The environment at Chepauk on the 5th day was wonderful.Our stand was Jam packed.Compared to yesterday, there was a good turn-out today for the match.The chennai crowd was fully satisfied by the performance of our Indian team for the last 2 days.Eventhough England was the Dominant side before yesterday, Shewag turned the match,His quick Knock of 83 was Fantastic.The Runs came very quickly on the last session of 4th day.This created full Confidence in our team.By the start of 5th day, we can see the stress on England.
Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh stitched together an unbroken 188-run stand for four wicket to put India on the threshold of a memorable win against England on the fifth and final day of the first cricket Test at Chennai on Monday.
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Tendulkar hit a boundary to not only notch up his 41st Test century but also bring about the winning runs, triggering off wild scenes of celebrations in the galleries.
While West Indies have the record of the highest run chase of 418/7 against Australia at St. Johns in 2003, India
is second in the list for successfully chasing 406 against the West Indies at Port of Spain in 1976.
The only other team to have scored more than 400 runs in the fourth innings is Australia who scored 404/3 against England at Leeds in 1948.
It was the highest ever fourth innings target achieved at any venue in the country, 276 by the West Indies at Delhi in 1987-88 was the previous best.
India's best effort in winning a test match at home when batting last was 256-8 against Australia at Mumbai in the 1964-65 series, but it did make 347 to tie the 1986 Test against Australia in Chennai.
The two teams will now travel to Mohali for the second Test beginning on December 19. Resuming at the overnight score of 131 for one, India suffered an early setback when Rahul Dravid (4) got out cheaply yet again. Dravid was out edging Andrew Flintoff to wicketkeeper Matt Prior in third over of the day.
Gambhir and Tendulkar never looked under any pressure and took singles and twos without much problem, besides sending the odd bad balls to the ropes.
Tendulkar, in particular, was enjoying his batting as he punished the bowlers whenever they gave width to him for playing shots.
Tendulkar survived a half chance soon after India crossed the 150 mark. With Graeme Swann hitting the right areas, the little master stretched to defend but the ball took a sharp turn and hit the outer edge of the bat to fall inches in front of Ian Bell at silly point. Tendulkar was on ten then.
Gambhir was shaping well as he added 24 runs with Dravid and 42 with Tendulkar but one lapse of concentration saw him back in the pavillion.
After bowling two short-pitched deliveries in previous over, James Anderson kept up the pressure on Gambhir attacking on the off side corridor, and the Indian opener paid the price for a lapse in concentration.
Gambhir moved across and his half hearted steer end up to Paul Collingwood who moved to his left at slips and took a good catch at gully.
Though there was a slight drop in run flow at the fall of Gambhir, Laxman adapted to the conditions quickly and was in no mood to take any risk against Monty Panesar, who maintained a tight length.
England captain Kevin Pietersen withdrew his bowlers whenever they gave away runs denying the Indians to settle down. But Laxman, in particular, was focused and used his feet for well-timed drives.
With both Tendulkar and Yuvraj holding the aces against the English bowlers, India were in sight of a historic win. Tendulkar who struck his 52nd fifty and crossed 1000-run mark this year, played the anchor role using his experience to gather runs mostly through singles and twos.
Yuvraj, after reading the pitch for a while, continued with India's plan of counter-attack and Tendulkar played a good foil keeping one end intact.
For a while, Monty Panesar and Swann kept up the pressure and momentarily arrested the flow of runs. But once Tendulkar and Yuvraj brought about their 50 stand with Yuvraj sweeping Panesar to the fence, the duo started to cut loose
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