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England v India at Lord's
First Test
21st - 25th July, 2011
Day 1, Thursday, July 21st, 2011
India win the toss and invite England to bat
After a damp morning delayed the start until 11.30, the toss produced the same result as during the Sri Lankans' visit a few weeks back, with Andrew Strauss losing and, unsurprisingly, being put in to bat. This time, however, the reason behind the visiting captain's decision was a more positive one, with MS Dhoni looking to his bowlers to use the damp, swing-friendly conditions to put England under pressure on a pitch said to be possibly under-prepared due to the recent wet weather and likely to improve through the course of the match.
The shortened morning was a slow one, with England reaching just 43 at lunch for the loss of Cook, lbw to the left-arm pace of Zaheer Khan who was to pick up the second wicket, that of Struss himself, shortly after lunch when the hosts' captain was tempted by a short one which he pulled straight to Sharma waiting at deep fine leg. This was shortly after England's 50 came up in the 22nd over when Trott, who survived a few scares, edged a boundary over a vacant third slip position. When Pietersen arrived it seemed that he and Trott had possibly swapped hats for the day, with Trott looking unusually positive, especially given the testing conditions, pretty well from the off. Pietersen, on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying a surfeit of patience which suggested that the Red Bulls had been left firmly in the fridge. Indeed, the phase after Strauss's dismissal was almost totally becalmed as Pietersen continually shouldered arms to virtually two whole overs of un-exacting deliveries from Sharma. The spell was eventually broken when Trott scored boundaries in consecutive overs right under the nose of Father Time square of the wicket, one delightfully off his hips, the second punched just in front of square cover point. Pietersen meanwhile inched along before scoring two boundaries himself, but this time with thick low edges through the vacant third man position.
The arrival of Harbhajan brought the shot of the day, a sumptuous drive through cover by Trott who eventually reached his 50 off 89 balls. England's 100 came up in 40 overs suggesting some acceleration through the afternoon, but like the weather, the hosts' scoring rate was patchy. As dark clouds approached from the east, floodlight was followed by a few spots of rain which became a downpour and, after an early tea, that was that for the day.
Whilst, with just 48 overs bowled in the day, the weather clearly won out, the real star of the day was a smallish, stocky 38-year old figure prowling around at mid-on. One senses that what everyone really wants in this 2,000th test is for Sachin Tendulkar to finally score a hundred at Lord's, and this was confirmed when a most routine dive to stop a ball drew an otherwise improbable round of warm applause, suggesting an eagerness to cheer the little master, on the slightest excuse, that could be contained no longer.
India, though, already with a weak-looking bowling attack, may have to do for the rest of the game without Khan who appeared to pull a hamstring and departed the field.
Close; England 127-2 (Trott 58*, Pietersen 22*) from 48 overs.
Day 2, Friday, July 22nd, 2011
England, having been put in to bat, are 127 for 2..
It was a glorious day for cricket; sunny, in intervals, and not too hot - a complete contrast from the previous day. And complete contrasts were the order of the day in other ways: Two separate correspondents, one arriving at the start of play and seeing things through until evening drinks, and the other arriving at evening drinks and staying until the end would write entirely different reports of the day's play. This particular correspondent was the former. The latter, however, would have written (presumably) in a breathless flurry as wickets fell (3 in the last hour) and Pietersen raced from his 150 to 202*, a point where England were able to declare at 474-8, approximately 100 runs on from the 5pm drinks score when Pietersen and Prior had just passed the 100 partnership point.
Across the two contrasting periods, England ground India's weakened bowling attack into the dust, only declaring in order to get the perfunctory half hour of pace attack against the visitors' weary opening batsmen (who, incidentally, survived with few scares Anderson's and Tremlett's dusk salvo).
