Cricket :Day 2 - Long Hard day for Indians at Lords


Cricket :Day 2 -  Long Hard day for Indians at Lords

By Denzil Fernandes
Daijiworld Media Network

London, Jul 23 : Just as play ended on day two of the first test at Lord’s England seems to have slightly taken control of the action against India. The Indian cricket team has been given a huge task by England.  At the end of play on the second day, the Indian openers managed to survive and come back fresh when India start replying to the mammoth total of 474 for 8 declared posted by England.

As I said before, Kevin Pietersen smashed  his way to an unbeaten 202 runs which was also his 18th century.  Having crossed 6000 runs in test cricket he is now aiming to go past 10000 runs which means it is bad news for the bowlers in international cricket.  With Zaheer Khan unavailable to bowl for India due to a thigh strain, Praveen Kumar took up the task of dismantling England with non stop bowling.  In the process, Praveen took a career best 5 wickets for 106 runs and was instrumental to stop the English batsmen romping ahead.  Praveen has been one of India’s most talented bowlers around and it was nice to see former team mates in the Indian Premier League (IPL) Pietersen and Praveen having a battle in the middle.  Both did well for each other and for their respective teams.

When play starts on Saturday, it will be interesting to see how openers Gambhir and Mukund cope up against Anderson and Tremlett early in the morning.  Saturday is going to be a long and hard day’s work for India and surely a testing time.  Unless they dig in and stay put for most of the day, there will be trouble for India to say the least.  The three veterans of the side, Dravid, Laxman and Tendulkar will all be on their toes watching the ball movement as they await their turn in the middle.

England skipper Andrew Strauss will be keen to take advantage of their huge total and try for a breakthrough.  With conditions favouring the bowlers to a great extent, the Indians have to watch out for seam and swing and the unplayable  Anderson who will be dangerous.
As it stands, the first two day’s play has largely been dominated by hosts England and they will not be in a mood to let India back into the game.  But India have enough talent in the bank and this will be a great opportunity to prove it to all at Lord’s.

With Zaheer Khan unavailable  and the Indian bowlers looking short of ideas England
have now established a healthy control on the proceedings so far.  Everyone will be expecting a very very special innings from Laxman after the ‘Wall’ (Dravid) has bolstered the innings and then one hopes to see some strokeplay from Tendulkar which should bode well for a fitting reply to England’s total.

Either ways, an interesting day’s play ahead which will surely give a clear idea  of the course of the match at Lord’s.  A big reply from India will mean a safe draw.  If the Indians fold quickly on the third day, England will be looking to finish the match and win.  Another results seems unlikely at the moment. 

Scoreboard at the close on the second day of the first test between England and India at Lord's on Friday.

England first innings (overnight 127-2) A. Strauss c Ishant Sharma b Zaheer Khan 22
A. Cook lbw b Zaheer Khan 12
J. Trott lbw b Praveen Kumar 70
K. Pietersen not out 202
I. Bell c MS Dhoni b Praveen Kumar 45
E. Morgan c MS Dhoni b Praveen Kumar 0
M. Prior c MS Dhoni b Praveen Kumar 71
S. Broad lbw b Praveen Kumar 0
G. Swann b Suresh Raina 24
C. Tremlett not out 4
Extras (b 14, lb 8, w 1, nb 1) 24 Total (eight wickets declared; 131.4 overs) 474

Fall of wickets: 1-19 2-62 3-160 4-270 5-270 6-390 7-390 8-451
Did not bat: J. Anderson

Bowling: Zaheer Khan 13.3-8-18-2,
Praveen Kumar 40.3-10-106-5,
Ishant Sharma 32-5-128-0 (1w),
Harbhajan Singh 35-3-152-0,
MS Dhoni 8-1-23-0 (1nb),
Suresh Raina 2.4-1-25-1

India first innings
A. Mukund not out 8
G. Gambhir not out 7
Extras (nb-2) 2 Total (no wicket, six overs) 17

Still to bat: S. Tendulkar, R. Dravid, VVS Laxman, S. Raina, MS Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, I. Sharma, P. Kumar

Bowling (to date):
Anderson 3-1-9-0,
Tremlett 3-0-8-0 (2nb)

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