Cricket India Vs Australia: Dhoni Double Puts Chennai Test India’s Way!

Morning did not quite show the day on the third day of the first Test between Indiaand Australiain Chennai today. Indianot only had to overhaul the Australian total of 380, but also had to take a substantial lead for any chance of turning the match in their favor. The crowds wanted Sachin Tendulkar to do it for India notching up his 52^ndTest hundred in the process. But the Australian bowlers maintaining a tight leash right from the morning checked India effectively and the early exit of Tendulkar who added just 10 runs to his overnight score of 71 put paid to fans hope and also for hope of a dramatic turnaround the Indian way. However, Virat Kohli went on patiently, and suddenly he found a very determined partner in the form of his captain MS Dhoni who egged him on to become more aggressive

Morning still did not show the day though. Kohli and Dhoni launched an assault on the Australian bowling attack and built a partnership of 128 runs with Kohli completing a brilliant century. When Kohli fell again to Lyon who made it a point to use the rough created on the pitch well for 107 at the team score of 324/5 things were uncertain again. Dhoni was as determined and ruthless as he showed from the beginning of his innings, but the fall of two early wickets of Jadeja and Ashwin—both capable of playing long innings—at 372/7 the old spectre of Team India not able to take substantial lead came up to haunt the crowds again. Meantime Dhoni completed a magnificent hundred. Harbhajan Singh who hit two successive hundreds against New Zealand in 2010 could not last long too and it seemed all over for India at 406/8 with only a slender lead of 26 runs.

What followed made the day that the morning could not indicate. In a most spectacular and chanceless batting display skipper Dhoni went berserk hitting all around the park with great ferocity as well as accuracy. In a befitting support for his captain newcomer Bhuvaneshwar Kumar started showing his batting prowess mixing aggression with caution. In about 25 overs till the end of play the duo with Dhoni firing all cylinders added 109 runs and Dhoni achieved his first double century in just 231 balls with 22 fours and 5 sixes. The duo had already achieved the biggest ninth wicket partnership record against Australia and both remained unbeaten at stumps on the third day—Dhoni on 206 and Kumar on 16 with the total score reading 515/8. The lead so far of 135 runs could very well be match defining.

Australian skipper Michael Clarke looked humbled, Pattinson looked to lose his sting and all bowlers looked clueless on a pitch that did nothing for the pacers except for some hint of a reverse swing and some rough patches for use for the line spinner Lyon who got three wickets. The last frontier fears of lifeless pitches and powerful Indian batting seemed to have overpowered the mighty Aussies at the moment. How much more Dhoni adds to the lead and how the Aussies bat in the second outing are the most pertinent questions now. The Scorecard:

The last two days of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy first Test in Chennai are set to be very exciting ones with Indian hopes rekindled.

The VIP Brat: A Study in Contrast!

Here we’re talking about only two compartments inside a particular AC 2-Tier coach in a particular daily train under the Indian Railways that departs a particular originating station at around noontime and reaches the destination city early morning the next day. The train is popular because it is superfast and always on time. That fateful noon too, the train was ready for boarding about one hour before departure. We cut to the inside of that particular coach having those two compartments for our contrasting study. Two elderly couples were in a state of considerable distress. One of them, both technically senior citizens, had been allotted two upper berths and the husband was at his wits end how to proceed, because his wife was being taken for check-up after surgeries in both of her knees—she could hardly walk and her climbing up the berth was a sheer impossibility. The husband was also on the wrong side of the sixties, but he thought he could manage the climbing once he managed a ...

Mitali: The Trauma of Losing a Sibling

Maybe I lied to her when I used to reassure her that she was going to be alright and was going to resume her life in some measure of normalcy in the future years; maybe all my gestures/expressions were false when I used to run my fingers across her forehead or embrace her on occasions when she was able to move around a bit; and maybe all my exhibitions of love care and responsibility were exposed as superficial when I failed to turn up in Delhi where she along with my mother were treated during September-October, 2022 (my mother Urmila Chakravarty was also diagnosed with dental cancer the same month the same year as she was) and when all the members of my parental family and the in-laws converged. Since that fateful day in August, 2022 when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer to that disastrous day of March 6, 2025—the day my younger blood sister Mitali (Mainu) Chakravarty Sarma (November 2, 1963—March 6, 2025) passed away in the wee hours in a hospital in Guwahati after giving a bra...

Release of Book 'Randomized: A Dozen Short Stories'!

The fourth collection of stories titled 'Randomized: A Dozen Short Stories' by Chinmay Chakravarty has been released on Amazon KDP just now! This collection, short stories in a lighter vein plus with mild satire like the previous collections, has been published in both the E-book and Paperback formats. The links are given below: International: Click Here ! India: Click Here ! Other collections of short stories by the same author: The Cheerless Chauffeur and Other Tales(2021)--Notion Press. Funny and Fishy Tales(2022)--KDP. The Weirdos(2022)--Ukiyoto Publishing. All books of the author are available on Goodreads, apart from Amazon and other outlets! Have a look!