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Chasing a stiff target of 378 runs for victory Delhi left in spot of bother at stumps on 113/3, loosing the third wicket on the very last ball of the day’s play when Harbhajan get rid off R.Bhatia for well made 31 runs. Now Delhi hopes rely on the in-form batsman G.Gambhir who is batting beautifully on 51 runs with eight strokes to the fence.

Earlier Zaheer Khan strikes for Rest of India in quick succession to left Delhi in hole as he dismissed Delhi captain Virendra Sehwag (3 runs) and Virat Kohli (16 runs) both were dismissed lbw. Delhi still need 265 runs for an outright victory with seven wickets in their second innings in tact.

Delhi as their innings started hoped that there captain will lonely play a big inning to helped the team to reach the daunting task of 378 runs as he walked in as opener because of little injury to Akash Chopra.

Gambhir, who was not out on 51 off 87 balls with eight hits to the fence, and Rajat Bhatia (31 off 69 balls with five boundaries) then retrieved the situation with a 76-run third wicket stand off 134 balls before the later was caught by Mahendra Singh Dhoni off Harbhajan Singh off the last ball of the day.

Earlier during Rest of India’s inning Ishant Sharma strikes for Delhi to left ROI in spot of bother but Indian One day and T20 captain M.S.Dhoni played a superb inning with aggression and caution to helped his team to get the lead over 350 runs. He hit twelve fours and one huge six in his inning of 84 runs of 113 balls.

Other player who batted with lots of maturity and patience from ROI was Rahul Dravid who batted for 297 minutes and faced 211 balls before being dismissed by C.Nanda for 69 runs.

C.Nanda (48/5) and Ishant Sharma (3/52) put a great bowling effort to restrict the Rest of India inning to 302 runs.

Now it’s up to Indian captain Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh to exploit the condition on 4^th day play when Delhi resume their run chase from ROI point of view they need to get rid off Gautam Gambhir early to tighten the grip on the match.

Match Summary (Day3)

Rest of India – 252/10 in 81.3 Overs

W.Jaffer- 50 R.Dravid – 46

I.Sharma – 12.3-5-22-3 P.Sangwan– 15-1-57-3

Delhi – 177/10 in 57 Overs

V.Sehwag – 43 A.Chopra – 42

Z.Khan– 9-0-31-4 Harbhajan Singh– 13-2-32-2

Rest of India – 302/10 in 92.5 Overs

M.S.Dhoni- 84 R.Dravid – 69

C.Nanda– 26.5-8-48-5 I.Sharma– 21-7-52-3

Delhi – 113/3 in 31 Overs

G.Gambhir – 51* R.Bhatia – 31

Z.Khan– 8-0-18-2 Harbhajan Singh– 4-2-11-1

Selectors picked up virtually a test side which will be playing against Australians from October 9^th but Rest of India batting collapse again as they failed to play full 90 overs of days play. Rest of India bowled out for just 252 runs in 81.3 overs thanks to some lusty hit by lower order players Harbhajan Singh (26 runs), R.P.Singh (19 runs) and Munaf Patel (18 runs).

At stump on day1 Delhi were 21 without loss with G.Gambhir batting on 4 while A.Chopra batting on 16 runs. Now Delhi will be looking to take big lead to take most advantage during their first inning.

For Delhi Ishant Sharma (3/22), C.Nanda (3/60) and P.Sangwan (3/57) were pick-of the bowlers. Especially Ishant Sharma bowled superb spell during his twelve overs and dismissed Rahul dravid, S.Badrinath and M.Patel to justify his fitness in the eye of selectors.

Earlier ROI Captain Anil Kumble won the all important toss and decided to bat first. ROI started their first inning with two new openers R.Dravid (46 runs) and Wasim Jaffer (50 runs). Both openers put on 77 runs for the first wicket before W.Jaffer was dismissed by leg-spinner C.Nanda. ROI went into lunch without any further damage done.

But soon after lunch Ishant Sharma strike twice with the beauty of delivery, first to dismiss set batsman Rahul Dravid for 46 runs. However replay showed that ball could miss the leg stump and then bowled S.Badrinath for 16 runs to reduce the Rest of India score from 112/1 to 127/3. Virender Sehwag got rid of V V S Laxman to reduce Rest of India to 167 for four off 61 overs at tea.

Rest of the ROI batsman fall like pack of card and at one stage they were struggling to reach 200 run marks at 187/8. However lower order batsman played their part to give some respectability to the innings total.

