 Kumble, Harbhajan spin India to safety at the Kotla
24th Nov 2007 20:00 IST
Agencies
On a day of fluctuating fortune, Anil Kumble and his spin colleague Harbhajan Singh sunk their teeth into the Pakistani batting order and removed the top half to leave the first Test tantalisingly poised at the Ferozeshah Kotla in New Delhi.
Pakistan went into the tea break comfortably placed at 108/1 before Kumble (3/55) and Harbhajan (2/51) shared four wickets between them in the final session to turn the game on its head, leaving Pakistan with their last recognized partner of Misbah-ul-Haq (29) and Kamran Akmal (21) in the middle.
The visitors now have a 167-run lead with five wickets in hands after they finished Day Three after bad light stopped play -- at 212/5 with the slow and low Kotla track promising more for the spinners over the next two days.
Having clawed their way back into the game, Salman Butt (67) and Yasir Hameed (36) gave Pakistan a solid 71-run opening stand to lay the foundation for a big second innings total.
Hameed hit Munaf Patel for back-to-back fours, while Butt drove Zaheer Khan through extra cover to get into the groove and the right hand-left hand combination treated the pacers and spinners with identical disdain.
VVS Laxman finally took the cudgel on himself to pull off a blinder after Hameed, defending a Kumble delivery, offered a low catch at silly point.
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