Rain played spoilsport in denying England its deserving victory at Lord’s. Chasing 380 in fourth innings is never going to be an easy task. With dismissal of two of its finest batsmen, Dravid and Sachin, cheaply, India was on a course for defeat. India’s sizeable first innings deficit and Kevin Pietersen’s knock in the second innings have turned out to be the decisive factor in nearly clinching this test match for England. But weather and Dhoni had other plans. Dhoni played a good innings under these circumstances though he lived with danger at most of the times.
KP’s Superlative Knock
Kevin Pietersen played one of the best knocks of his cricketing career. He himself had rated it as his best ever. Initially he played cautiously, building foundation with Vaughan. Then with company of Matt Prior he plundered Indian bowlers during post lunch session of the fourth day. Unfortunately he is turning out to be Sachin Tendulkar’s heir with most of his good knocks going in vain. This time it is the weather that did him.
India’s Mistakes
Indian pacemen’s bad performance on day one of the test coupled with their batters appalling performance on third day morning made things worse for their team. I don’t remember any good performance by Zaheer Khan in test matches against major test playing nations except for his burst against Australia in Brisbane. Dravid had a bad test series against South Africa last year. Now he failed twice in this test match, though unfortunately. Whether he has joined the likes of Sehwag, Ganguly, Laxman and Sachin or this is just a temporary slump? I hope this is a temporary slump.
Young guns of India
RP Singh and Sreesanth bowled well in patches. Sreesanth must inculcate discipline and consistency into his bowling. Jaffer and Karthik played good knocks each. Jaffer has to shed his casualness to play continuously for India at the highest level. Karthik needs to reduce his over-smartness, which is costing the team dearly at times.
Scorecard: India vs England First Test Lord's 2007
The dream of winning a test series in England during their career appears to be just a dream for the ageing warriors of Indian team. To win this series they must raise their games remarkably as a unit. There is an opportunity in remaining two tests. But, whether there is a will?
1 comment:
India captain Rahul Dravid came down heavily on an Indian television channel on Friday and asked them to verify the facts before running stories.Read this: Angry Dravid slams TV channel
Post a Comment