Match Summary (Day1)

Rest of India – 252/10 in 81.3 Overs

W.Jaffer- 50 R.Dravid – 46

Md.Kaif- 29 V.V.S.Laxman-16

I.Sharma – 12.3-5-22-3 P.Sangwan– 15-1-57-3

C.Nanda-27.1-3-60-3

Delhi – 21/0 in 5 Overs

A.Chopra – 16* G.Gambhir – 4*

Z.Khan– 2-1-8-0 R.P.Singh– 2-0-7-0

Yuvraj Singh after not making into the Rest of India squad for Irani trophy now got a golden opportunity to prove himself once again before sectors will pick 15 member squad for the first test match starting from October 9^th in Bangalore. He was named as captain for Board President’s XI in a four day warm-up game against the Asutralia to be played from October 2^nd in Hyderabad.

S.Sreesanth was also included in the squad after he misses the Kitply Cup, Asia Cup and the tour of Sri Lanka due to hamstring injury. Opener Wasim Jaffer and Akash Chopra are also included in the squad as two specialist openers.

Now Yuvraj needs to play a big knock against the Australians to cement his place in the test side. He averages just 29.42 in the 13 test matches he played so far. Irfan Pathan and M.Gony were also included in the squad to lead the pace bowling attack.

Meanwhile selectors also announced the India A squad for the two unofficial test matched to be played against New Zealand A. Suresh Raina will lead the India A in the absence of S.Badrinath who was included in the Rest of India squad after Sachin Tendulkar pull out himself from Irani Trophy.

While Jaydey Shah the Saurashtra captain will be named as vice captain of India A.

Board President's squad: Wasim Jaffer, Aakash Chopra, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh (Captain), S Badrinath, Rohit Sharma, Parthiv Patel (WK), Irfan Pathan, S Sreesanth, Piyush Chawla, Pragyan Ojha, Pankaj Singh, Manpreet Gony, Yogesh Takawale, Rakesh Dhurv.

India A Squad: Jaydev Shah, M Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Suresh Raina (Captain), Sahil Kukreja, Cheteshwar Pujara, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, Wriddhiman Saha (WK), Ashok Dinda, Dhawal Kulkarni, Sudeep Tyagi, Amit Mishra, Pradeep Sangwan, Mohnish Parmar.

India will tour Pakistan in the early part of 2009 to play three test match series, five ODI’s and one T20I. India will arrive to Pakistan on January 4. The 47 day tour will begin with three day warm-up game from 6^th of January. The first test match will be played at National Stadium, Karachi from 13^th to 17^th January2009.

Rest of the two test matches will be played at Rawalpindi and Lahore from 21^st and 29^th of January. Five One Day International will be played at Faislabad, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan and Karachi on 6^th, 8^th, 11^th, 14^th and 17^th of January.

India will end their tour with one of Twenty20 International which will be hosted by National Stadium Karachi. On their last tour in 2005-06 India able to win the five match one day series by 4-1 but lost the three match test series by 1-0 to Pakistan.

Here are the complete fixture of India Vs Pakistan Series 2009(All timing are mentioned in GMT+05:30)

After a hot series down under earlier this year, Australia will face tough task ahead to retain the Border-Gavaskar trophy. This time Australia came to India with new faces and out of which only four players have played here in India before. R.Ponting, M.hayden, S.Katich and M.Clarke have played test match here in India.

Australia will heavily rely on their pace bowling attack which is lead by Brett Lee who will be also playing for the first time against India on Indian soil. However with so much experience behind them they will take that and it will be going to one of the intresting series of this season.

Sachin Tendulkar who needs another 77 runs to became the highest run getter in the history of test cricket. He also try to forgot the previous series in which he manage just 95 runs in his six test innings against the Sri Lankan’s.

Over the last seven years, India have played 15 test matches against mighty Australians. In which 11 test matches had results, Australia winning six while India manage to win five. In between India have also managed to break the jinx of winning the test matches in Australia.

Lot’s of people including Australians will miss A.Symonds absence from the Australian squad and it will be interesting to see the Australian team tactics on this tour. Since Ricky Ponting will lead a relatively inexperienced team - none of his bowlers have played a Test in India.

So far out of four Border-Gavaskar trophy played in India, India manage to won the trophy on three occasions and Australia manage to win one on their last tour of India in 2004/05.

