.
Tendulkar raised his bat and looked toward the sky on reaching the landmark and he was congratulated by batting partner Rahul Dravid and the West Indies players.
Photo: Reuters
The day’s play finished soon after, with Dravid on 30 not out, and India on 152-2 in their second innings, chasing 276 for the win with two days left.
India were in a position to grab the win thanks mainly to off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who took 6-47 to help bowl out the West Indies for 180 in their second innings.
Ashwin became the second most successful India bowler on debut with match figures of 9-128. Only leg-spinner Narendra Hirwani produced better figures, with 16-136 against the West Indies in Chennai in 1988.
Ashwin’s impressive haul justified the faith of the selectors, who picked him ahead of star player Harbhajan Singh.
The Tamil Nadu spinner held center stage as the West Indies, enjoying a 95-run first-innings lead, were bowled out 72 minutes after lunch with only first-innings centurion Shivnarine Chanderpaul (47) and captain Darren Sammy (42) providing any resistance.
Ashwin took the wickets of Darren Bravo and Marlon Sam-uels in the same over in the first session.
He trapped left-hander Bravo (12) leg before wicket and foxed Samuels four deliveries later with one that moved away slightly to take the off-stump before the batsman had scored a run.
Ashwin, who accounted for opener Kieran Powell on the second day, also dismissed Chanderpaul, who made a 58-ball 47 before he was leg before wicket.
He earned a five-for when Sammy was bowled off a delivery that kept very low. Sammy struck five fours and a straight six off pace bowler Ishant Sharma in his aggressive 37-ball cameo.
Debutant pace bowler Umesh Yadav took two wickets, while Sharma and left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha chipped in with one each.
Sharma got the first breakthrough of the day when he induced an edge from nightwatchman Fidel Edwards (1).
Yadav then took a fine first Test wicket with a ball that came in sharply to clean bowl a well-set Kirk Edwards (33). Yadav later got Carlton Baugh (7) to edge one to wicketkeeper and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Set 276 to win, India openers Virender Sehwag (55) and Gautam Gambhir (22) made a brisk start, before both were out while looking comfortable.
Left-hander Gambhir fell leg before to part-time off-spinner Marlon Samuels, while Sehwag inside-edged a delivery from pace bowler Sammy after smashing five fours and two sixes in his run-a-ball innings.
Sehwag, who had also scored 55 in the first innings, survived a chance on 12 when seamer Ravi Rampaul dropped him off his own bowling. He punished Samuels and Bishoo, and he was also quick to take singles.
With the openers gone at 95-2, Tendulkar and Dravid came together and led India to the close.
Tendulkar struck two fours during his 87-ball knock and with 124 more runs needed by the team, he is unlikely to achieve his 100th international century this week.
The three-Test series continues in Kolkata and Mumbai.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but