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Overnight batsmen Sourav Ganguly and RP Singh resume their batting on third day of the First test match, England bowler continued from where they left yesterday, by taking important wicket of Ganguly, he was beautifully set up by James Anderson, Ganguly got out at the score of 34. On the other hand RP Singh’s stay at crease give irritation to England before he got out to Sidebottom. He made 17 runs in 40 balls.

England bowler kept very good line and length this morning and they rewarded with another important wicket in Dhoni, he failed to trouble the scorers, it looked to me that he was giving catching practice to England slip fielders. At one point of time India’s score was 105 for 2 and then it was 175 for 7.

As always Indian tail-enders failed to add some useful runs to the scoreboard and India bundled out for 201 runs in their first innings and which gave England very useful lead of 97 runs.The way pitch is helping seam bowlers, this lead defiantly going to prove vital as match progresses.

England two frontline bowlers, James Anderson and Sidebottom shared 9 wickets between them, James Anderson finished with a Test-best 5 for 42 and Sidebottom took 4 for 65, debutant Tremlett took only wicket of Jaffer, Monty Panesar got only 8 over to bowl as most of the work was done by the seam bowlers.

India really needs to sort out their batting problems, their batsmen are not clicking on bouncy pitches and/or seaming wickets and they consistently failed to make some respectable scores so that their bowler can put pressure on opposite team.
Now India bowlers need to really work hard to shot out England team for less than 200 runs.

Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook started England batting in 2nd inning, they already have cushion of 97 runs. Zaheer and Sreesanth took the new ball for India once again Sreesanth was rusty in his first spell; he gave away some short pitch balls, which English batsmen accepted gracefully.

Once again Zaheer Khan came in to play and took the wicket of Andrew Strauss in the 11th over of the England 2nd innings, it was easy catch for Tendulkar at first slip who took it without any mistake.

Zaheer struck again in very next over to nail Cook, it was beauty ball by Zaheer, he is becoming pain for the left hander batsmen now.

Vaughan and Pietersen were the new batsmen on the crease, and Zaheer gave him tough time to stay at the crease, Zaheer bowled exceptionally well here, in 19th over of their inning rain came in to play and stopped the play, England were 54 for 2.

Play resumed after a while for few over, but both KP and Vaughan go through the end of the day 3 without any more trouble.

At the end of the play England is at 77 for 2, and Vaughan and Pietersen on score of 16 and 15 respectively, and yes they have 97 runs vital lead in their hand.

It would be interesting to see how well Indian bowler will perform on Day 4 of First test at Lords.

Rain delayed the start of the day:
Second day of first test started late due to heavy thunderstorms, scenes at the ground were so bad that play seemed highly unlikely, but excellent drainage systems at the Lord’s stadium worked some magic to allow the second days play to continue.

England Batting Collapsed:
It appears that the delay in play were not working in favor of the English team, yesterday they were in a very sound position when poor light ended the play, but after that break they lost two quick wickets, which shared honors of the day.

It happened again: Today their remaining six wickets were nipped out by some greatly disciplined Indian bowling with a new ball in just 10.5 overs, which really gave the Indian team a lot of hope to counter attack with big scores in their first innings. Today’s damage done by Indian’s speed star Sreesanth who ended up taking three wickets while the left arm seamer Zaheer Khan took two wickets allowing the Indian openers to pad up their gears.

Indian Opening dilemma unceasing in England:
Once again English grounds have not proven to be happy hunting grounds for the Indian openers. Today they again failed to make an impressive start against the second stream exceptionally well England’s bowling attack. In the third over of the match Matt Prior dropped Jaffer when he was at 0, allowing Jaffer to score his first half century of the tour. Karthik’s magic didn’t work today as he was out in the 9th over of the Indian innings; Sidebottom deserved this wicket, as he was bowling constantly in good line and length.

