Test 2 Day 5 - One down, Nine to go.

First things first - the toss was not as vital as made out to be. I don't believe India would be too chuffed if they had to bowl on the fifth day's wicket if they had lost the toss.

Secondly, England have , over four innings, spectacularly imploded from positions of strength and it is India,not England, that have taken 20 wickets in both tests.

And in this test, the rub of the umpiring green went England's way.

India has its problems, no doubt. Sreesanth needs to get his act together, India needs to play the ebbs and flows of the game better, the captaincy needs to be a touch more proactive and there is a tendency of getting overconfident after a win ( and India has the track record of losing a test right after winning one).

India has 9 days to get these issues sorted out and a happy dressing room from the Lords test will be happier still.

A pretty comprehensive victory in the end, though people may point out to the 3 wickets lost and hint at a stutter.

1 Test and 8 ODIs remain to win then, for India.

Test 2 Day 4 - On the cusp

Something happened at Trent Bridge today - England were going swimmingly at 287/3, the new ball had been tonked to the tune of 17 runs in two overs.

The real Sreesanth had gone AWOL, Michael Vaughan was playing like a dream, England led by 4.

And just like that, the game turned on its head.

Just like that.

And just like that, pessimism turned to optimism, drooping shoulders and heads gave way to a spring in the steps and the chuntering started in full earnest.

Long story short, India needs 63 runs to win in 90 overs with 10 wickets in hand.

The score card -here.

Test 2 Day 3 - So far, so good

Although India will be remiss in not reminding Simon Taufel of his howlers on Day 3.

England has all the running to do over the next two days while India has to play the patience game - keep theirs and work on the Poms'.

And it is imperative for Sreesanth to come to the party.

With the wicket getting more uneven, India cannot afford for its bowlers to ease on the pressure and let the Poms get a look in.

With 240 runs to play with and 6 sessions to go and Rahul Dravid displaying rare flair and imagination in the 16 overs that India were on the field, I will be surprised if India fails to wrap up the game by the end of the day's play tomorrow.

Test 2 Day 2 - Looking ahead

If I was India captain, here is how I would like tomorrows day to unfold-

India needs to push its overall lead to at least 300.

India bats new ball to new ball. India needs to set stall for 80 overs tomorrow and score at around 3.5 -4.0 runs an over.

This will give us around 280-320 runs for the day which, coupled with the 56 run lead India has in the bad already, pushes the overall lead to 336-376 runs.

If India is not all out in this 80 over span, I would expect India to declare and let our bowlers get around 8 overs at th England batsmen.

The 300 plus run cushion will allow India to attack right through the English innings. And even if the English play out of their collective skins, barring for rain, India will not have too stiff a target to chase in the 4th innings.

And the declaration will give India the better part of 6.25 sessions to get 10 English wickets.

If rain is a factor, we have time. If rain is not a factor, England will have to front up on an increasing wearing pitch.

Our approach tomorrow will determine whether we go to the Oval all square or 1-0 up.

The ball is in India's court.

Test 2 Day 2 - Rahul Dravid hands England a sliver of hope

With things going swimmingly well and India needing to bat once, bat big and bat England out of the game, India's captain had a brain fade

76.2	Panesar to Dravid, OUT, got him! Tossed up outside off, Dravid never got his foot to the pitch of the ball - poking at it without conviction, much as he has done against Panesar on occasion throughout his innings, and Bell takes an excellent diving catch to his left at short extra
	R Dravid c Bell b Panesar 37 (94b 5x4 0x6) SR: 39.36

For all the comparisons with Cape Town, the Indian tactics ( with Dravid and Sachin batting) in this test seemed sound.

The new ball was due and India would not have liked a new batsman facing first up.Plus there were 3 more days of Test Cricket left after today.

And from Englands point of view, they had to play damage control given the batsmen India have in the pavilion. Every ball, every over that they are on the field added to the pressure and frustration.

