England won the two thousandth test match at Lord’s yesterday in front of the fifth successive full house of the contest and beneath a clear, blue sky. However, if the weather was a marked departure from the dank, overcast conditions seen on day one steadily improving as the test progressed, the fortunes of the Indians, in contrast, seemed to worsen day by day.
India won the toss and invited England to bat on Thursday but rain curtailed the day’s halfway through the afternoon. If this was unfortunate, denying the visitors the opportunity to exploit favourable bowling conditions, the injury to the leading strike bowler, Zaheer Khan, seemed as though it could have been avoided. Zaheer arrived at Lord’s with one innings of a county warm up under his belt by way of preparation. He had missed the recent test series between India and West Indies and more than one commentator remarked that he appeared to be carrying a little excess weight. In truth, he looked short of fitness, and though he bowled beautifully for 13 overs, his breakdown was not an altogether surprising one.
Zaheer had taken both wickets to fall on day one, and England had reached 127-2 after the 49 overs that could be bowled. Andrew Strauss’ struggle for runs continued after he was outfoxed by a short ball from Zaheer when on 22 and Alastair Cook fell for a rare failure of late, trapped lbw for 12.
Day two was dominated by England, who had Kevin Pietersen to thank in the main. He had shown a rare capacity for restraint on day one, wisely cautiously laying the foundations for his innings. On day two he continued to battle his way into form rather than display his usual polish and flamboyance, although conditions had markedly improved for batting. India were hamstrung by Zaheer’s absence, leaving them with only three fit, frontline bowlers. MS Dhoni’s decision to step into the breach and bowl himself was admirable in some respects - a captain leading from the front. However the sight of a professional outfit swapping around the wicket keeping gloves and pads was ever a slightly shambolic one. Pietersen reached a watchful century with good support from Jonathan Trott (70) and Ian Bell (45) before he finally moved through the gears after Matt Prior had departed for a trademark attacking 71. Pietersen went from 150 to 200 in fewer than 30 deliveries and allowed England to declare with the score on 474-8. India then saw out the half a dozen overs before the close with few alarms.
Stuart Broad, whose place had been under scrutiny before the start of the match, proved to be the star of day three. His bowling was the catalyst for India’s disappointing first innings display. The pre match criticism of Broad had concentrated on his seeming inability, or reluctance, to pitch the ball up to the batsmen and attack the stumps. He had seemed preoccupied with examining the middle of the pitch in recent test matches against Sri Lanka, in the process neutering his wicket taking threat. On Saturday, however, it was pleasing to see him pitch the ball up, allowing for it to swing and move off the pitch and the fruits of such an approach were born in the wickets of Mukund, Gambhir and Tendulkar. Had it not been for uncharacteristic drops off his bowling, he would have had a five wicket haul and dismissed India’s top order. Sachin Tendulkar was given a standing ovation from all sections of the ground as he emerged from the pavilion but was unable to fulfil the script by scoring his one hundredth international century at the home of cricket. He had unfurled a handful of glorious drives, before he was becalmed by the bounce and menace of Chris Tremlett, and eventually fell to Stuart Broad. This was a reward for bowling in partnerships - Tremlett’s threat had brought about Tendulkar’s over ambition against Broad.
While wickets were tumbling at the other end Rahul Dravid remained an unmoveable object, living up fully to his nickname, “The Wall”. Dravid’s walk from pavilion to middle was far less celebrated than Tendulkar’s some thirty or so minutes later. It is remarkable that Dravid, who passed Ricky Ponting as the second highest test run scorer of all time during the course of his innings, should be seen as some sort of warm up act for Tendulkar, but that speaks more for the latter’s pre-eminence rather than denigrating the former’s abilities and proud record. Dravid used the full depth of the crease to Swann, displaying nimble footwork and execution of shots to negate his threat, and - aside from a dropped catch to slip - he saw off the threat of Broad and Tremlett with few alarms. He reached his century in the company of the injured Zaheer and he showed he had the ability still to move through the gears when required, accelerating seamlessly after the dismissals of Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh in the same over had left him with onl the tail for company.
India were bowled out late on day three for 286 and left with a first innings deficit of 188. England’s openers had a similar number of overs to negotiate as India’s openers had the previous day and they also completed the task with no damage suffered. England had bowled well, but the abiding feeling was that India had not made the most of good batting conditions, and again question marks remained over their preparation for the test match.
Ishant Sharma sprang to life in Sunday’s opening session providing a rare period in which India threatened to wrestle back control of the match from England. He reduced England to 72-5 at lunch, taking the wickets of Pietersen, Bell and Trott. Pietersen and Bell were beaten by tremendous movement off the seam to give catches to Dhoni behind the stumps. Sharma then showed his great potential by bowling Trott with a ball that moved the other way. Any bowler who can move the ball both ways is a potential match winner and it will be interesting to see how Sharma fares on wickets at Trent Bridge and Edgbaston which should both offer him far more encouragement than he found at Lord’s.