The morning's and afternoon' s cricket was, in a way, something akin to the cricket we saw in the 1970's and 1980's: By the 90-over point, England were around 250 for 3, which by my rule of thumb was an average "honours even" score for the first day of a test. After Trott fell (surprisingly) lbw to one that nipped back down the hill to him from Kumar (one of the medium-pacer's 5 wickets in all), Pietersen and Bell settled in. Bell looked in the better form of the two, positively attacking (2000's-style) Harbhajan in particular from the off, paddle-sweeping, lofting over mid-off (although after he failed to reach the boundary Pietersen showed him how to do it properly) and cutting square to the boundary. Pietersen meanwhile pottered along towards his hundred, never quite convincing the watcher that he was in fully on top of the bowling. Indeed, Kumar in particular, and Sharma when he bowled straight, did find continued swing despite the better batting conditions prevailing. Kumar's efforts (with the ball and on the boundary where he managed to entertain both the Mound and Grandstand occupants alternately) were eventually rewarded with a double wicket maiden, first finding Bell's edge and then, 3 balls later, apparently finding Morgan's too (more of that in a moment). Prior, though, arrived looking in good touch, unfurling his signature square cut whenever he could, and running well between the wickets with Pietersen. From 270-3, then suddenly 270-5, Prior and Pietersen cruised through tea and evening drinks, before the fireworks began (which this correspondent missed).
The similarity to the 1980's however did not extend much beyond the scoring rate of 3 per over and the medium paced swing of Kumar. Besides Bell's pro-activity against the spinner, there were two crucial differences, neither, in my view, positive developments in the game. Firstly, there was the Decision Review System, bizarrely employed for all decisions except LBWs. I would rather this system was not used at all, but if it is to be used then it should be made to work properly. However, its flaws were showed up here when Pietersen was given out caught at leg slip by umpire Billy Bowden, who clearly had a good (enough) view. On referral, however, it seemed the third umpire could not be certain it had been taken cleanly, so the batsman got the benefit, even though the on-field call may have been correct. Later, Pietersen survived another out decision by Bowden, this time seemingly correctly. This would, if upheld, been the intriguing dismissal of "ct Dravid b Dhoni", again, more of which in a moment. Then, shortly after, there was a strange dismissal, that of Morgan who declined to contest an adjudgement for caught behind, when it appeared from the replays that the ball may have hit the pad rather than the bat on the way through. The thought around the ground was that Morgan had assumed he had been given out LBW, which he could not contest (rather than caught behind, which he could)! Or maybe not. Who knows?
The second Pietersen incident had occurred when Dhoni was forced (twice, in fact) to take off the pads and bring himself on to bowl. Zaheer Kahn's injury from the first day left India with just three front-line bowlers, a crazy indictment of the current fad for picking just four bowlers. Even India's number 7 bat, Raina, could only bowl 2.4 overs. Between them, Kumar, Sharma and Harbhajan bowled 107.3. Luckily Dhoni can bowl half-decently, but the pads-on, pads-off routines just added to the general time-wasting resulting from innumerable drinks- and fielder kit runs by the legions of twelfth men. Progress? I think not. Luckily the cricket itself was absorbing.
Close; England 474-8 dec. (Pietersen 202*). In reply, India are 17-0.
Day 3, Saturday, July 23rd, 2011
India are 17 for no wicket, 457 behind England's first innings score..
A full Saturday Lord's crowd buzzed with anticipation and at 12.30 rose to greet the arrival of Sachin Tendulkar to join Rahul Dravid at the crease after Broad had dismissed both openers. For a while, especially after lunch when Anderson, in particular, suffered as the two great batsmen made light work of England's attack, flicking boundaries off their hips and dabbing boundaries square of the wicket or down through third man, the elusive first Lord's century looked on. The return of Broad from the Nursery End, and a classic away-swinging delivery, however, brought a mix of gasps and cheers as Swann picked up a routine slip catch to dismiss Tendulkar. So it was not to be (in the first innings at least). He had not even breached his previous best at Lord's of 37. The doughty Dravid, however, dug in, principally in partnership with his captain, Dhoni, but eventually ran out of partners at 103* shortly after a belligerent cameo from Kumar had helped save the follow on.
There were other moments to the day: England could and should really have enforced follow-on; they had the chances. At 158-3 on Tendulkar's dismissal, India were in no real trouble. But with the clouds having returned, Broad's next over could have brought two further wickets: First the newly-arrived Laxman was dropped by Strauss at 1st slip, then two or three balls later Swann put down Dravid.
Eventually, Tremlett (3-80), then Swann (1-50) and Broad (the pick, 4-37) chipped away and Anderson (2-87, possibly flattering him on the day) mopped up the tail.
Close; England 5 for no wicket having bowled out India for 286.
Day 4, Sunday, July 24th, 2011
England lead by 193 with all second wickets remaining.
