The India national cricket team toured Pakistan for cricket matches during the 2005-06 season. Both India and Pakistan had already played Test matches during this season; India were coming off a 2-0 series win at home over Sri Lanka, while Pakistan beat England by the same margin. In ODI cricket, India's last series, in November 2005, ended in a 2-2 draw with South Africa, while Pakistan beat England 3-2 in December 2005. The tour began on 7 January 2006 with India playing Pakistan A in a non-first class game, and continued till 19 February.
Pakistan's captain, Inzamam-ul-Haq, said that India started as favourites in the Test series, while former fast bowler Sarfraz Nawaz has said that "it's easy to get them (Indian batsmen) out". The official ICC Test Championship had India in second place and Pakistan in fourth, while the ICC ODI Championship had Pakistan in the third place and India in the fifth place, at the end of 2005.
Pakistan won the Test series, claiming the third Test after 36 wickets Fall in the first two games combined, while India took the ODI series by a comfortable 4-1 margin.
Video Indian cricket team in Pakistan in 2005-06
Squads
Maps Indian cricket team in Pakistan in 2005-06
Test series
Tour match: Pakistan A v Indians (7-9 January)
Match drawn
The Indians won the toss and chose to bat at the Bagh-e-Jinnah in Lahore, and in 77 overs on the first day, they made 298 for four after half-centuries from Gautam Gambhir, Wasim Jaffer, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar. V. V. S. Laxman and Yuvraj Singh retired after making half-centuries on the second day, and after 27 second-day overs the tourists declared 414 ahead. The Indian seamers Ajit Agarkar and Irfan Pathan got a wicket each in their opening spell, but a 162-run stand between Imran Farhat and Hasan Raza closed the gap. Pathan eventually broke the partnership when Raza, the captain of Pakistan A, was caught behind for 75 off 62 balls, and Farhat was also out shortly afterwards, ending with 107. Faisal Iqbal made 87 for Pakistan A on the final day before they declared on 358 for 9, and Gambhir and Jaffer batted out 13 overs before the game was declared a draw.
Full Scorecard
First Test
Day 1
Pakistan won the toss, and after losing Salman Butt in a run out with the thirteenth ball of the match, but as Irfan Pathan was the only one to take a wicket, Pakistan built a lead of 326 on the first day of the match in Lahore. The BBC described their batsman as "dominating India" in a headline, with Shoaib Malik, Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf all passing fifty on the first day.
Sourav Ganguly returned for India, after being left out of the ODI side on recent tours, and the former captain saw action in the first session when he was called upon to bowl four overs of medium pace, but neither he nor any of the two spinners Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble could get a wicket in the morning session, and Malik completed his half-century off 109 balls just before the lunch break when he turned a ball from Kumble around to make two runs. The century stand came up shortly afterwards, before Pathan got the only wicket to a bowler's name on the first day; Malik was caught by Harbhajan for 59 off 145 balls. However, another century stand was to follow - Pakistan were 220 for 2 at tea, and Yousuf and Younis added a further 106 in the evening session, 30 of those coming in the last five overs against the new ball. With five overs remaining on the clock, bad light stopped play, with Yousuf five short of his century; in the previous over, he had been dropped by Sehwag in the gully.
Close of play: Pakistan 326/2 (Younis Khan 147*, Mohammad Yousuf 95*; 85 overs)
Day 2
Pakistan continued to build their first innings total in the morning. Yousuf reached 173 before being stumped off an Anil Kumble delivery. Younis increased his score to 199 before being runout. Shahid Afridi scored a quick century, plundering 27 off a Harbhajan Singh over in the process. This equalled the second highest score off a single over in Test matches. Harbhajan had some small measure of revenge however, taking the catch that dismissed Afridi for 103. Wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal also scored a century, the fastest ever by a wicketkeeper, and Pakistan declared immediately thereafter with a mammoth total of 679 for 7.
Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid opened India's first innings. They successfully withstood 13 overs before bad light stopped play and had scored 65 runs in the process.
Close of play: Pakistan 679/7d, India 65/0 (Sehwag 36*, Dravid 22*; 13 overs)
Day 3
In a rain interrupted day reduced to just 15 overs, Sehwag and Dravid advanced India's score to 145, with Sehwag finishing the day on 96 not out.
Close of Play: India 145/0 (Sehwag 96*, Dravid 37*; 28 overs)
Day 4
Sehwag and Dravid continued their partnership throughout the day, with Sehwag recording the second-fastest double century in test history by reaching 200 off 181 balls. By the end of the day Sehwag and Dravid were just 11 runs short of the record opening stand set by India fifty years ago.
Close of play: India 403/0 (Sehwag 247*, Dravid 128*; 75 overs)
Day 5
India resumed at 403 for no wicket and there was no prospect of a result in another interrupted day's play. Sehwag finally fell for 254, leaving India just three runs short of the record partnership. Play was abandoned at the tea interval.
Close of Play: India 410/1 (Sehwag 254; Dravid 128*)
Full Scorecard
Second Test
Day 1
Both sides made two changes, with India dropping Sourav Ganguly and Ajit Agarkar for Zaheer Khan and R. P. Singh, with Agarkar suspected to have a hamstring injury. India elected to choose five bowlers on what was an excellent batting pitch. This is the first time that a Test team has fielded three left-arm fast bowlers. Pakistan dropped Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and the ill Mohammad Sami, with Abdul Razzaq and Mohammad Asif coming in. Pakistan won the toss, batting first to reach 4/379 at stumps with Inzamam-ul-Haq & Shahid Afridi approaching centuries, on 79 and 85 respectively. On a tough day for bowling, R. P. Singh made a promising debut, taking three wickets.
