10:30, thursday 21st july: india won the toss and elected to field. their opening bowler, zaheer khan would obviously be the biggest threat to england but after swiftly taking the wickets of england openers, strauss and cook, he limped off due to a hamstring problem. a massive blow to india but the word from the indian dressing room was that he'd be fit in a couple of days time - this proved to be completely untrue and zaheer did not bowl another ball in the series. he flew back to india after the second test and is set to miss the ODI series starting in durham on 3rd september. back to india's bowlers who were still on the field, none of them could compete with the powerful batting from trott and in particular pietersen, the latter who went on to score a extravagant double century. the other batting highlight from the england's first innings was a superb and incredibly positive seventy one from wicketkeeper prior. kumar dismissed prior and broad in two balls, broad for a golden duck but his hattrick wasn't to be - kumar was the only indian bowler who impressed (a recurring theme throughout the series) as england declared on 474 for 8. kumar taking 5-106, earning himself a well deserved place on the famous lords hounour board. finally it was time for the adoring public to see india's batting superstars - tendulkar, dravid, laxman, dhoni. one of india's big guns was missing, sehwag was not due to play until the third test at edgbaston and youngster mukund who had featured against the west indies, was given a chance to shine. and that is what he did, narrowly missing out on a half century after being bowled by broad on 49. this was the second highest score in the innings. the majority of the indian stars had come to the crease with confidence and left it promptly, looking rather foolish. however one man does not fit into this category and his name is rahul dravid, hero to millions and all round 'nice bloke'. an unbeaten 103 saving the indians from total embarassment. an effortless performance by the man they nickname 'the wall', he remained calm and composed as he lost countless batting partners - later to be named india's man of the series. the previously out of form stuart broad was the pick of the bowlers taking 4-37, including the prized scalp of tendulkar. india were all out for 286 - disappointing when compared to their usual high standards but this ended up being one of their highest totals of the series - only scraping 300 once throughout the four matches.
england were back to batting again, hoping for the same quality shown in the first innings. however, a devastating spell from sharma left england 62-5 and then 107-6 after morgan was dismissed. could england really mess up such a good position and risk not winning a match, they had dominated for four days? no need to worry, as this story has a happy ending. what i love about this england team is that even when one or more of the 'top players' do not perform, the match winners throughout the team, save the day. on this occasion it was prior and broad, who ended the innings on 103* and 72* respectively, thrilling the packed crowd at lords. england now had a decent lead and knew time was on their side, they had just over a day to bowl out an indian side who looked very unconvincing first time around. yet another lack lustre performance from a weary indian side resulted in a comfortable victory for england. only two players had passed fifty and destructive bowling from anderson, taking 5-65, saw england win by an awesome 196 runs.
confidence was very much with the england boys as they travelled to nottingham hoping to secure a 2-0 lead in the series. an unchanged eleven was expected but chris tremlett sustained an injury in training on the thursday, which meant tim bresnan came into the side. although losing tremlett was a blow, england were able to substitute quality with quality. again india won the toss and chose to bowl. day one was a disaster for england. after losing cook and trott cheaply, it was hoped pietersen and strauss would build a formidable partnership but after they were dismissed, the wickets began to fall and the batting line up collapsed. england needed someone to help them out of this mess and after his heroics with the bat and ball at lords, stuart broad once again proved the saviour for the three lions. his notts and england team-mate graeme swann joined him at the crease to entertain the crowd at trent bridge, steering england past 200. swann's brief yet exciting cameo came to an end on 28 but broad secured his second half century of the series as england were all out for 221. not the greatest total but after being 124-8, england were grateful to have made a competitive total at all. india were in a great position and with a decent batting performance, they could have england on the back foot by the end of day one. they got off to the worst of starts imaginable, mukund out first ball after a fantastic delivery from anderson. vvs laxman and zaheer khan's replacement, yuraj singh, scored half centuries but yet again, india's stand out performance was dravid, another exquisite century after being moved up the order to open in place of gambhir. however the headlines was dominated, not by dravid's superb batting but by a match-winning hattrick from stuart broad, dismissing dhoni, harbhajan and kumar: saving england when india were firmly on top and looked ready to build a huge first innings lead. broad ended with career best figures of 6-46 as india were all out for 287: bresnan and anderson sharing the other four wickets between them. england needed one of the top five to step up and score big runs in the second innings, this time it was ian bell who thrived under pressure. he scored a magnificent, yet controversial 159 - the controversy came due to a run out which was given out and then not out by the umpires either side of tea. the incident occured in the last over before tea. bell and his then current batting partner, eoin morgan, walked off for tea after allegedly being told so by the umpires. the indian fielders however had seen no signal for tea and then proceeded to run bell out. careless from bell you may say and he was evidently annoyed with the decision, although according to the laws of the game - this decision should have stood, bell should have been out. the crowd at trent bridge seemed annoyed at the lack of sportmanship showed by dhoni and believed it was against the spirit of cricket. after tea, the decision was reversed. bell was back in and went on to score 159 before falling to yuraj singh. pietersen, morgan and bresnan all provided more big runs for england - bresnan agonisingly short of a maiden test century, his 90 from 118 was a delight to watch. england had reached 500 and had nearly two days to bowl india out again, which hadn't been a problem previously. only three indian players reached double figures, including a half century for tendulkar but even the little master couldn't inspire his team - they slumped to 158 all out and england won by a mammoth 319 runs.
