India take Australia to the cleaners as Gambhir and Laxman score double hundreds by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Scorecard:	India v Australia
Player:	Z Khan, MS Dhoni, SR Watson, A Kumble, RT Ponting, VVS Laxman, G Gambhir
Event:	Australia in India 2008/09

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DateLine: 30th October 2008

 

India mount a huge first innings score
India declared at 613 for 7 on the second day giving lot of headaches to the Aussies going into the third day.Australia managed a steady start finishing the day at 50 for no loss still 563 runs behind.The rough outside the left handers off stump bothering the openers going into the third day.The Indian spinners will have a huge say in the result of the test match over the next three days Laxman and Gambhir tear Aussie attack apart V.V.S.Laxman was very very special today.He cracked an unbeaten double hundred in no time his second one once again against the Aussies .Early on Gambhir got to his first double hundred, a thoroughly well deserved one.He got the team out of a hole and put them in a very strong position.After his run ins with Watson and Katich and being reported to the match referee for elbowing Watson, he really focused on job at hand and his record breaking partnership of 278 with Laxman really swung things India's way.They had nothing to worry about.The pitch was good for batting and there was no teeth in the bowling.Defensive fields yielded no results as batsmen were scoring at four an over.

Ponting runs out of options
Ponting literally ran out of options in the post lunch session.Quick's were ineffective on this docile track.Spinners were not of quality. Runs were leaking from both ends.Laxman outscored Gambhir throughout today.He was regularly hitting the gaps.His supple wrists made him pepper the onside.Balls from outside the off stump were whipped on the on side.He never got stuck and the way he manipulated the field left Ponting scratching his head.Ponting had nowhere to go as both the spinners and pacers were leaking runs

A brilliant double
It was a brilliant double hundred from V.V.S.Laxman.He never got bogged down. Infact it was a double hundred which was faster than that of Gambhir's. On the way he ran out of partners Gambhir finally got out to Watson. Ganguly and Dhoni fell cheaply in trying to accelerate. Kumble and Zaheer helped him to get to his double ton.There were many firsts in this game.It was the first time that a left handed opener had got a double hundred against Australia.It was the first time that two Indians had got a double hundred in the same innings of a test match.Finally when Laxman got his double hundred he got a standing ovation from the crowd,his fellow players and the opposition.The opposition who are considered the best in the world know what he is all about.He is the only Indian player apart from Sachin to score 2000 runs against them at an average of over 50,and also Six of his 13 test hundreds have come against them.No wonder he is considered by them as very very special.