Cricket India Vs Australia: India Seal Test Series 3-0, Create History!

India defeated Australia by 6 wickets in the Mohali Test today clinching the Series 3-0 and regaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after they lost it 0-4 in Australia. They have indeed created history by the effort. Never before in Test cricket history against Australia have India won more than two Tests in a series and never with a zero margin. Now they have a very good chance of making it 4-0, an exact revenge delivered, in Delhi where the last Test starts from 22^nd March, 2013. India also never won three Tests in a series since 1993-94 when they swept Sri Lanka under the leadership of Mohammad Azharuddin. For Australia they have never lost three Tests in a series since 1988-89 under the leadership of Alan Border. The most positive aspect of the Mohali Test of swinging fortunes is that the match had a nail biting finish in the last moments of the last day converting it into a one-day thriller.

Aussie captain Michael Clarke did come in at No. 6 to bat, but he never looked at ease due to his troubling back falling yet again to the guiles of more spinner than an all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja. At 179 for 9 it looked to be all over for Australia with India chasing a very gettable target. But the near centurion of the first innings Mitchell Starc (35) with the robust company offered by Xavier Doherty (18 not out) decided to fight off an Indian victory at all costs struggling for more than 18 overs for 44 runs. Time was running out for India and the total threatened to get bigger and bigger. When Australia folded up finally for 223 runs India had a target of 133 to win in possible 40 overs. On the last day pitch of a Test it was never easy and the Australian bowling attack made India huff for every run, but the absence of Shane Watson and James Pattinson came handy for India though they were also without the man of the match Shikhar Dhawan who got a hand injury while fielding. Australians in the final analysis must blame themselves for a consistent poor show and not being able to at least save this match.

Cheteshwar Pujara who opened in place of Dhawan and Murli Vijay progressed comfortably, but with the fall of regular wickets pressure started building up and Tendulkar succumbed to it by falling run out. It was nearly getting to a run-a-ball suspense when a few lusty hits by captain Dhoni and Jadeja saw Team India through to a historic win. More positively all the Indian batsmen contributed this time for the win.

The Indian spinners held sway on the last day with Jadeja getting three scalps while Ravichandran Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha got two each. Pacer Bhuvaneshwar Kumar did the real damage yesterday by mopping off three top order batsmen. The Scorecard:

Mohali Test will be remembered for its ups and downs, a real tight finish and glorious batting by Dhawan and Vijay. Cricket Australia will have a real dilemma of team selection for the Delhi Test with an unfit captain and a possible return of vice-captain Shane Watson. For the Indian fans it’s time to celebrate.

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!