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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).

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.