The biggest test match of the summer, the series everyone has been waiting for, and what a first test it was.After a delayed start due to a wet outfield, India won the toss on an overcast day at Lord’s and no doubt put England into bat.
Coming into the test match fresh of the back of a hundred for Strauss in a warm up match against the tourists and awesome form for Alistair Cook in recent months, England would have hoped for big opening stand and a much bigger total. However not by a coincidence, both openers were dismissed in exactly the same way as they were in 2007, Cook given out LBW and Strauss caught on the pull, England needed someone to step up to the task. Jonathan Trott did what any batsmen needed to do to succeed, and that was be patient and disciplined. He worked Ishant Sharma well of his hips clipping the Indian fast bowler for plenty of singles and the occasional four through the leg side, as well as playing strongly through the off-side Trott made 70 of 228 balls. Along side Trott was Kevin Pietersen, a man under pressure, a batsmen who searched for form in the same way he kept searching for balls outside his off stump. However his inings in the 1st test at Lord’s was a class apart from recent performances. KP battled hard and bored the crowd with a very disciplined first 50 and he started to find his feet on day 2. As dot balls turned into 2’s and 2’s into fours KP’s innings became more and more fluent and his hundred was met with huge celebrations both from the batsmen and from the capacity crowd. When Trott got out trying to work a straight one from Kumar onto the leg-side and missed, meaning he was plum in front and given out lbw, Bell came to the crease and played well for his forty five before edging one into the Indian captain’s gloves. Morgan came and went immediately for 0, having faced just one delivery. It was now an in form Prior’s turn and he entertained as always scoring 71 and with KP still in at the other end they both picked up the rate and KP made it passed 150 and was getting closer to 200. Graeme Swann’s cameo innings of 24 allowed KP to get even closer to the 200 land mark, but then he was dismissed it meant Tremlett had to support KP all the way to 202*. England declared on 474 for 8.
Despite England’s first innings dominance nothing should be taken away from Praveen Kumar’s brilliant 5 for 106 of 40 overs, an outstanding effort from him having to fill in for an injured Zaheer Khan meant he bowled the same amount of overs as full Pro 40 innings and 10 less than a whole ODI innings.
India’s batting included a very respectable 49 from young opener Mukund, he played with maturity at the top of the order.
Broad got a duck in the first innings and everyone must have thought his bad form was continuing with bat and ball but Stuart had other ideas getting rid of both openers as well as the big wicket of Tendulkar for 34. However the wicket of Dravid no-one could get. The wall as he is called played like a wall, impossible for the Bowlers to get through and impossible for England to move he stood at the crease for 5 and a half hours scoring a magnificent 103*. That seemed to be the only real positive for India as England had no troubles bowling out the rest of the side and Broad in particular will be proud, finishing with 4 for 37. Tremlett got 3 wickets Anderson 2 and Swann just the 1.
Moving onto England’s second innings India took initial advantage tearing through England’s top order and having them 57 for 5. Morgan got a start and got out for 19 but Prior and Broad played with no fear and with healthy strike rates both over 80. Matt Prior punished an understandably tired Indian Bowling attack whilst Stuart Broad played stylish shots to support him. Broad made 74* and Prior 103* which brought about a declaration on 269 for 6 meaning India needed 457 to win. Going back to England’s top order Cook and KP made 1 and Bell made a duck, Strauss 32 and Trott 22. With the ability they have England will be very disappointed with the low score and very pleased that Prior and Broad showed their ability with the bat. 4 wickets for Sharma the highlight of the Indian bowlers. Indian’s batsmen however was lacking an injured Gambhir meaning that Dravid was promoted to the top of the order and he made 36 before edging one to Prior of Anderson’s bowling. Broad got the other opener and India looked troubled. India’s top 8 all made double figures but only Raina was really causing any threat to England’s victory chances with 78. most people ruled out an Indian victory when England declared late on day 4, but it wasn’t completely over until James Anderson woke up on day 5. Anderson exploited any weaknesses in the batsmen, and got the huge wicket of Tendulkar, meaning that Anderson has now got the batting wizard out 6 times. The tourists’ innings ended with Stuart Broad getting Sharma LBW, and England went 1-0 up in the series.
Match was umpired by; Billy Bowden and Asad Rauf who were excellent.
Man of The match for his 202* was KP.
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