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3rd Test: Australia wins Sydney Test (scorecard), South Africa won Test Series 2-1.. T20 & ODI series follows.
Current Cricket Series : South Africa vs Australia, West Indies vs New Zealand. Coming Up : India in NZ 2009.

Filed under IndvAus Mohali 2008

Kapil Dev (while he was India's coach), explained : an ideal test match pitch is the one which assists batsmen 60:40 in ratio with bowlers on Day 1, and gradually reverses to 40:60 by the 5th day.

How many 22 yard stripes around the world have matched the standards set by former Indian all-rounder? not very many I'm sure!

But I'll stick my neck out today to rate current Mohali stadium's pitch as one of the best Indian curators have made and we must have a thrilling test match between Australia and India of which - today was the first day. Second test match in this 2008 series..

Following are few interesting points about today play :

**Sachin Tendulkar broke world record for most runs in test match cricket - the biggest record in cricket - beating Brain Lara (of West Indies) who had 11913 runs in a career of 131 tests played. Sachin Tendulkar has achieved this record in 152 tests played.

**Sourav Ganguly, who was involved in crucial partnership with Sachin after India lost 3 wickets in 5 overs - got past 7000 test career runs. Ganguly, who has announced his retirement after this series against Australia - is only the 33rd batsman in International cricket (4th Indian) to make those many runs. This said - Sourav Ganguly was given a life by leg-umpire Rudi Koertzen when he was stumped by wicket keeper but the South Africa umpire didn't opt for third umpire's views.

**As per latest ICC rule : players of fielding side are not allowed to go to dressing rooms for a break of 2-3 overs while a substitute fields for him.. Most fast bowlers around the world take the luxury of relaxing before & after bowling spells but now - if you need a break without an injury - your team will field with only 10 fielders.. Australia bowled with 10 fielders at Bangalore (1st test) (while captain Ponting was off field) whereas Simon Katich was denied a break today.

**Amit Mishra (the leg spinner) and Peter Siddle (fast bowler) made their debuts for India and Australia respectively whereas MS Dhoni got Indian captaincy in test matches for the second time.. Dhoni first captained India in a test match at Kanpur against South Africa in April 2008.

**Fire crackers stopped play for almost 10 minute from the moment Sachin Tendulkar broke Brain Lara's above mentioned record.

Scorecard : India vs Australia 2nd test, Mohali : 17-21 October 2008

Day 1 : Sachin's record, Mohali's pitch & a new ICC rule.

Day 2 : India seize initiative ~ 469 runs on board.

Debutant Amit Mishra spins India on top

India beat Australia by their biggest run margin