a week's break between the second and third test saw opening batsmen sehwag return to the indian team in a two day game against northamptonshire. he didn't have to wait long for a bat in the test match as england won the toss and put india in. sehwag must've wondered why he even bothered boarding the plane to england - he was out for a golden duck: caught by prior off the bowling of broad. gambhir, dravid and laxman all made starts but they were torn apart by some excellent bowling from england, in particular broad and bresnan who took four wickets each. at 111-7, captain dhoni knew he had to do something drastic. he himself had had a poor series up till then with some average wicketkeeping and not the usual fluid batting we had come to expect from him. this innings his luck changed and he scored an impressive 77 from 96 balls - scoring three sixes in the process. we also got to see more positive batting from kumar, a man who looks a future threat for india. his enthusiasm was second to none and his bowling & batting was a pleasure to watch. a lot of the indian players looked as if they'd rather be anywhere else in the world than at edgbaston but kumar showed passion and fight, something i love to see in a sportsman. yet another ordinary performance from india meant they looked very likely to concede their status as number one in the world sooner rather than later.
a partnership worth 186 set england off to the best possible start when it was their turn to bat. the previously out of form strauss and cook confidently took on this tired indian bowling attack and looked almost invicible before strauss was unluckily bowled on 87 by spinner mishra, a replacement for the injured singh. vice captain cook had no such issue and went on to better his own highest test score of 235 at brisbane, he fell narrowly short of 300 - only 40 short of mentor gooch's 333 against india. the other big score of the england innings was that of eoin morgan, his century helped england post a total of 710. pietersen and bresnan also contributing half cenuries but a disappointing score of just seven for ravi bopara who had come into the squad for the injured jonathan trott. it would take something special for the indians to even make england bat again, let alone get something from the match. india needed sehwag to perform if they were to save face and avoid another thrashing from england. this time it was anderson who put sehwag out of his misery - a king pair for india's superstar, his miserable series did not stop there and sehwag was left walking back to the dressing room as edgbaston erupted and the england players celebrated. gambhir and dravid didnt stay around for long, and yet again all the pressue was on tendulkar's shoulders. the passionate indian supporters in the stands desperately needed something to cheer about. sadly for them, tendulkar only managed forty runs before being run out - excellent fielding from graeme swann again denying sachin his hundredth hundred. another good partnership between dhoni and kumar lifted the indians' spirit again but they were just delaying the inevitable. england had won in spectacular fashion, by an innings and 242 runs.
india had been dethroned as number one in the world and it was now england sitting pretty at the top - could we achieve a whitewash and beat the sorry indians 4-0 at the oval?
sadly for me and the other 23,000 people who bought tickets for day one at the oval, it was a very disappointing day. not due to the cricket itself, it was a very solid session for strauss and cook after england had won the toss and elected to bat. sadly one session was all we got to witness as around half one persistent rains set in. the morning session of day two didn't go accordingly to plan on the field, strauss and cook both out quickly to sreesanth and sharma. luckily ian bell, promoted to number three in jonathan trott's absence, put in a man of the match performance scoring a delectable 235 and put on a 350 partnership with pietersen, who scored a huge hundred too. by lunch on day three, england were in a fantastic position especially with bopara and quick scoring prior on to bat. however, another lengthy rain delay meant england had to declare on 591-6 to move the game on, bopara on 44*.
up until now, graeme swann had had a quiet series. the seamers had exploited the conditions in the previous three tests but the oval was the ground swann was expected to contribute most in and he did not disappoint. yet again, sehwag wasn't around for long. this time he scored the lowly amount of eight before being trapped leg-before to anderson. his opening partner, dravid had a very different innings. his unbeaten 146 made him a class apart from team mates. all his team mates seemed to be having enormous problems facing the england bowlers and with the pitch but dravid made it look easy, his partnership with mishra india's highlight of the match, before the leg spinner fell to bresnan on 43. bresnan and swann were the pick of the bowlers as india were all out for 300 and england enforced the follow on, sensing they could get a few indian wickets before the close of play on sunday. dravid had been on the field every minute of the game until then and he was out to bat again. sadly for dravid, he departed from the field after scoring thirteen, the series not ending well for india's only bright spark. sehwag recorded his highest score of the series before also falling to swann, a fantastic delivery from england's off spinner on a pitch that really was turning - swann was expected to do a lot of damage on day five. anderson claiming the last wicket of the day, a beauty to bowl vvs laxman. the morning session of day five really did belong to india, not a phrase used often this series. tendulkar and nightwatchman mishra put on an entertaining partnership, making england's bowlers work harder than they had done for a lot of the series. mishra was bowled by swann on 84 and tendulkar left soon after, given out lbw to bresnan on 91. hawkeye proved it was just clipping the stumps but it takes a brave man to give sachin tendulkar his marching orders, nine away from that hundreth century. i can't imagine simon taufel is popular man in india tonight. this sparked a batting collapse, india losing seven wickets for twenty one runs. graeme swann running riot taking 6-106, breath-taking bowling at times and england had done it. we had achieved the unthinkable and we'd beat india 4-0. not even the most optismitic england supporter could have predicted this surely? andrew strauss and andy flower have proved the ultimate team in helping england climb the world rankings and it's all down to hard work. the england boys have come so far on this journey and the sky is the limit - i believe this team can dominate test cricket for years to come. we've got the best coach in the world, the best batsmen in the world and the best bowling attack in the world: the future's bright.
