ndvakil.com

As predicted, bad ground condition didn’t allow play to start on the time on first day of Second Test at Trent Bridge, Nottingham. But the good news was that sun was out and there was no rain in the morning that allowed ground staff to put their act together to allow having some game on first day of test match.

Finally, Toss coined at 2.30 local time and India won the toss and immediately Rahul Dravid opted to put England in bat. Both teams retained the same XI they played during first test match at Lord’s

Team:
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 Karthick, 3 Rahul Dravid (capt), 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Sourav Ganguly, 6 VVS Laxman, 7 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), 8 Anil Kumble, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 RP Singh, 11 Sreesanth.

England opening pair Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook took the guard to face Indian pace duo of Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth.

Zaheer Khan was up to the mark today, and took full advantage of condition, he struck in his very second over to nail Andrew Strauss who gave easy catch to Sachin Tendulkar at the first slip. England lost their first wicket at the score of 4.

Sreesanth, on the other hand was bowling good deliveries on occasion, but Zaheer Khan as up there and took another wicket with lovely delivery, this time it was England captain Vaughan, ball was drifting away and took thick outside edge, which once again landed into the safe pair of hands of Tendulkar. It was Zheer Khan’s 150th test wicket in his 49th Test. England score was 24 for 2, What a start for India!!!

Inconsistent bowling of Sreesanth forced Dravid to bring in RP Singh, who just took five wickets haul at Lord’s. He bowled some excellent delivery today, and that was enough to get rid of danger man Kevin Pietersen at the personal score of 13, Pietersen caught in front of the stums. He and Cook added 23 runs partnership and England score was 47 for 3.

That brought in England’s one day captain Collingwood on to the crease, he and Cook built first 50 runs partnership for England, both were looking settled down and going for big score, but Sreesanth came up with good ball that disturbed the furniture behind the Collingwood, he was clean bowled to Sreesanth. Pair added 54 runs partnership in 106 balls

The way pitch was behaving Dravid had no hesitation in giving ball to Ganguly to get a wicket or two, and he did it this time too, he took the wicket of Cook, who was slowly and steadily marching towards making big score but before he did that he got out by Ganguly, I must say that Ganguly who is not regular bowler bowled excellent bowling today.

Last recognized batsmen pair was on the crease for England, Ian Bell was going along well against Indian bowling, Matt Prior, on the other hand having difficulty in negotiating Indian bowling.

Kumble brought in to attack by Dravid in the later part of the innings, it was understandable as Indian pace bowler bowling excellently, Kumble took wicket of Prior, Dravid took the simple catch to his left at first slip, Prior and Bell added 38 runs in 10.1 overs.

Chris Tremlett joined Bell, he was damn lucky when Tendulkar dropped an absolutely easy catch at the first slip in the bowling of Zaheer Khan, but he struck back again in very next over with the wicket of Bell, and England last recognize batsman out for 31 run and England score was 157 for 7. Tremlett and Sidebottom safely reached towards the end of the day and England final score at the end of the day is 169 for 7 wickets in 55 over.

There is not doubt that Indian bowler bowled exceptionally well to restrict England to 169 for 7, Rahul Dravid’s decision to take the field justified by Indian bowlers specially Zaheer Khan, he really enjoying his time out there. I should also mention the efforts of Ganguly, although he is part time bowler, he bowled well, his bowling figures are 8 overs, 4 maidens, 11 runs and 1 wicket (of Cook), Zaheer took 3 wickets for 55 runs in 16 over he bowled today, while Sreesanth, RP Singh and Kumble took a wicket each.

None of the England batsmen were able to make half century today, it will give you idea about how well India bowled today, but we should also keep in mind that India still has to bat, and if pitch really is helping bowlers, then India will have to take extra precautions while facing in-form England bowlers.

India’s tommorw’s aim would be to take remaining three wickets of England as early as they can, and then build big score to put England on back foot.

Hope you enjoyed second test’s first day review, You can also view the live score of this test match on my site, I have installed live scorecard on the right sidebar menu of the website.

Feel free to get back to meet if you have any comments/suggestion on this article.

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.