India vs England - 1st Test Match.........

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.

Here comes the rain.......

England’s 1st series of the summer was some what dampened as rain continued to fall all throughout the test match. England’s hopes were held high and would have hop to have won by 2 or 3-0 but the rain also prevented a promising Sri Lankan side get back into the match.  The final test match was the first ever test match at the rose bowl and if not for the rain it would have been perfect. England won the toss and chose to field. Anderson returned to the side after injury and bowled well with swing and accuracy. The star of the show in the 1st innings was Tremlett who bowled over Sri Lanka with a tremendous 6 wicket haul. Sri Lanka could only score 184 and wicket keeper Jayawardene was the only batsmen who could put together any kind of innings, scoring 43. England’s bowling was solid all throughout the 1st innings and have been all summer so far. England’s batting has also been brilliant this summer and with Pietersen returning to form, and India will need to be aware of both England’s batting and bowling. England’s 1st innings entertained a brilliant century from Bell and the good form continued for Morgan, Cook and returning to form Pietersen who all got 50’s. England looked as though they could really emphasise the development they have made so far by winning the third and final test but rain stopped them in they're tracks. Throughout the match rain inconsistently affected play and the players were on and off the field with no real rhythm being built by either side. In total England scored 377 for 8 declared, which gave them a 1st innings lead of 193. Lakmal took the most of Sri Lanka’s hard fought wickets with a 3fer but England still looked strong. Huge downpours of rain only allowed 5 wickets to fall in Sri Lanka’s 2nd innings before the test was announced as a draw mid way through the final day. However the rain should not take away anything from a mouth watering century from Sangakkara, his first in England. He smacked the ball all over the debut test match ground and truly deserved his ton. Samaraweera also will be pleased with his 87*, but I’m sure both batsmen would have preferred to have hit form earlier in the series. 

      So a very much rain affected test to end  very much rain affected series. England’s new ODI and T20 captain were in charge now and having won 1 trophy, England would have hoped to have won the one T20 international as well. Starting with the one and only T20, England’s new captain made some very bold changes to the side. Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott, England’s 2 in form batsmen, both scoring runs but not in the side, in stead the return of Lumb and Kieswetter. They both opened the batting and together could only manage 6, trying to hit the ball far too hard they both got caught. England looked good whilst Morgan and KP scored fluent 40’s but then the only thing left to come was a little cameo from Bopara. England finished on 136  for 9 off they’re 20 overs. Sri Lanka’s reply was dominant and assured, and without Dilshan it was even more impressive. Jayawardene got 72 and Sangakkara got 43 as the Sri Lankan’s cruised to a 9 wicket win. Not a very good start to his T20 captaincy career, but hopefully Broad can bounce back. The 2 Odi’s to have gone so far have been completely opposite, one comfortably won by England and the other by Sri Lanka. The first ODI was at the Oval and with yet another rain affected match, D/L was used meaning England won by 110 runs. Kieswetter scored 61 and Morgan fell 5 short of his half century, Contributing to an England a total of 229. This game also saw the return of Tim Bresnan who returned from injury and took a wicket as well as scoring a useful 23. James Anderson the top bowler, he got 4 wickets and Graeme swann got 3 which comfortably saw England home. No-one really got going with the bat for Sri Lanka, someone needed a 50 if they were to have any chance of winning.  The second ODI was easily won by Sri Lanka with a margin of 69 runs. England could only limit Sri Lanka to 309 for 5, Jayawardene batted absolutely magnificently for 144 of just 150 balls. Sangakkara scored 69 and they both looked a class above England. In reply England put themselves in with a chance with a   good 40 for captain cook and a nice 50 for Morgan. Bell and Trott both got 30’s but no-one could put the pieces together and get a hundred. Sri Lanka bowled England out for 240 including 3fers for Lakmal and Randiv.

If England are going to win this series then someone needs to push on and get a big score, too many batsmen getting in and getting out.