Mohali will be remembered for more than one reason

MOHALI: India's emphatic win over Australia in the second Test match here on Tuesday will go down in history for more reasons than one.

First the 320-run win was India's biggest victory in terms of runs' margin in Test cricket, bettering their 280-run win over South Africa at Kanpur in 1996-97.

The match also saw India's two cricketing greats Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly achieve important landmarks. Tendulkar crossed the 12,000 run mark and surpassed Brian Lara's 11,953 to become the highest run scorer in Test cricket. Tendulkar now has 12037 runs.

Former skipper Ganguly, who will retire from international cricket after the series, also crossed the 7000-run mark and now has 7090 runs. Ganguly's 102 in the first innings was also his 16th Test century.     

Indian bowlers also ruled the roost. First it was leg-spinner Amit Mishra who picked up five wickets in the first innings and two in the second and became the seventh Indian to bag seven wickets on debut in Tests. He joined Narendra Hirwani (now a selector), Dilip Doshi, Shivlal Yadav, Munaf Patel, Abid Ali and V.V.Kumar. Doshi, Yadav, Abid Ali and Mishra also achieved the feat against Australia.

In the second innings, Zaheer Khan rocked the Australian batting picking up three wickets in four balls. He thus became the second Indian after Ravi Shastri to bag three wickets in four balls. Shastri accomplished the feat in the second innings on debut against New Zealand in 1980-81 in  Wellington.