Day 2
Play resumed on day two with Razzaq replacing Inzamam, who was confined to the dressing room due to a back injury. Afridi reached 156 from just 128 deliveries before being dismissed, ending a combined partnership of 257 with Inzamam and Razzaq. Inzamam returned to complete his century (119), and free-spirited hitting on a benign pitch by Shoaib Akhtar (47) allowed Pakistan to reach 588. R. P. Singh took 4/89, the best bowling figures. India started their reply confidently until Virender Sehwag (31) was dismissed. Captain Rahul Dravid (46*)and V. V. S Laxman (28*) proceeded cautiously to end the day at 1/110.
Day 3
Laxman and Dravid batted fluently throughout the first session to reach lunch at 83 and 97 respectively. India suffered a collapse after lunch, losing 4/45 as Laxman (90), Dravid (103, run out), Sachin Tendulkar (14, walking despite replays suggesting he missed the ball) and Yuvraj Singh (4) were all dismissed. However, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (116*) and Irfan Pathan (49*) counter-attacked to save the follow-on to close at 5/441.
Day 4
Dhoni and Pathan continued their partnership until Dhoni (148) was stumped trying to loft Kaneria over midwicket, ending a 210-run partnership. Pathan fell short of a century (90), but the tail wagged (Harbhajan Singh 38, Zaheer Khan 20*) to give India 603, and a slender lead of 15. Pakistan started their second innings confidently, reaching 1/152 at the close with Younis Khan on 64 and Kamran Akmal (opening in place of Shoaib Malik who had returned to Sialkot to be with his gravely ill father) on 59.
Day 5
Akmal was dismissed on 78, but Younis reached his fourth century in as many Tests against India. Along with Mohammad Yousuf (126), they added 262 for the third wicket. The loss of Razzaq (32) and Younis (194) caused a collapse of 5/2 reduced Pakistan to 8/490. This was the end of the innings, as both Inzamam and Malik were unavailable to bat. Zaheer Khan took 4/61. India batted 8 overs to reach 0/21 were the match was drawn.
As the game faded away, both wicket-keeper Dhoni and Younis Khan, infrequent bowlers at international level, took the new ball. R. P. Singh was named the Man of the Match, on his debut.
Third Test
Day 1
With a greentop pitch, India won the toss and sent Pakistan into bat. Harbhajan Singh was dropped for Sourav Ganguly as India reverted to a traditional six batsmen lineup. Inzamam ul-Haq and Shoaib Malik were unavailable through injury and personal bereavement, and were replaced by Faisal Iqbal and Imran Farhat respectively.
With the series tied at 0-0 with one game to play, the first day at Karachi saw 14 wickets fall - the most on any day in the series thus far - and three of them fell in the very first over, as Irfan Pathan removed Salman Butt (caught Dravid), makeshift captain Younis Khan (lbw) and Mohammad Yousuf (bowled) for a hat-trick. Cricinfo claimed the series "exploded into life" [1]. India took three more wickets in the next ten overs, sending Pakistan to 39 for 6, but wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal fought back. His fourth Test century took 130 balls, and during the three hours he batted, Pakistan added 197 runs for the loss of two wickets. Abdul Razzaq and Shoaib Akhtar supported Kamran, both falling short of their half-centuries but still assisting to the total of 245, while Pathan got two more wickets to end with five for 61.
India were sent in to bat shortly after tea, with two makeshift openers: V. V. S. Laxman and Rahul Dravid. Both were out to Mohammad Asif in the first twelve overs, and with Akhtar and Razzaq also taking two wickets, India closed the day on 74 for 4 with Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh still batting.
Day 2
Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh and Irfan Pathan all fell short of their half-centuries, and though Pakistan sent down 17 no-balls, they still bowled out India for 238 midway through the second day. Asif got four wickets in the first innings, quintupling his Test wicket count in his third Test, and Pakistan began batting shortly before tea. Salman Butt and Imran Farhat batted through 24 overs, adding 109 for the first wicket, and Pakistan closed on 173 for 2.
Day 3
More half-centuries followed, from Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf and Shahid Afridi, as Pakistan added more than 300 runs for the loss of three wickets. A long day in the field for India saw Zaheer Khan go through with bowling figures of 26-4-93-0; Anil Kumble, who got two wickets, conceded 136 in 31 overs. Faisal Iqbal, who returned after a three-year hiatus from Test cricket, scored his first Test century in his eleventh Test, and left Pakistan with a lead of 518, well ahead of the all-time Test record chase of 418 to win.
Day 4
Iqbal and Razzaq continued to hit out for Pakistan, before Iqbal was dismissed for 139 and Razzaq joined him in the pavilion the next over. With seven men down, Pakistan declared on 599, leaving India with 606 runs to win the match. Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif each took wickets in their first over, and when Sachin Tendulkar was bowled by a low ball from Asif, India were 74 for 4. Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh batted together until tea on day four, adding 103 runs, but Ganguly was out to the first ball after tea and Abdul Razzaq and Danish Kaneria shared the last six wickets as India went from 177 for 4 to a total of 265. The last wicket to fall was that of Singh, who with his 122 posted his second Test century. Pakistan won the match by 341 runs and the series by a margin of 1-0.
ODI series
First ODI
Second ODI
Third ODI
Fourth ODI
Fifth ODI
Player of the Series
Yuvraj Singh was declared the One Day International player of the series. He scored 344 runs in 5 matches.
References
External links
Source of article : Wikipedia
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