ndvakil.com

Weather was excellent on Day 1 of the Third Test Match between India and England, play started on time, Indian captain Dravid won the toss and decided to take batting without a second thought on firm and dry batsmen friendly pitch at Oval.

Both side kept the same XI they fielded in this series. Wasim Jaffer and Dinesh Karthik began Indian inning; they got off the mark positively and confidently. Both batsmen played some fine shots on both sides of the wicket.

Both added 50 runs partnership for India in only 13 overs; Wasim Jaffer was first batsmen to get out at the score of 35 runs and India were at 62 for 1 wicket. Jaffer was trapped by England captain Vaughan who sent Kevin Pietersen from gully to short third-man position, it rewarded with Jaffer’s wicket. He added good opening stand with Dinesh Karthik.

Rahul Dravid walked in to replace Jaffer, Dravid made his intension clear by hitting some aggressive shots. Both batsmen kept the scoreboard ticking over. India reached 100 runs mark in 23rd over of the Day.

Karthik finished another half century in 28th over, a last over before lunch. He took 77 balls to reach his 6th half-century. At the time of lunch India were 117 runs for 1 wicket, they made solid start to their first innings and both batsmen, especially Karthik looked well settled to make big score.

In second over after lunch Karthik was dropped by Andrew Strauss at short cover in the bowling of Monty Panesar, it was tough catch; it would have been a great catch if he had gotten it. After this dropped chance he didn’t play anything silly and capitalized Indian innings with his partner Rahul Dravid who completed his fifty in 83 balls with 8 smashing boundaries, I will tell you that this is Dravid’s one of the aggressive innings I have seen recently.

His celebration of half century didn’t last long as he got out soon after reaching his half century, he was bowled by James Anderson with a pitch of a delivery, he and Karthik added important partnership of 127 runs and provided base for big score,.

Tendulkar got standing ovation from the crowd as it might be his last appearance in a Test Match in England, India’s score was 189 for loss of two wickets when he joined Dinesh Karthik at the crease. Tendulkar started his inning with caution.

Dinesh Karthik also followed Rahul Dravid in dressing room after a 10 runs partnership with Tendulkar, he became victim of nervous ninety, he got out at the score of 91 in bowling of Sidebottom; he deserved a hundred.

Sourav Ganguly joined Tendulkar at the crease, England had good opportunity to bounce back here as they had taken two quick wickets to put India on back foot, a wicket or two here could be helpful to them, but both experience player showed maturity and kept their wicket intact. By the time of Tea India made 207 runs for 3 wickets and their two in-form batsmen Sachin and Sourav are on the crease, second session of the day was mix bag for India as they had score 94 runs for loss of two wickets in 28 overs, in this session India lost both of their well set batsmen.

Ganguly and Tendulkar resumed Indian inning after tea, both were negotiating England bowling comfortably, but in 67th over of the match Tendulkar was given an easy chance by their wicketkeeper Prior, it was catchable to him, Tendulkar was on score of 20, now only time will tell how costly this catch is going to be. Both added 50 runs partnership in 103 balls.

In 80th over of the match, Ganguly got out in bowling of Paul Collingwood, replays showed that he was unlucky to be given out LBW, it was a big inside edge, Paul Collingwood taken second wicket of the series but both were came as gift from umpires. He got out at the personal score of 37 in which he hit 4 boundaries and a six.

VVS Laxman joined Tendulkar out in the middle to face last ten overs of the day; England took new ball in 83rd over of the match with belief of getting a wicket or two, but both batsmen, saw off second new ball without any difficulties and took India through the end of the Day 1, India’s score was 316 runs for 4 wickets, with Tendulkar playing on 48 and Laxman on 16 runs. India took honor of the day with some good batting by their top order batsmen.

It would be interesting to see how England fight back on day two, couple of wicket in morning session will definitely do good for England; their bowlers didn’t do well today since pitch wasn’t moving much, along with pitch their fielders also let them down by dropping couple of catches, on this kind of batting favoring pitches you have convert 50% chance in to 100%.

On the other side Tendulkar must be thinking about making a century on England soil, interestingly none of Indian batsmen have score century in this series yet.

Tomorrow I will come up with review of Day 2 of Third Test Match at Oval, and yes, you can get update of live score here on my website, I have installed scorecard on right sidebar of the website.

Third and final Test Match between India and England is starting tomorrow on 9th August, 2007 at Oval. Tomorrow’s Test match is going to be very crucial for both the teams. England have won consecutive 11 Test series on their home soil, that seems to be in danger now, they haven’t lost home series lately so they would like to keep that record intact. England was very unlucky when first match was ended in draw which they almost won, but India bounced back pretty well in second test outstandingly and won.

On the other side it would be a golden opportunity for Team India to win this series, but recent statistics are not in favor of India, because India has record of losing a Test Match after winning one on foreign soil, to change this stats India will definitely have to play this Test with positive frame of mind, and have to carry on the form from where they left. Playing a match to draw can backfire on India and they would lose one more opportunity came in.

India won a Test Series in England in way back 1986, so they have opportunity to win this match after a gap of 21 years, it would be last tour of England for many of the Indian players, so they must be looking forward to finish this series by making it memorable. India will have to enter in this match with winning formula to ensure that they create a history.

The good news is that weather of 3rd Test match at Oval looks perfect; there haven’t been any predictions of rain during this Test match, pitch has also become little hard, which may not help swing and seam bowling, but it will have good bounce on it, so a bowler who can exploit this bouncy pitch can be deadly on this pitch. However, batsmen who see off the new ball can make big scores on this pitch.

