India close in on Delhi victory

DELHI—Zaheer struck in the first full over of the day to oust Kamran Akmal India require just 32 more on the final day to win the first Test with Pakistan after closing day four at 171-3.
Sachin Tendulkar passed Allan Border to become the second highest Test scorer, and shared an unbroken 78 with Sourav Ganguly who hit eight fours in his 48.
It steadied India after the dangerous Shoaib Akhtar struck in the first over and later added two more scalps. Pakistan resumed 167 ahead at 212-5 but added only 35 on the penultimate day, Ganguly with two wickets in an over.
The Pakistan sixth-wicket partnership had threatened to put India out of contention but the game continued to fluctuate when Akmal was unable to control his drive and was comfortably caught off the outside edge by substitute fielder Yuvraj Singh.
After some brief resistance from Sohail Tanvir, Zaheer Khan collected his second wicket of the day when Harbhajan Singh took a composed catch running back towards square-leg.
Misbah-ul-Haq, who made his maiden Test fifty in the first innings, moved within five of another when he tried to advance down the wicket to Sourav Ganguly, surprisingly given the new ball in the middle of the 83rd over. He mis-hit his lofted drive and Karthik ran back from mid-on to take an excellent catch. The batsmen crossed and Mohammad Sami flicked the next ball for four to take the lead over 200, but with the final delivery of the over Sami played an ungainly swipe across the line and Wasim Jaffer made no mistake with the steepling chance at mid-wicket.
To complete the erratic collapse there was a farcical run-out. Kaneria pushed a delivery from Anil Kumble into the covers and had got halfway down the wicket in pursuit of a single before Shoaib Akhta sent him back.
Even though Sachin Tendulkar’s throw was not accurate, Mahendra Dhoni was able to flick the ball back threw his legs onto the stumps with Kaneria short of his ground. But Shoaib quickly made amends when he seamed the sixth delivery of the India innings away from Karthik who got a regulation edge through to keeper Akmal to keep the match on a knife-edge.
After lunch Sami was convinced he had Dravid lbw when the former skipper was on 13 and the score was just 36-1. A swinging delivery caught Dravid low on the pad and he tried to play into the leg-side but umpire Billy Doctrove rejected the appeal.
In Sami’s next over, Dravid got a thick edge between second slip and gully to the boundary but then began to look in more autoritative form. Jaffer had just cut Shoaib through the covers for his eighth boundary to record his ninth Test fifty but next ball failed to keep a pull shot down and was smartly caught low to his right at square-leg by Salman Butt.
Shoaib was beginning to find movement in the air to add to his sharp pace, and a superb inswinging delivery found its way between Dravid’s bat and pad to rattle the timbers
With Pakistan’s two pace spearheads in full flow there was an electric atmosphere, and Sami felt he had trapped Ganguly lbw, although umpire Doctrove correctly deemed that the ball had pitched outside leg-stump. The 50 partnership was recorded in 97 balls, Ganguly contributing 34, with Tendulkar determined to be there at the finish. Shoaib returned for another burst but could not find the same speed with the older ball and was not as dangerous, Ganguly with plenty of time to paddle it round past square-leg to the boundary.—Agencies
Ganguly brought up the 150 with a bold square drive for four as Kaneria pitched in the rough, then cut a short googly for four more next ball.
Tendulkar eclipsed Border’s record in fine style with a stylish clip through mid-wicket as runs flowed, and India’s two leading batsmen were faced with a dilemma of whether to play on and try to finish the match in the rapidly fading light. They declined one offer from the umpires but eventually it was decided to finish an absorbing contest on Monday.