Afterwards the Indian captain Rahul Dravid a.k.a. Mr. Wall came in, though his presence at the crease was a very short one. He got out on a beautiful delivery by Anderson after having faced only 12 balls and scoring only two runs.

Dis Sachin miss his last opportunity?
India was on 27 for 2 when the Master Blaster came in to spend some time at the crease. He walked into the park with a thunderous applause. He started off very well and confident, marching on looking as if he will make his first century at Lord’s. He showed many signs to do so, but his dream shattered when he got out with the score of 37 runs in 78 balls. This brief inning included 6 boundaries. This happened soon after Jaffer made his half century and India passed the 100 runs mark.

Then came the Bengali Tiger Sourav Ganguly, to join the well settled Jaffer. The two of them added a 28 runs partnership before Jaffer gave back catch to an unexpected well performing bowler Tremlett, who very much enjoyed his first test wicket. This wicket placed India on back foot again. India’s scored was 134/4 when the night-watchman R.P. Sing joined Sourav at the crease but both were passing through the remaining overs of the day with great care.

Match is still evenly balanced:
The match is still wide open and any team can claim their chance to win. To get back in the driver’s seat, India must do well in the first two sessions tomorrow. The team must be dependent on Sourav, Laxman, and Dhoni to make big scores and put England on the back foot.

Also on the other side England would need to take a couple of big wickets tomorrow so they can take the lead when they head up to bat for their second innings.

Being an Indian cricket fan, my money is still on India. Go India Go!!!!!

Dear readers please feel free to share your voice here; I know I am not always right (since I am a human being). Let me/other readers of this site know what you feel about this match. Who is going to win, India or England?

Will see you tomorrow with Day Three review of first test match at Lord’s.

Hello to all of the cricket fans. The Test matches we you had read about before have begun. Today was as follows:

The day began with England winning the toss and electing to bat first. This soon went on to be proven as a correct decision, as both the opening batsmen began playing aggressive cricket and set forth a strong platform. Both of the openers kept the run rate above 5 which for a Test match is absolutely amazing. Lackluster Indian bowling allowed them to score without any extra efforts.

Sourav Ganguly once again proved to be a useful bowler in the English condition because he struck in his very first over by getting AN Cook lbw. It was the one lonesome success for the Indian bowlers for the first two sessions. England scored at four an over before lunch. Andrew Strauss was the lucky one to get life when he was on 43; compliments go to Dinesh Karthik for his horrible drop at point.

Michael Vaughan and Strauss added 142 runs, a very important partnership before Strauss became the victim of a clever piece of bowling by Anil Kumble, which allowed Strauss to come out of his crease firing the ball much wider and faster, which drew an edge to slip in the hands of Rahul Dravid, making it his 150^th catch in Test Matches.

On the other hand, Michael Vaughan had a solid look and was playing comfortably off front and back foot, allowing him to make his half century in 118 balls. His momentum came to a rude interruption as the late stoppages for light, Sing went around the wicket and Vaughan extracted a thin edge to M.S. Dhoni, making England’s score 252 runs for 3 wickets.

In the very next over Kumble again took the much needed wicket of in-form batsman Paul Collingwood who got out from a classical googly and left with nothing but a duck. Kumble’s top notch performance proved his importance to the weak India bowling attack.

Except for the wily Kumble, India’s attack failed to pose many more questions until a couple of late stoppages that hit England’s momentum. At the end of the day England was 268 for four wickets. With Kevin Pietersen and Sidebottom on the crease, the day one play was called off. Ian Bell and wicketkeeper batsman Matt Prior have yet to prove their worth as they are next in the batting order.

On Day two India must attack the English batsman, and perhaps a couple of wickets in the first session could really turn things in India’s favor.

Score Card of Day One at Lords

List of batsmen to bat:

Bell, M.J. Prior, C.T. Tremlett, M.S. Panesar, and J.M. Anderson

Stay tune to catch the review of Day Two between India and England at Lords