Also, Vaughan's ability to attack with the new ball would have been blunted with two set batsmen at the crease.

And India could afford a go slow at this stage of the game and at this time of the day because they were in total control.

Which is why Rahul Dravid's dismissal is inexcusable.

How much of an opening will his late dismissal give England? And how much time will India take to consolidate tomorrow before opening out?

And what lead will India and conversely England feel satisfied with?

An intriguing day's play beckons.

Test 2 Day 1- Advantage India

England 169/7

India did two things right on the first day- won the toss and elected to field.

From that point on, it was just a question of not trying too much, keeping the ball there and thereabouts and letting the conditions do the rest. And the Indian bowlers, barring RP Singh to some extent, did just that.

Couple of things that made no sense

1. The persistence with Ganguly for a prolonged spell post tea. And then replacing him with Sachin Tendulkar with two new batsmen at the crease.
   
2. The tendency of the Indian bowlers and fielders to lose the plot somewhat in the last half and hour before tea. England was under the cosh. India needed to keep the pressure up by stemming the flow of runs and letting the pressure get to Collingwood and Cook. Instead, we had a flurry of fours and a 44 run partnership was conjured up in double quick time.

So, going into Day 2, India holds three of the four aces. The first task for India is to wrap up the tail in the first hour while restricting the score to below 200.

200 and upwards is a huge psychological boost for the English team, given their travails today. And India will do well to deny England any crumbs of comfort.

Which means that India show positive intent with the bat. English commentators have not stopped reminding is that this is a second string bowling attack and just how wonderfully they performed in spite of being a second string bowling line up.

Now is the time and the opportunity to remind them why exactly this bowling line up is not considered England's first choice bowling attack.

India needs to be relentless with the bat, despite loss of wickets.

Forget the Fab 4 or Famous 5 or Secret Seven or whatever else the hype meisters call them, India needs to overhaul England's first innings total as quickly as possible. And the reason for this is that with every run that India scores, England shifts to damage limitation/damage control mode.

And if England cannot attack the Indian batsmen, the English bowling becomes less potent. And that opens up the possibility for India to target Madhusuden Panesar for sustained periods in this game.

Which in turn sets the platform the remaining Test and ODIs to follow.

And if conditions get more batsmen friendly, as they are supposed to on Days 2 and 3, India's batsmen have a huge advantage to do just that.

England played to India's batting reputation in the first test in spite of bowling friendly conditions. This is the time to remind them exactly why India's batting has the reputation in the first place.

The Fab 4

Sfx has an interesting take on the entire Fab 4 debate - here

Woo Hoo!!!

India recorded its second straight win in the Under-19 triangular limited over series in Sri Lanka by outclassing Bangladesh by 97 runs at Colombo’s Sara Stadium.
--
Rain saved India at Lord’s but there was no such luck for Sharad Pawar’s board today as the rebel Indian Cricket League smote it in the face by announcing its first big catch, Brian Lara.

The negative Indian media

Heartbreak for England, lucky for India

It’s another great escape

Weather denies England win

Rain Check

Rain saves India as first Test is drawn

Lord saves India at Lord's

Flabby in the middle

Dear Rahul

Your theme song for this season is here ( lyrics here)

Rain denies England deserved win

saye the banner on the CricInfo site.

The live scorecard reads thus

6.20 pm Well that's it. The match has been called off. England have been denied by the rain, India have been let off the hook, it's a draw. Lots of relieved faces in the Indian dressing room. There'll be several frustrated ones in England's for sure.

Hello??

Denied? Is victory some god given right that the Poms were deprived of?

Everyone, his uncle and his grandfather knew that rain will be a factor in this test match.

Everyone, his uncle and his grandfather knew that rain will become a significant factor on the last day.

And yet, Vaughan did not declare to give his bowlers that extra half an hour to have a go at the Indians.

In the morning session, the Pom over rate was 13.4 overs/hr. Hello?

There was a test match to be won. The Poms dragged their feet. They did not push hard enough.