The weather gods have certainly smiled on England in this test: Having been put in on day 1 they only had to survive 48 admittedly-torrid overs thanks to the rain that eventually arrived; then it brightened up on day 2. On day 3, when India batted, became cloudy again. Today, as England looked to build their second-innings lead, the sun once again shone. However, England made heavy weather of setting India a target of, in the end, 458 to win. That such a lead was set based upon a score of 269-6 dec. would be no surprise, but the route there was more winding than a London bus journey from Charing Cross, and made for an intriguing day's cricket.
The astonishing thing was that India very nearly clawed their way back into the game: At 62-5 with Sharma bowling nothing like the ineffectual wayward we had seen Friday, and Morgan at the crease on a pair, England were rocking. Pietersen had been despatched with snorter and Bell had been beaten by a peach, with Dhoni picking up two good catches. Just perhaps if India could have skittled England for around 100, they would have been in with a shout. Sharma, however, had bowled almost unbroken through the morning and luncheon broke the momentum. There was a thought that India should try to snatch this possibly brief opportunity by continuing with Sharma straight after the break; not to might be a gamble that England re-settled and the window would close shut. And that was what happened: First Raina, then Kumar tried from the Nursery End in Sharma's stead, but Morgan and Prior settled. Sharma eventually returned to claim Morgan's wicket via a 3rd umpire-assisted review of Gambhir's low catch at midwicket, seemingly prompted by Umpire Bowden and possibly, just possibly, if this could be turned into more quick wickets the window might stay open. However, Broad's comeback script would not allow this and he and Prior batted diligently to take the game, once again, away from India. The pugnacious Prior eventually accelerated and he biffed and scampered his way to a joyous hundred, whereupon Strauss declared, whilst Broad looked ever-more accomplished on his way to 74*. In the end, India looked weary in the field, and the target was set.
The now-irrepressible Broad bagged Mukund, played onto the stumps for the second time in the game and with Dravid pressed into opening because of a blow to Gambhir whilst fielding, and Tendulkar unable to bat having been off the field unwell most of the day, it was left to the venerable pairing of Dravid and Laxman to try to save the game. With Anderson still looking below par, but occasionally threatening, as were Broad and Tremlett, it was a challenging last hour or so for the pair. But they survived unscathed at stumps.
Close: India are 80 for 1 wicket chasing 458 to win.
Day 5, Monday, July 25th, 2011
India are 80 for 1 wicket needing another 378 to win
England eventually won by a comfortable margin of 196 runs, but were made to work for the result. For a while it looked as if India, whilst never in with a shout in the run chase, might, improbably given their injury and illness problems, at least take this to the wire. They were helped by fantastic support: this was a nearly-full final day crowd, with queues stretching to St John's Wood station in one direction and Maida Vale in the other, and people still filling up stands after lunch. Finally, however, it was Jimmy Anderson who came to the fore. Like Sharma before him, he bowled poorly in the first innings but came to life in the second. He got the early wicket of Dravid, which seemed to halve India's already slender chances of saving the game, then shortly after Laxman had reached his 50, came back to tempt the splendidly-initialled Indian into a poorly-executed pull which saw him caught by Bell stretching high at short mid-wicket.
Whilst Tendulkar received another rapturous welcome to the crease, and got off the mark with a delightful clip off his toes fifth ball, the spell was clearly broken and the hitherto impressive Gambhir followed the next over, LBW to Swann for 22.
Tendulkar and Raina stretched things well into the afternoon, although the Little Master got very bogged down and eventually fell LBW to Anderson for just 12, having been dropped by Strauss at slip a couple of balls earlier. From there it was a question of how long it would take England to wrap things up and whilst Raina (78) continued to combine solid resistance with attacking stroke play until he was caught behind off Anderson again, wickets continued to fall at ever-shortening intervals at the other end. Harbhajan hooked high into the air to give Anderson his fifth wicket and when the last pair of Zaheer Khan (with runner) and Sharma were left together, it was as good as over. When Broad trapped Sharma LBW, it was.
The only sour note to the day was when an over-zealous security guard high rugby tackled a lad who wanted to throw the ball back, then proceeded to hold up play TWICE though complete ignorance of the whys and where-fors of sightscreens. This was a complete over-reaction given the clearly harmless intentions of the lad, who had probably queued for hours, and not at all to the credit of Lord's management. But otherwise a memorable day for all.
RESULT: England (474 for 8 declared and 269 for 6 declared) beat India (286 and 261) by 196 runs
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