Here are the summary of the Border-Gavaskar trophy played on Indian Soil:

Border-Gavaskar Trophy, 1996/97

Results: India won the one match series by 1-0

Australia’s who never won a test series here in India came here with much expectation but lost the only test match which was played at Delhi. Mark Taylor wins the toss and decided to bat first but Australia bowled out for just 182 on day1, from India Anil Kumble picks up 4 for 63. India replied with 361 with brilliant century by Nayan Mongia. India restricted Australia to 234 (A.Kumble picks up another five wickets haul during Australian second inning).

Border-Gavaskar Trophy, 1997/98

Results: India won the 3-match series by 2-1

Player of the series: S.R.Tendulkar

On this tour Australian new bowling attack struggle without their premium bowler G.McGrath. This series was best known as Tendulkar vs Warne Series. It was one of the famous series from Tendulkar and India perspective as Sachin hits Warne all over the park in each of his knock except the first inning of first test match where he was cheaply dismissed for four by S.Warne. India won the first two test match quite comfortably however brilliant century by M.Waugh (153 not out) at Bangalore and M.Kasprowiz 5 for 28 helped Australia to receive a consolation victory in the last test match.

Border-Gavaskar Trophy, 2000/01

Results: India won the 3-match series by 2-1

Player of the series: Harbhajan Singh

This was one of the most famous test series between these two countries. Australia wrapped the first test match at Mumbai in just three days with the help of superb century by M.Hayden and A.Gilchrist. After loosing the first test match and following on in 2^nd test match at Kolkata Indians were looking out of the match and series then entered a man known as V.V.S.Laxman who no-doubt played an inning of his life of 281 runs and put on crucial 376 run stand with Rahul Dravid (180 runs) to gave India an outside chance to bounce back into the test match. That what Harbhajan and Sachin did with the ball during Austral 2^nd Inning to registered one of the most unbelievable victory. After winning the 2^nd test match and leveling the series India manage to win hard-fought contest at Chennai to shatter the Australian dream of winning the test series against India after 31 years.

Border-Gavaskar Trophy, 2004/05

Results: Australia won the 4-match series by 2-1

Player of the series: DR Martyn

In 2004/05 tour finally Australian dream came true as they able to win the test series on Indian soil after 35 years. Australia won the first Test at Bangalore by 217 runs thanks to debutant Michael Clarke's 151 and Gilchrist's murderous 104 and some tight bowling. Harbhajan excelled with 11 wickets in the match but India could not force a win. Second test match was well poised in India favour but overnight Rain didn’t allowed India to chase down 210 runs for victory with nine wickets in hand. Australia did manage to win the next won by brilliant century by M.Clark and D.Martyn to take unbeaten series lead of 2-0 with one to play. The final Test match which was played at Wankhede Stadium will be remembered for low scoring thrilling encounter as no team manage to get going. Both team struggled with the bat. Australia needing 107 runs for victory bundled out for 93 runs to give India 13 runs consolation win.

After so much talk and debacle people finally came to know that Andrew Symonds will not tour India for four match test series starting from October 9. Australian selectors named 15 member squad including four uncapped players.

At presently Andrew Symonds is under going counseling after he was sent back home from Darwin where Australia played three ODI against Bangladesh due to his bad behavior. Symonds had gone fishing and missed a team meeting as well as an optional training session and was reprimanded by the team management.

There may be chances that his international career might come to an end now. Shane Watson was included in the squad to take the all-round responsibility of Andrew Symonds. Ricky Ponting who is out of action from West Indies tour was also making come back to the team and was named skipper.

Mathew Hayden is also missed quite few matches but he is recovering well and is likely to be fit before India tour. Australian selectors included four new faces in the squad touring India early next month - leg-spinner Bryce McGain, off-spinner Jason Krejza, fast bowler Peter Siddle and left-arm speedster Doug Bollinger.

In the 15 member squad only four players – R.Ponting, M.hayden, S.Katich and M.Clarke have played test match here in India. Australia will arrive in India on 22^nd of September and will play two warm-up games. First test match of four match series will begin from October 9 at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore.

Australia 15 member Squad for tour of India: Ricky Ponting (Captain), Michael Clarke (Vice-Captain), Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey, Simon Katich, Phil Jaques, Brad Haddin, Shane Watson, Brett Lee, Stuart Clark, Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle, Jason Krejza, Bryce McGain and Doug Bollinger.

