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Second Test match between India and England will start on 27^th July, 2007 at Trent Bridge, it is happy hunting ground for India because during the India’s last tour to England, India gained momentum at this ground and they carried that momentum in next test match by winning that and making series level.

There are chances of rain in next five days, which may spoil the party, Nottingham hasn’t witnessed a sunny day in a while and Trent Bridge was dotted with large puddles on the evening of the game, it is also being said that that Trent Bridge’s drainage system is not as efficient as one at Lord’s. Let’s hope for the best….

England most likely stay with same eleven they fielded at Lords.

India should also pick up the same team as first test, there are still some doubts over the fitness of Sourav Ganguly, although he has been included in final 12 for the Second Test, Yuvaraj Singh might get chance to play his part if Ganguly is unwell to get included in side.

Indian Openers will have to give India good start this time around; both openers made successful half centuries during first test but it came in separate innings. If they can blossom in the same inning then India might take advantage of that.

It is evident from the first test that only Anderson and Sidebottom are real threat to Indians, if openers negotiate with their front line bowlers and add some good partnership then it will certainly give India an upper hand for the rest of the innings. Other bowlers Tremlett took wicket but he was rather inconsistent and gave away some feast to Indian batsmen. Panesar is really bowling well but since Indians are good at playing spin bowling, I don’t see much of threat in his bowling at least on England pitches.

Rahul Dravid failed to make big score in first test, but in my opinion he will bounce back with his batting in second test. Sourav Ganguly did okay job in both innings by scoring 35+ runs in both the innings, but one should note that he got out within the first few over of the day in both innings, he needs to bargain first few over of the day carefully to build up long innings

Sachin Looked confident when he took the guard in first inning of Lord’s test but couldn’t keep the momentum. But good news for us and Tendulkar is that he has fond memory at this ground, he has scored one century, two fifties and averages 94 in four innings at Trent Bridge. Hope he will capitalize this record and give India solid support in middle order. VVS Laxman had some good opportunity in both the inning to show his value to the Indian team, but once again he didn’t perform up to the scratch, he bated well in second innings and put on good partnership with Dhoni, but in my opinion he could have stayed longer at the crease. He really needs to perform consistently and use his immense talent.

Dhoni bated very well in the second inning after having duck in the first inning, though he was lucky on couple of occasions. His inning (along with weather) at Lord’s kept England away from deserving win.

In bowling department, Zaheer Khan and RP Singh did excellent job to trouble English batsmen, but Sreesanth and Kumble failed to interrupt England batsmen while they were on the crease. Indian bowlers need to keep good line and length to refrain England batsmen from making big score. Weather would definitely help Indian seam bowlers at Nottingham

England, on the other side, must be in positive frame of mind, as their batsmen and bowlers have performed well to take their team to win the test match that unfortunately resulted in to draw due to weather god.

In my opinion both team will field same XI tomorrow. We shall come up with more match details and live scoreboard if the match gets start on the time on 27^th. Keep tuned for all the details of the first day right here, and don’t forget to leave a feedback!

India finished the fourth day on 137 for 3; Indians were short of 243 runs with seven wickets in hand. There were chances of heavy rain forecast for the day 5 of first test. So, Indian batsmen have to stay on the crease and negotiate with English bowlers.

Sidebottom and Anderson started the bowling for England and Ganguly and Karthik resumed the batting at the score of 36 and 56 runs respectively.

Sidebottom snared Ganugly early on the fifth day, he was caught in front of the wicket, and Steve Bucknor didn’t have any doubt in raising his figure to send Ganguly back to the pavilion after adding 4 runs to his overnight score.

Laxman joined Karthik on the crease, but this partnership lasted for only few over, 3 over later Karthik got out in the over of Anderson, outside edge flied straight to Collingwood at the second slip.

Dhoni came to the crease after the fall of two quick wickets, he had a duck in first inning so he was on a pair when he came to the crease. England made perfect start for the morning. Laxman and Dhoni stabilized the Indian innings in the morning session they made 62 run partnership in 22 over before lunch.

In the 7^th over after lunch debutant Tremlett struck with the wicket of set batsman VVS Laxman, he was clean bowled at the score of 39 runs, he faced 90 balls and scored 5 boundries. With this wicket England broke partnership of last pair of recognized batsmen, and that brought first tailender of India in Anil Kumble. I should also mention that Dhoni had couple of lucky escape when he started his innings, but he was going along strong.

Sidebottom struck with the wicket of Anil Kumble, at that time India’s was 247 for 7 wickets and England was three wickets away from 1-0 series lead.

Tremlett struck again by taking wicket of Zaheer Khan, he got out at the score of 0 after facing 15 balls, that took India closer to the series victory. On the other side Vaughan was going on well, but it wasn’t enough to keep England away from victory.

Three over later RP Singh got out to the bowling of Panesar, victory of England looked certain at this stage, last pair of Indian batsmen were on the crease and waiting for umpires to offer them light.

They survived through some tough task, but finally the moment came when umpire offered them light, and they accepted that without any hesitation, and that’s all…weather god came in game and made rest of the play impossible. That kept England away from very deserving win.

