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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.

Today, weather was kind enough to allow the start of the game on time. Indian bowlers remained in the picture nn day one of this Test Match at Trent Bridge that gave honors of the day to India.

Indian bowlers started from where they left yesterday, they took only ten more overs to nip out England for 198. Kumble took 2 out of 3 remaining wickets of England , while Zaheer took one. Zaheer Khan was pick of the bowler for India he took 4 wickets for 59 runs, Kumble 3 for 32, Sreesanth 1 for 16, RP Singh 1 for 56 and Ganguly took 1 for the cost of 11 runs.

Indian batsmen have to keep the momentum up, which their bowlers have set in this Test Match, first few overs would be very crucial for Indian openers, as England bowlers are capable of taking advantage of this conditions.

Karthik and Jaffer started Indian innings very carefully; they managed to see off the new ball comfortably. At the time of lunch India’s score was 40 runs without the loss of any wicket.

After lunch, they started their innings positively and didn’t miss any opportunity to make runs, their 50 runs partnership came in 21 over of the innings. Jaffer was dropped in the bowling of Tremlett, Bell dropped a tough catch.

Karthik scored his fifth test fifty with lovely boundary; he took 95 balls to reach his second fifty of this series, he smashed 8 boundaries too. Few overs later Jaffer also completed his second fifty of this series with boundary; he took 101 balls to bring up his fifty, which included 7 boundaries

In 32^nd over of the inning India brought up their hundred runs on scorecard without loss of any wickets. In 43^rd over England captain Vaughan brought back Tremlett into the attack, and he immediately responded with wicket in very first ball of his new spell, Wasim Jaffer caught behind the stumps at the personal score of 62, and team score of 147 runs. This was highest opening partnership since 1979 for India in England, they gave very good start to India. I should also praise Tremlett here, he bowled exceptionally well today and it paid off to him with the first break through.

Dravid joined well set Karthik at the crease, but three overs later India lost another opener Dinesh Karthik at the score of 77 runs in 136 balls, Cook took fine catch at forward short leg in the bowling of Monty Panesar. Karthik got out in very first ball after the tea. India were down two 149 for two. After giving positive start both openers back to the pavilion before India reached 150 runs mark.

Sachin Tendulkar came in and off the mark straightway with 3 runs, Dravid and Tendulkar were in the business right from the word go. In 61^st overs of the day India passed England total and ready to build big lead, Dravid and Tendulkar also completed their 50 runs partnership in same over. In 75^th over of the inning, Tendulkar reached his half century in 99 bowls, he scored 6 boundaries in that.

Panesar struck again in 77^th over of the inning with very important wicket of Indian Wall, Rahul Dravid, Bell took excellent catch to his left at short extra cover, he got out at the score of 37 runs, he was going along very well, his half century looked certain the way he was batting, he and Tendulkar built 97 runs partnership.

Ganguly joined Tendulkar at the crease when 8 overs or so left in the day, he and Tendulkar did no mistakes in tackling remaining 8 overs of the day, at the time of stump India made 254 runs for the loss of two wickets, and Tendulkar is playing well at the score of 57 while Ganguly is not out at 4. For England Monty Panesar was successful bowler with the figure of two wickets for 50 runs and Tremlett took only wicket with the cost of 32 runs, Sidebottom and Anderson didn’t perform up to the scratch on day two.

On Day Three India will certainly need to put big score on the board and put England on back foot. It seems that Sachin will score his first century of the series tomorrow. Ganguly will have to take special precaution while facing early bowling tomorrow, because he got out early on the day in both innings of last test match.

Stay tuned for the updates of day three of the second Test at Trent Bridge, Nottingham.