Wasim Jaffer hit a brisk half-century as India kept alive their hopes of forcing a win in the second Test against Pakistan in Kolkata yesterday.
The opener followed his first-innings 202 with 56 to help the hosts reach 141-2 in their second innings for an overall lead of 301 at stumps on the penultimate day.
India, leading 1-0 in the three-Test series, shuffled their batting order to gather quick runs in a bid to set a testing fourth-innings target for Pakistan on the fifth and final day.
Hard-hitting Mahendra Singh Dhoni (28) and Sourav Ganguly (24), who were promoted in the batting order, were at the crease when bad light stopped play.
In-form Jaffer showed the way with a 75-run stand for the opening wicket with Dinesh Karthik (28). Dhoni and Ganguly then kept the momentum as India made 121 in the closing 29 overs.
Pakistan will need to bat more than two sessions on a last-day pitch today if India declare their second innings closed during the morning session.
Misbah-ul-Haq earlier gave Pakistan a lifeline when he remained unbeaten with a gutsy 161 to help his side avoid a follow-on.
The middle-order batsman showed remarkable determination and concentration under pressure, forcing India to bat again in the match when he had only tailenders to give him company.
"I will always remember this knock as it was my son's birthday when I scored my first century. So, definitely it was special," Misbah said.
"It was not easy to bat second in these conditions. So if a team fight back, the confidence level goes up and that is what happened to us. If we manage to draw the Test, it will be good for us," he said.
"If they set a target then we will go out there and play normal cricket. If a situation develops where our openers give us a good start, maybe then we can decide whether to chase the target or just play out the day," Misbah said.
Needing 417 to avert the follow-on, Pakistan were a shaky 358-6 at stumps on Sunday, but achieved their objective in the morning when Misbah turned part-time seamer Ganguly to square-leg for two runs.
The 33-year-old Misbah, playing only his ninth Test, faced 351 balls and cracked a six off spinner Harbhajan Singh and 14 fours in his maiden century. He added 53 to his overnight score of 108.
Pakistan were bowled out for 456 in the afternoon in reply to India's first-innings total of 616-5 declared, with Misbah and Sami adding 91 crucial runs for the seventh wicket.
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
Taiwan’s top table tennis player Lin Yun-ju made his debut in the US professional table tennis scene by taking on a new role as a team’s co-owner. On Wednesday, Major League Table Tennis (MLTT), founded in September last year, announced on its official Web site that Lin had become part of the ownership group of the Princeton Revolution, one of the league’s eight teams. MLTT chief executive officer Flint Lane described Lin’s investment as “another great milestone for table tennis in America,” saying that the league’s “commitment to growth and innovation is drawing attention from the best in the sport, and we’re
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
RSS