Thu, 21 Jul 2011 - England vs India, India Tour of England 2011, 1st Test Match - Bulletin

English lords in 2000th Test

The historic Lord’s certainly lived upto its hype. Hundredth test between the two sides, 2000th in overall at the home of cricket was a terrific setting. And, millions of cricket fans were treated with some of the best test cricket played in recent memories. It was the home team, England that overpowered India tough, and take an important 1-0 lead in what has been dubbed as the battle for test supremacy.

For India to draw the match on the final day, showing grit and determination was order of the day. Unfortunately for them, they failed to do so. To their credit, English bowlers didn’t make their task easier keeping pegging away and fashioning out a memorable England win.

Having a full day to survive and nine wickets in hand, Indian batsmen, save for Suresh Raina, couldn’t hold the fort against skill, penetration and perseverance of English bowlers. Leader of the pack as he addressed as, James Anderson proved his worth for one more time taking a five-for to script victory by a big margin of 196 runs. Stuart Broad followed his first innings terrific spell with a three-for while Chris Tremlett and Graeme Swann did their bit by taking a wicket each. All in all, it was an all-round bowling performance on the final day.

Anderson swung and seamed the ball both ways and mixed his short balls sensibly. The fast bowler ended with the figures for 5 for 65 working the batsmen out and was patient through the day, key to his success. Four of his five wickets included top order batsmen including iconic pair of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid.For India, there was some fightback, in patches though. Only piece of substantial resistance came from Raina. The left hander hit a fighting yet classy 78 off 138 balls and was ninth men to get out. He negotiated short stuff with aplomb, drove magnificently, was very strong off the legs and what was more impressive his application and will to fight it out. He was left too much to do though. His senior colleagues couldn’t live upto the billing, failing to put up a resistance throwing their wickets away at crucial junctures.

Anderson dented India hard in the first session of the day, removing Dravid and VVS Laxman. He reaped the rewards for pressure put by Tremlett giving England a huge lift early in the piece by snaring Rahul Dravid. It was unlike Dravid stroke pushing away from his body to an Anderson out-swinger only to see Matt Prior completing an easy catch behind the stumps.

The tourists made a mini-recovery through Laxman and Gautam Gambhir who battled hard despite having a bruised elbow. The stand didn’t last long though. Anderson struck first ball in his second spell of the morning having Laxman short-arm jabbing not so short ball straight into the hands the hands of mid-wicket for 56. Things went downslide for India when Swann had Gambhir missing a defensive prod for umpire Asad Rauf to make an outstanding LBW decision. Gambhir scored 56-ball 22 and India reduced to 135/4.

Post lunch session saw Raina showing grit and determination to lead Indian resistance. The tourist lost only one wicket that of Sachin in the session. For Sachin there was not Lord’s fairytale with James Anderson’s lovely inducker trapping him plumb in front of the stumps for 68-ball 12. The master looked all at sea and went into his shell taking 40 balls for his 12th run. He lived a charmed life before his dismissal with Billy Bowden turning down a close LBW shout and Strauss dropping him at first slip off Anderson.

There were no such problems for Raina though. He kept the fight going and his cover drive off Anderson was by far the shot of the day and took his team alongside MS Dhoni to the tea without more damage.England took new ball one over before the tea and reaped its benefits after the break. Tremlett removed Dhoni with an outswinger, Anderson had Harbhajan caught off a hook and Broad cleaned up Praveen Kumar with peach of an inswinger. Anderson completed his fifer by getting ball to move away for Raina to edge it and Broad completed the win by trapping Sharma infront of the stumps.

With 1-0 lead and kind of form its players are in, England look serious favorites for remainder of the series. India’s prime job as of now will be to get eleven fit men on the field for the second test that starts in three days time. For India to make a fight, their big guns need to step upto the plate.

Day 4: Bulletin on next page