They were not denied.

They got the result they deserved.

Apologies

for not having blogged over the past few days.

Having spent a substantial part of my day on Prem Panicker's blog, discussing and arguing and opining on the state of the day's play, I find myself devoid of ideas by the time I am ready to blog.

That being the case, normal blogging will resume once the test match ends.

Take care :),

Homer

England v India, Lords, Test 1 Day 1

Toss:- England

Teams

England - 1 Andrew Strauss, 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Michael Vaughan (capt), 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Ian Bell, 7 Matt Prior (wk), 8 Chris Tremlett, 9 Ryan Sidebottom, 10 James Anderson, 11 Monty Panesar

India - 1 Wasim Jaffer, 2 Dinesh Karthik, 3 Rahul Dravid (capt), 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Sourav Ganguly, 6 VVS Laxman, 7 MS Dhoni (wk), 8 Anil Kumble, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 RP Singh, 11 Sreesanth.

Session 1

14/0 in the 3rd over and it appears that the Indians are trying too much too early. Plenty of field changes, Sreesanth going over and round the wicket, no consistency in line and length.

40/0 in 5. Okay, so the Indians cant get thier lines right. But can we get a square leg in place please? Anything straight or on the legs is being dispatched with alarming regularity. And when we are bowling on and around off stump, we are bowling way too wide.

Over 8.3 Ravi Shastri got it right. Rhul Dravid has been reactive rather than proactive. And the Indians are bowling without a plan.

Over 12 - The Poms are controlling the pace and tempo of the game right now. And India are doing nothing to - either slow down the game or quicken the tempo. And of course, bowling tripe doesnt help the cause either.

Drinks - England 76/0 in 14.

WICKET! England 76-1 (Cook LBW b Ganguly 36) Sourav Ganguly is on for Sreesanth - and that's why! He beat Cook second ball and then trapped him LBW with the fourth, which nipped away and beat Cook's desperate defensive stroke. Hawk-Eye actually had it missing off stump but it looked out live, and it was beautifully bowled.

Lunch Day 1 - England 115/1 in 28 overs.

England's session all the way. And India did not help its cause by dropping a catch and being all over the shop with the ball.

Pre lunch, India gave England gifts and England accepted them. Post lunch, India will have to be lss charitable. India needs to control the tempo of the game and if we can stem the flow of runs right after lunch for about half and hour or so, we will gain control of the game. Too many four balls in the first 3-4 overs after lunch and we can say good bye to getting anything from the days play.

Two days to go...

Harmison’s absence for the three-Test series against India, along with that of Andrew Flintoff, was not greeted with regret by two of their senior players, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly. The pair have contrasting records at the home of cricket, the former never having made a hundred there, save in a charity match, and the latter having scored 131 on his Test debut in 1996. It is an omission that “The Little Master” is keen to correct.

Geoffrey Dean

Yuvraj Singh, one learns, isn’t out of the frame for a place in the XI for the first Test against England.

LOKENDRA PRATAP SAHI

Ganguly can be annoying as much as he can be entertaining, speaking absolutely in cricketing terms. To the connoisseur, that elegant nudge of the ball - through the covers - can be delightful and in the same breadth, that shirt-twirling affair here at Lord’s five years back, irksome.

K Shriniwas Rao

In the silver-haired winters of their life, will they ever call each other, on wistful days, to remember how they fashioned history? Will they accidentally meet at airports, and stop for a comfortable instant, not firm friends perhaps but having seen closest each one’s finest triumph and cruellest humiliation.

Rohit Brijnath

This conflict of the ages will not be lost on Rahul Dravid. He has brought to England an Indian Test squad that has, on one hand, a well-worn middle order, a veteran leg-spinner, a left-arm seamer of some experience, and, on the other, a bunch of fresh faces, some less fresh than the others

S. Ram Mahesh

Yuvraj for Ganguly?

What does one make of Yuvraj coming in at 3 in the second essay against the Plions?