Let’s talk about two teams; it seems that England will keep the same XI as last two matches. Their main concern at this moment would be their batting, their batsmen haven’t been performing consistently, Vaughan played very good innings in last match to give fight back, but he didn’t get enough support from his team-mates. Kevin Pietersen was earlier doubtful for this test match as he was ill for last couple of days, but he participated in practice session today evening and ended the speculation, he also declared match fit later in the day, but his form in this series is still thing to ponder for England, they are very much rely on him lately.

England bowling looks far better than we predicted before the start of the series, Ryan Sidebottom, James Anderson and Monty Panesar bowled really well in this series, while Chris Tremlett performed exceptionally well in last Test match, especially his spell of 7.1 over 12 runs for 3 wickets in 2nd innings, which frustrated India before they won the match. He troubled Indian batsmen through out the test match.

On the other hand, India may drop Sreesanth for this match as he was very rusty in last test match, he was way off the mark; however my gut feeling says that it won’t happen, as Indian don’t have solid options to replace him. As I mentioned before, pitch is hard, so it will suit Sreesanth type bowlers, in my opinion India will keep same side as they fielded in both Test Matches.

In bowling department for India Zaheer Khan is certainly in form of his life, he is utilizing English conditions very well and dominating over English batsmen. RP Sing is also troubling England batsmen very much with his ability to swing the ball both sides, Kumble still has to play big role in this series, this pitch may take turn on 4th and 5th days, Anil Kumble will prove handy on it.

While Indian batting department has done pretty well after failure in First Test Match, in 2nd Test Match at Trent Bridge almost all batsmen crossed 50 runs mark. In batting department India’s only concern is their captain Rahul Dravid, who surprisingly unsuccessful in current series, but he has enough experience and knowledge of English conditions to make big scores and put the speculations about his poor form off.

It is definitely going to be interesting match of this series. You can also view the live score of Third test match on my site, I have installed live scorecard on the right sidebar menu of the website. I will come up with Day 1 Review of Third Test Match tomorrow.
In my opinion, following is list of probable for both sides for 3rd Test Match at Oval

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 Monty Panesar, 11 James Anderson.

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.

India showed excellent batting on day two of second Test match, they are still going strong with Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly on the crease. On day three all they need to do is putting big score on board to let England play for saving the match, it will also give upper hand to Indian bowlers.

Sachin and Sourav started the day carefully to keep India away from any early damage; England opted for second new ball in the second over of the day. Sidebottom used new ball very perfectly and gave hard time to Indian batsmen, but both kept calm and passed few overs tenderly and started to play some fine shots. Sourav Ganguly completed his 28th half century in 104th over of the Indian innings, he was going on very strong along with Sachin Tendulkar, and both put back pressure on England bowlers at the end of first session. Indian batsmen added 84 runs of 28 overs. At the time of lunch India were on 338 for 3 wickets and Sachin playing on 87 and Ganguly on 53 runs.

In my opinion, second session of the day was bit controversial today, very first over after the Lunch was given to Paul Collingwood, Tendulkar hit boundary on third delivery of his over and entered in to nineties, but on last ball of the over Tendulkar tried to left the ball going out side the off stump, ball hit on Sachin’s pad and Simon Taufel replied positively to the bowler’s appeal, it was poor decision, Tendulkar couldn’t believe the decision, he took whole lot of time to get back to pavilion, it was absolutely shocking decision by Taufel. TV replay and Hawk-Eye suggested it would have passed by his off stump comfortably; it didn’t look out with the naked eye too. Sachin scoree 91 runs with the help of 12 boundaries and added 96 runs partnership with Sourav Ganguly.

Ganguly was joined by VVS Laxman at the fall of Sachin’s wicket, both kept the momentum up and played some fine shots while adding more runs to the total, On the score of 79 Ganguly was given out caught behind the wicket in the bowling of James Anderson, it was again a controversial decision and the Simon Taufel was the man behind that again, TV replay confirmed it didn’t hit the bat. Laxman and Ganguly added 64 runs partnership which made India’s score more respectable. India lost both of their well set batsmen in shocking decision; in fact both were heading towards the century.

Dhoni who played very defensive and match saving game at Lord’s came to replace Sourav Ganguly at the crease, but his visit to crease was very short. He soon got out to the bowling of Sidebottom who deserved this wicket at the score of 5. India’s score was 414 for 6 wickets. At the time of Tea, India’s score were 419 for six, with Laxman and Kumble playing at the crease.

After the tea both resumed their batting, Laxmn played some excellent shots today, he soon completed deserving fifty in 122 balls with the help of 7 boundaries. On the other hand Kumble also started to score runs. Laxman got out after scoring fine fifty, Tremlettt took his wicket this time. Laxman and Kumble both added very helpful partner ship of 50 runs.

Few overs later, Tremlett struck again and took the wicket of Kumble who played very important innings, Kumble also frustrated England bowlers.

Remaining of Indian batsmen didn’t add much score to the innings and India bowled out for 481, but by that time India’s lead stretched to 284 runs. It was very consistent batting card for India, after a long time all the specialist batsmen clicked today, Rahul Dravid was the lowest scorer of the specialist batsmen, all other specialist batsmen score fifties today.

England openers Cook and Strauss started their innings to face remaining 16 overs of the day. Both batsmen negotiated Indian bowling carefully and kept their wickets intact, they made 43 runs. Zaheer bowled good spell today, but Sreesanth was way off the mark with his bowling, it will give India some concern while finalizing strategy for tomorrow’s play.

Today’s honor goes to India, they batted very well today and put England on way back foot. India is still very much in the driving seat at the moment. But still there are two days left and England batting line is strong enough to respond India. England still needs another 240 runs to make India bat again.

Stay tuned here for the Day four review of Second Test match.