Crown was at Stake !

     India become number one test team of International Cricket Council (I.C.C.) when Indian cricket team beat Sri Lanka 2-0 in the month of December, 2009, series was played in India and it was three test matches series; one match at Ferozshah Kotla was abandon due to bad pitch which was consider not safe to play match and result of bad pitch cost Ferozshah Kotla ground and India ban for one year to host any game there despite being capital of cricket fanatic country India.
     Then in the month of January this year India was in Bangladesh to play two test matches series and won both matches, after the gap of few days now India is playing with South Africa who previously had to play only One day Internationals in India but on the request of B.C.C.I. South Africa cricket board agreed to play two test matches also, before the start of series India and South Africa were number one and two team respectively of test match rankings of I.C.C. and at the end of series standings can be change from one to two or two to one of both the teams even if India lost the series 1-0, reason of suspicion was because in Bangladesh after the completion of series, list of injured players started stretching and names like Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh and Srisanth tagged in the list and world’s strongest batting line suddenly appear exposed and looking vulnerable.
     First test match of the series between both the team started 6th February and last day of the match was 10th February but South Africa defeat India in four days of match that is on 9th February. South Africa won the toss and choose to bat first, in their first inning South Africa made 558 for the loss of six wickets (declared )in 176 overs on second day of the test match, main contributors in the South Africa innings were HM Amla 253 not out and JH Kallis 173, Zaheer khan was most impressive Indian bowler who took three wickets in his spell of 31 overs, in reply to South Africa score India in first innings all out for 233 and destroyer of Indian innings was DW Steyn whose bowling spell was 16.4 overs six maiden gave away 51 runs and took seven wickets and India was forced to follow on by South Africa captain Smith, in second innings India made 319 runs which were six runs short of South Africa thus lost the match with one innings and six runs, Amla declared man of the match and India down in he series 0-1.
   Second test match for Indian cricket team was crucial rather must win game to remain on top of test match rankings; draw and defeat will snatch their crown and it will belong to South Africa, then future test match series of both the teams would have been decider for how long South African could be number one test team ? Entry of VVS Laxman in second test match strengthens Indian middle order batting line. On 14th February second test match started, South Africa again won the toss and opted to bat first and team’s decision was looking right until they were 217 for the loss of one wicket on first day but then Indian bowler took grip on the match and at the end of first day South Africa were 266/9 and on second day after adding another 30 runs South Africa lost their last remaining wicket, South African batsman HM Amla who scored 114 runs and Peterson who made 100 runs were centuries maker and Indian bowler Zaheer and Harbhajan were main wicket takers who took four and three wickets respectively, then India in their first innings made 643 runs for the loss of six wickets(declared) and in their innings four batsmen scored centuries they were Sehwag, Tendulakar, Laxman and Dhoni South Africa started their second innings with deficit of 347 runs and South Africa in their second innings struggle a lot to save the match but in the end at the score of 289 they were all out and lost the match with an innings and 58 runs, thus series ended in draw .
    India saved its crown of number one test match team and table will now remain same of number one and second position, at one point especially on fourth day of match was looking very dim because of bad weather and it was predicted by MAT department bad weather on fifth day also, so it was believe that weather can become spoiler for Indian cricket team’s number position despite India was in very good position, but on fifth day weather was clear and Indian bowlers take remaining five wickets of South Africa ,draw the series and finished the series with remain number one test team.