On day 3 most of the time was wasted due to rain. When play called off England were 77-2 with Kevin Peterson (15 not out) and skipper Michael Vaughan (17 not out). Having taken the lead of 97 in first inning England looks very much top at this stage with overall lead of 174 run. With the ball is moving and seaming around and how the England bowlers performed in first inning it looks India are down and out in the first test match at Lord’s. It’s only miracle can save India from loosing the test match. When play begins on third day Indian middle order batsman (Saurav Ganguly, M.S. Dhoni and V.V.S Laxman) and tail give their wickets without putting the effort and fight with England bowlers. James Anderson and Ryne Sidebottom bowl brilliantly and picked wickets at regular interval. They didn’t allow Indian batsman to settle down. Anderson came up with his best figures in this inning with 5/42 and Sidebottom taken 4 wickets. The first to go earlier was Saurav Ganguly who just added 9 runs to his overnight score when he was bowled by James Anderson on 34. RP Singh (17) tried to hit his way out of the trouble and even succeeded briefly smashing two fours in one over off debutant Chris Tremlett but failed to do so against Sidebottom with Anderson taking an easy catch at mid-off. M.S. Dhoni was out without scoring a single run. With all the major batsman back in the pavilion and Indian tails are exposed it was very difficult task for V.V.S Laxman to get India anywhere near close to England first inning total of 298. Although Anil Kumble and V.V.S Laxman tried to get moving but Anil Kumble was lbw to Sidebottom before the left-handed pacer had Laxman caught behind by wicketkeeper Matthew Prior for 15. Now it’s all upto last pair of Indian batting line up Zaheer Khan and S.Sreesanth but what they will do if all the top guns were failed. And Finally Zaheer Khan was caught by A. Strauss on the bowling of James Anderson and India bowled out for 201. With 97 runs of lead England opener once again started well. A.Cook and A. Strauss bothy put 40 runs for the first wicket before Zaheer Khan got Andrew Strauss caught by Sachin Tendulkar at first slip when he was on 18. Zaheer strikes again in his very next over when he trapped Aliastar Cook infront of the wicket and gave India a second breakthrough. At this time England were 43/2. When Rain interrupted the play they were 54/2. When match started again both Peterson and Vaughan batted cautiously and without loosing any further wicket move England scores up to 77/2 at the End of third days play. Labels: Cricket, India vs england first test at lords Day III |
