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Rain spoilt what could have been a certain England victory at Lord’s to have the 3-match series leveled at 0-0. Two factors – rain and Steve Bucknor haven’t been good friends for the Indian team over the recent years. But these two factors came in the aid for the Indians to allow them to just manage a very very lucky draw. Unfortunately for England, they couldn’t get any time to take the last wicket! All things said, it was also Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s gritty innings of 159 balls that saved the day and the Test Match. An unbelievable fact is that India has never lost a Test Series to England after having a drawn first Test, this has already boosted Rahul Dravid and his boys immensely ahead of the second Test!
For almost three hours, the rain and bad light did the batting for India in the final session. India were at the edge with Sreesanth, the no.11 along with MS Dhoni being the survivors. Steve Bucknor’s role became extremely vital in the outcome of the match. In what became the penultimate over of the match, Bucknor gave ‘not out’ when Sreesanth was rapped up on the pads to a Monty armer that was clearly heading towards the stumps. That could have been the end of the Test Match but Steve Bucknor gave the benefit of doubt to Sreesanth! The next over was to survive the off breaks of Michael Vaughan which Dhoni took care of and the rest was history.
The start of the day was not good from a batsman’s point of view. Overcast conditions meant that there would be lot of swing to be negotiated. Sourav Ganguly became an early victim to swing, totally unsure which direction the ball was moving. He was trapped half cock by Ryan Sidebottom to have India at 143 for 4 with Ganguly adding just four runs to his overnight score of 36. Within a few minutes, the other overnight batsman was also consumed, Dinesh Karthik getting caught in the slips off his drive to an outswinger from Jimmy Anderson. At 145 for 5, an Indian victory was very far away with 235 more runs to win. They were closing to defeat but the last recognized batting pair of VVS Laxman and Mahendra Singh Dhoni played to their potential to see off the first session. India went to lunch at 207 for 5 with these two batsmen getting into their twenties.
After lunch, VVS and Dhoni continued their partnership giving hopes of a possible victory. They were also killing time which was so important for India to save the Test Match. England could comeback into the hunt when VVS Laxman was clean bowled by a nice back of length delivery that cut back and kept slightly low from the tall Chris Tremlett. That ended a fighting stand for 28.4 overs with 86 added for the sixth wicket. Laxman played out 90 deliveries and had scored 39 with five fours. That was surely disappointing from Laxman as he was looking good for a bigger score. Next was Kumble who gave his support to Dhoni but the second new ball was too good for the former. Once again Sidebottom was the bowler coming up with the important wicket of Kumble with a sharp incoming delivery to have him lbw.
After a stubborn Kumble’s exit, England were closing in for a superb victory with Zaheer Khan and RP Singh throwing away their wickets. Zaheer gloved a Tremlett delivery behind the stumps in an attempted pull while RP Singh played all around a full delivery from Monty Panesar. After that the last pair of MS Dhoni and Sreesanth survived the next five overs and that was all possible in the day’s play. The rain that was predicted to come at 10:00 AM had at last hit Lord’s at 3:40 PM! The timing was simply perfect, the rest of the day was all indoors. At 6:20, the match was officially abandoned as a draw.
The hero of the day certainly was Dhoni getting 76 runs with 10 fours to his name. but what was notable were the 159 balls he had played and of course his presence in the middle for 203 minutes! Sreesanth did his bit too in surviving seven balls, he was lucky though in not being adjudged leg before to Panesar. India ended the Test at 282 for 9 in 96 overs. They just had to play 55 overs on this last day before bad weather took care of the rest. There were several choices for the Man of the Match award but it went to Kevin Pietersen. Without KP’s ton in the second essay, England could have even lost the Test Match. The Second Test Match is at Trent Bridge in Nottingham starting this Friday, so not much time left for the teams to relax at all!