New Zealand tour of Bangladesh

New Zealand selectors also announced their 15 member squad for both test matches and ODI to be played in Bangladesh. New Zealand will play three One Day International and two test matches during their tour.

The first ODI will be played at Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur on 9^th of October.

Scott Styris and Mark Gillespie have been named in the ODI squad only. In the lead-up to the first Test, which begins on October 17^th, that pair will fly home and the squad will be joined by the Test specialists Redmond and Iain O'Brien.

ODI squad: Jamie How, Brendon McCullum (WK), Scott Styris, Ross Taylor, Daniel Flynn, Jesse Ryder, Jacob Oram, Gareth Hopkins (WK), Grant Elliott, Daniel Vettori (Captain), Kyle Mills, Tim Southee, Mark Gillespie, Jeetan Patel, Chris Martin.

Test squad: Jamie How, Aaron Redmond, Ross Taylor, Daniel Flynn, Jesse Ryder, Jacob Oram, Brendon McCullum (WK), Gareth Hopkins (WK), Grant Elliott, Daniel Vettori (Captain), Kyle Mills, Tim Southee, Iain O'Brien, Jeetan Patel, Chris Martin.

In the 5^th edition of ICC Awards Yuvraj Singh and M.S.Dhoni receives an honour award for Twenty20 and ODI. S.Chanderpaul of West Indies bagged Cricketer of the Year award.

Dhoni, who achieve number one rank in the ICC Ranking a few weeks ago with superb performance with the bat in the recently concluded ODI against Sri Lanka, is awarded best ODI Player of the Year for 2008.

Yuvraj Singh bagged twenty20 performer of the Year award after superb performance in inaugural twenty20 world cup. In the same series he hit six sixes in an over to create history.

The award show, which is regarded as cricket's Oscars, kicked off with the Emerging Player of the Year Award, which was handed to Sri Lanka's spin sensation Ajantha Mendis, who pipped fellow newcomers Ishant Sharma, Stuart Broad and Morne Morkel.

South African pace bowler Dale Styne able to win Test Player of the Year award while S.Chanderpaul bagged Cricketer of the Year award.

Sri Lanka is awarded Spirit of the cricketer award for their discipline on the field.

Simon Taufel of Australia has been awarded with best umpire of the Year award. Ryan ten Doeschate of Netherland has been awarded Associates player of the Year award.

ICC also declared best test team and ODI team of the year. In which Virendra Sehwag is the only Indian to gain spot in test side while Sachin Tendulkar and M.S.Dhoni is able to make into the ODI team.

So here is the list of winners for the LG ICC Awards 2008:

Cricketer of the Year: S.Chanderpaul (West Indies)

Test Player of the Year: D.Styen (South Africa)

One Day International Player of the Year: M.S.Dhoni (India)

Twenty20 International Performance of the Year: Yuvraj Singh (India)

Emerging Player of the Year: Ajantha Mendis (Sri Lanka)

Spirit of Cricket: Sri Lanka

Associate Player of the Year: Ryan ten Doeschate (Netherland)

Umpires of the Year: Simon Taufel (Australia

Women’s Player of the Year: Charlotte Edwards (England)

ICC Test Team of the Year: Greame Smith (South Africa) (Captain), Virender Sehwag (India), Mahela Jayawardene (Sri Lanka), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (West Indies), Kevin Pietersen (England), Jacques Kallis (South Africa), Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka), Brett Lee (Australia), Ryan Sidebottom (England), Dale Steyn (South Africa), Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka) and Stuart Clark (Australia).

ICC ODI Team of the Year: Hershelle Gibbs (South Africa), Sachin Tendulkar (India), Ricky Ponting (Australia) (Captain), Younis Khan (Pakistan), Andrew Symonds (Australia), Mahendra Singh Dhoni (India), Farveez Maharoof (Sri Lanka), Daniel Vettori (New Zealand), Brett Lee (Australia), Mitchell Johnson (Australia), Nathan Bracken (Australia) and Salman Butt (Pakistan).

ICC Awards nomination for 2008 is announced which will be awarded in Dubai on 10^th of September 2008. Indian Captain M.S.Dhoni and master-blaster Sachin Tendulkar along with Australian pacer Nathan Bracken and Pakistan Md. Yousuf has been nominated for ODI Player of the Year category.