Man of the Match award given to Kevin Pietersen, his magnificent hundred pushed India firmly on the back foot.

Rain really played important part on last day of this test match. England will go on to play second test with positive frame of mind.

I will try to come up with Preview of Second Test between India vs England at Trent Bridge on 27^th July.

Hope you have enjoyed my coverage of first test, feel free to post any comment here.

England started the day with 77/2
Today there was no delay by the weather. Play began on time, England continued from yesterday’s score of 77 with the loss of two openers, and Vaughan was playing on 16 and Pietersen was at 15.

India Pull it back:
After adding 14 more runs to his overnight score, Vaughan got out in the 9th over of the day bowled by R.P. Singh. In his next over he got rid of Collingwood who made 0 in the first inning and got out this time after having made just 4 runs, these two quick wickets put India in the comfort zone again. Bell joined confident Pietersen on the crease, Pietersen was going alone positively. But once again R.P. Singh opened the doors of opportunity for India by taking the wicket of Ian Bell, this wicket certainly put England on back foot as they were left with only specialist batsman in Matt Prior along with Pietersen. England’s score was 132 for five when Matt Prior came to the park.

Pietersen and Prior put on a good partnership
At lunch time England was at 161 for 5 with Pietersen on 62 and Prior on 10. This pair added some very useful runs for England which took away opportunity that came India’s way. They added a precious 119 run partnership before Matt Prior got out to Zaheer Khan immediately after they passed 250 runs mark.

After the wicket of Prior, England was all out quickly at the score of 282, which gave India the target of 380 to win this test match, which is an uphill task for Indians. This score was 36 runs more than the highest target ever chased at Lord’s.

Classic KP
The main man behind all this was Kevin Pietersen who played exceptionally well today. He once again made a classy century when his team needed it the most; it was his ninth test century. He got out at the score of 134 which included 14 boundaries and a towering six.

RP’s five-for at Lord’s
In the bowling department for India, R.P. Singh did an exceptional job by taking 5 wickets for 59 runs and Zaheer Khan snapped 4 wickets for 79 runs, meanwhile Kumble ended up taking only one wicket, and Sreesanth failed to deliver up to the mark.

India’s Reply
In reply to that Indian openers started very positively. Karthik played some aggressive shots in the beginning letting England know their clear indication. But it didn’t last for long, India lost its first wicket at the score of 38 in Jaffer who scored only 8 runs in the bowling of first match hero for England James Anderson.

Unfortunate Dravid
Rahul Dravid walked in at no. 3 position with a huge responsibility on his shoulders; he got off the mark with classy boundary on the back foot. One ball later he once again slashed one more boundary, on very few occasions I have seen Rahul Dravid having started his test innings in such fashion, but that stay was very short. He got out at the score of 9. In my opinion Rahul Dravid was unfortunate to be given out LBW against Tremlett, as for me the ball was clearly outside the off stump and was also going above the stumps. Bowler was more than 6 foot 7 inch and most of his balls by that time went above the wicket taking ball. I believe that the umpire should have thought long and hard before broadcasting his decision on LBW.

Lost opportunity for Sachin…
Sachin failed to score his century in the first innings, at that time I mentioned that Sachin lost an opportunity to score a century at the historical ground of Lord’s, but today when he came on the crease he had every chance to do so again (and prove me wrong) but once again he got out just with 16 runs to Panesar. Sachin got out in almost same manner as he had gotten out at Nagpur against Panesar who made his Test debut.

Dada and Karthik at rescue
Sourav Ganguly joined Karthik when India was struggling at the score of 84 for 3. They both started to build up a careful partnership and took India to the close of the day without any further damage. They negotiated with England bowlers very well. They added the first half century partnership in India’s second innings in 90 balls.

Karthik Keep going!!!
I mentioned earlier about Karthik’s capability as a specialist batsman in this experience looking Indian side, once again today he proved his effectiveness to this present Indian team. He made a very confident half century today, it was his 4th half century in test matches, his job is not completely done yet, he has quite a lot to do to survive India in this test match. He is a gusty player who is up for the challenge.

Match status:
England looks certainly on the top at this moment; Panesar is going to be trump card for England if they want to win this test match. Panesar started to have influence on the game with his spin bowling; it seems that there is not much help for the swing bowler now.

India still needs another 243 runs with seven wickets in hand which do not include Tendulkar or Dravid.

But since I am an avid fan of the Indian cricket team, I still hope for the best, following are the reasons why I think India can still win/draw the match.

1. Weather god can help India out
2. Seam bowlers and not getting any extra help from the pitch as the game is progressingg
3. Panesar is trump card for England but since Indians are very good player of spin bowling they can deal with Panesar
4. Karthik, Ganguly, Laxman and Dhoni are available for India, they are very much capable of making big scores.

All India needs to do is pass the first session of tomorrow’s play very carefully, if Indian can keep their wickets in hand during the first session, then there are every likely to bounce back.

Let me know friends what do you think about India’s chances in this match……

Good bye for the day I will come up with review of Day 5 tomorrow (fingers crossed).