India’s renaissance was brief however, and Matt Prior again showed that he is a man England can rely upon totally with bat in hand, by making a swift century in the evening session. It was somewhat surprising that MS Dhoni chose not to begin the post lunch session with Sharma in the attack, for when he did take the ball thirty minutes or so into the session he almost immediately added the wicket of Eoin Morgan to his collection. Thereafter, however, Prior and the born-again Broad added an unbeaten stand of over 150 and England were able to declare setting India a notional 458 to win the test match.
In a prolonged evening session (time still needing to be made up after the loss of 41 overs on day one) India advanced to 80 for just the loss of Mukund. Sachin Tendulkar had been off the field for much of England’s second innings with a stomach upset and Gautam Gambhir had been taken to hospital for a cautionary x-ray after he had been struck a nasty blow to the elbow fielding close to the bat from Matt Prior. India’s lineup was reshuffled with Rahul Dravid opening the innings with Abhinav Mukund and VVS Laxman promoted from his usual number 5 berth to number 3. Dravid took the promotion in his usual unflappable manner. He truly is a batsman of substance, and his success in this test match was met with universal delight for he is a fine man too.
Tickets for day 5 were sold on the door for £20, with children allowed in for free and this prompted some fans to arrive as early as 2am to guarantee admission. Fans were being turned away more than hour before the start of the final day’s play after tickets had sold out. Thus, the denouement of the two thousandth test match was played out fittingly before a vibrant (fifth day crowds are often more raucous than their predecessors), packed house. England were handed an early boost within the first half an hour by Dravid’s dismissal, nibbling at a ball from Jimmy Anderson and edging to Matt Prior behind the stumps. Dravid was visibly furious with himself as he walked off and this was a great blow to India’s solar plexus. Suresh Raina came in at number 4, as Tendulkar still had to make up some time after his absence from the field for much of the previous day. However he was at the wicket before lunch as VVS Laxman somewhat carelessly pulled the first ball of a new spell from Anderson straight to Bell at midwicket. Laxman had made 56 and his dismissal was another vital one for England.
After lunch, there were a few moments of controversy as umpire Billy Bowden failed to give out Tendulkar and Raina with reviews showing both would have been given out under DRS, the review system usually in place for lbw decisions. However in the event neither of these decisions had a crucial bearing on the match, as Tendulkar departed after having made a unusually scratchy, painstaking 11. Possibly he was still feeling under the weather after his illness of the previous day. Raina made 78, offering promise for the rest of the series. Both ultimately fell to Anderson who finished with impressive figures of 5-65, and a little after tea the conclusion, which had seemed rather inevitable from about halfway through day three, was reached. India had been bowled out for 261 to lose by 196 runs.
England’s victory was ultimately comprehensive, and while it was not without blemish, it was an emphatic marker laid down at the opening of the series to decide the number one test side in the world. Stuart Broad’s selection had been vindicated, though a clear judgment of his retention must wait until the dust has settled on the whole series. One might argue that players selected for England have the potential to have good matches at any time, it’s rather more of a requirement that they should do so consistently. It remains to be seen whether or not the selectors fall into the trap of waiting and waiting with the sword of damacles hanging over a players head until said player finally delivers before using that one performance as a case for making his place safe for another x test matches. England’s catching in this match was unusually poor, but it is to be hoped that this was an isolated blemish.
The make up of the England side is also one that can be scrutinised. The persistence with four bowlers adds somewhat to the idea that the England management have the capacity to drag their feet and be a little stubborn. It’s an unnecessarily cautious balance for the side because the team are making so many runs on such a consistent basis that the number 6 batsman is rather redundant. Morgan came to the wicket in the second innings with the score at 60-4 but more often than not he arrives with the score approaching 300-4 and his impact is limited. On this occasion, Morgan was not the man who saw England out of the difficulties of 60-4. Prior at 7 came to the rescue and his continued form only underscores the needlessness of a sixth specialist batsman. It is to be hoped that this realisation dawns upon the England selectors, and that a fifth bowler is picked, preferably a second spinner to give the side greater balance. However in selection and balance of the side they appear to adhere to the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mantra. If England truly wishes to take the number one spot in the rankings and remain there by winning in all conditions, then they will find it easier to achieve with a bolder selection policy.
India are left with the greater headaches as the series moves on to Trent Bridge, Nottingham for the second test starting on Friday. Virender Sehwag, the most destructive opening batsman in cricket, is still in Delhi nursing his shoulder, and is not expected to be available until the third test match. Zaheer Khan faces a race against time to be fit for Trent Bridge. On the positive side, India’s batsmen, will now have had a chance to gain some valuable time in the middle and some exposure to English conditions. It’s just rather a shame that they had to use a live, test match to do so. Nonetheless they are still the number one side in the world, and are notoriously slow starters (a correlation between slow starts to series and a lack of time preparing in alien conditions seems obvious to this observer) so all is certainly not lost for Indian fans. It would be a brave man to bet against an England win at Trent Bridge, a traditional bastion of swing and seam, however there is more than enough quality in India’s ranks to inspire hope.
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