West Indies consistent player Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Sri Lankan Captain Mahela Jayawardne and South African new pace sensation Dale Steyn have been nominated for both Cricketer of the Year as well as Test Player of the Year. While South African Captain Graeme Smith is able to fall in Cricketer of the Year category and Jaques Kallis was nominated in Test player of the Year category.

For twenty20 international performance of the year award four players are nominated in the category. Indian Captain M.S.Dhoni, twenty20 sixer master Yuvraj Singh, West Indies captain Chris Gayle along with fast bowler Brett Lee will fight for the twenty20 award.

New pace bowling sensation Ishant Sharma was also short listed in Emerging Player of the Year category along with Sri Lankan mystery spinner A.Mendis, England all-rounder Stuart Broad and South African fast bowler Morne Morkel.

So here are the Nominations for the LG ICC Awards 2008

Test Player of the Year: S.Chanderpaul (West Indies), D.Styen (South Africa), M.Jayawardne (Sri Lanka) and J.Kallis (South Africa).

One Day International Player of the Year: Nathan Bracken (Australia), M.S.Dhoni (India), Sachin Tendulkar (India) and Md. Yusuf (Pakistan).

Cricketer of the Year: S.Chanderpaul (West Indies), D.Styen (South Africa), M.Jayawardne (Sri Lanka) and G.Smith (South Africa).

Twenty20 International Performance of the Year: Chris Gayel (West Indies), M.S.Dhoni (India), Brett Lee (Australia) and Yuvraj Singh (India).

Emerging Player of the Year: Stuart Broad (England), Ajantha Mendis (Sri Lanka), Ishant Sharma (India) and M.Morkel (South Africa).

Spirit of Cricket: Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and West Indies.

Associate Player of the Year: Ryan ten Doeschate (Netherland), Alex Obanda (Kenya), Niall O’Brien (Ireland) and Thomas Odoyo (Kenya).

Umpires of the Year: Simon Taufel (Australia), Mark Benson (England), Aleem Dar (Pakistan), Steve Davis (Australia) and Rudi Koertzen (South Africa).

Women’s Player of the Year: Lisa Sthalekar (Australia), Charlotte Edwards (England), Claire Taylor (England) and Nicola Browne (New Zealand).

Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh both were dropped from Rest of India squad after their poor show against Sri Lankan's in the recent concluded series. Sourav Ganguly get big set back when selector announced the team today. Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly who is no longer part of One Day International team is now being drop from Rest of India squad which selector already announced that this is most likely team which will play against Australia in the test series which starts from October 9th.

Sourav Ganguly who averages 16 in his six innings against Sri Lanka now almost face an uphill task to get back into the Indian test team. The decision of the selectors to drop Ganguly, a veteran of 109 Tests, is a big setback for his chances of continuing to play for India Yuvraj Singh and Rohit Sharma also not included in the team. Yuvraj after the horrible performance with the bat was once again not included in the team.

Surpise inclusion in the squad is Md. Kaif and Ashok Dinda. Md. kaif who scored brilliant 94 in the game against Australia A was able to get nod of Rohit Sharma while Ashok Dinda were impressive during IPL for KKR get his first chance.Sachin Tendulkar who already declared himself fit on Saturday for the coming season will play his first game after getting injured during Sri Lanka test series.

Rest of India will play the Irani Trophy match between Ranji Trophy champions Delhi which will star from September 24 in Baroda. With no international fixtures before the Test series against Australia, starting October 9, it will be great opportunity for several of Indian players to get into the good form before the tough series against Australians.

It is expected to be one of close contest with both side have International players. Delhi squad will include Indian test side regular Gautam Gambhir, Ishant Sharma and Virendra Sehwag as well as youngsters Virat Kohli, and P.Sagnwan and former opener Akash Chopra.

India A squad was also announced which play the triangular series involving Australia A and New Zealand A starting from 16^th of September.

The Rest of India squad: Anil Kumble (Captain), Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni (WK), Rahul Dravid, V V S Laxman, Wasim Jaffer, Mohammad Kaif, Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Zaheer Khan, R P Singh, Ashok Dinda, Munaf Patel and Parthiv Patel.

India A squad: S Badrinath (Captain.), Suresh Raina, Robin Uthappa, Swapnil Asnodkar, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Abhishek Nayar, Irfan Pathan, Praveen Kumar, Dhaval Kulkarni, Piyush Chawla, Ravi Teja, Yusuf Pathan, Jaydev Shah, Wriddhiman Saha.