1st Test: England vs India at Lord's

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Ljp86

Ljp86

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1st Test: England vs India at Lord's

The first test of this much anticipated series begind soon with a different looking English line-up taking on the might of India. Injuries have hampered England's test and one-day sides in there summer with this game being no exception. England's bowling line-up of Tremlett, Sidebottom, Anderson and Panesar has only 37 tests of experience between them compared with India's line-up which has played a total of 174 tests.

However, Lord's has proven to be a batters paradise for English players with England averaging 550 runs per innings (1st innings only) over the past four tests with the excpetion of the game against Australia. They will need to get the runs this time too as their bowling attack is quite inexperienced and should things go wrong, the batters must step up.

India's line-up remains fairly straightforward, six batters, four bowlers and the wicketkeeper MS Dhoni. They will be willing to get off to a good start as they can't afford to let the English batters get a good start as history suggest they'll score big.

Expect this pitch to be hepful for the batters. A relatively newish England side taking on India, we should see some fireworks here.

England XI: 1 Andrew Strauss, 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Michael Vaughan*, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Ian Bell, 7 Matt Prior+, 8 Chris Tremlett, 9 Ryan Sidebottom, 10 James Anderson, 11 Monty Panesar

India XI: 1 Wasim Jaffer, 2 Dinesh Karthik, 3 Rahul Dravid*, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Sourav Ganguly, 6 VVS Laxman, 7 MS Dhoni+, 8 Anil Kumble, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 RP Singh, 11 S Sreesanth.

Umpires: Steve Bucknor and Simon Taufel
3rd Umpire: Ian Gould

Toss: England won the toss and will bat

Weather:

(All Temperatures in Degrees Celcius)

Thursday: Showers developing later, 23.
Friday: Rain, possible thunderstorm, 17.
Saturday: Scattered showers, 20.
Sunday: Few showers, 22.
Monday: Mostly fine, 21.



Game starts at 6pm AWST (11am local time, 10am GMT).
 
Re: 1st Test: England vs India at Lord's

England have totally dominated Day 1. They were edgey early but they have played well to get to where they are.

Just a short time ago, bad light stopped play with England 2/233 in the 71st over. As predicted, it has been a batter's paradise with the English really dominating the goings on Day 1. Cook made a brisk 36 before falling to Sourav Ganguly LBW and a while ago, Andrew Strauss was out for 96 falling to Anil Kumble. Captain Michael Vaughan has batted well but slowly for his 76 not out and Pietersen just got to the crease and is on 3.

Unfortunately, with rain predicted for the next three days, these lost overs early on could leave us without a result for this match. However, it is only early days yet and let's hope the weather isn't as bad as predicted.

And it's just started raining, freaking Northern Hemisphere weather!! :p
 
Re: 1st Test: England vs India at Lord's

Play did resume and another 10 over weer possible before the light again proved a problem.

England clearly lead before the little 10-over session but RP Singh and Kumble took a wicket each to see England 4/268 at stumps. Day 1 evened out a little at the end but you'd think that England still has the upper hand here.

Vaughan and Collingwood were the batsmen dismissed for 79 and 0 respectively.

Let's hope the rain stays away and we can get some play on Day 2.
 
Re: 1st Test: England vs India at Lord's

England collapsed to be all out for 298.

Zaheer Khan took the wickets of Pietersen for 37 and Ian Bell for 20 before Sreesanth ripped through the lower order before England's tail could mount any late resistence.

England have struck back though and India are 2/31 after 13 overs. Jaffer is not out on 20 and Tendulkar not out on zero. Karthik and Dravid fell cheaply to Ryan Sidebottom and James Anderson.
 
Re: 1st Test: England vs India at Lord's

Ganguly is still batting, and India expects him to do really well here. It will be very interesting to see how Monty does now, should be a very good 3rd day.
 
Re: 1st Test: England vs India at Lord's

Anderson picked up Tendulkar for 37 and then Jaffer fell to debutant Chris Tremlett for 58 as India reached 4/145 at stumps on Day 2.

They still trail by 153 runs with Sourav Ganguly and nightwatchman RP Singh at the crease.

Day 3 promises to be a pearler.
 
Re: 1st Test: England vs India at Lord's

India collapsed to be bowled out for 201 giving England a 97 run lead. Jaffer was the only man to pass 50 making 58. Surprisingly Tendulkar reached his highest score in his career at Lord's in 37.

James Anderson took 5/42 and Sidebottom got 4/65 and Tremlett got his first test wicket.

England hold the advantage early on day 3 but with plenty of time left in the match anything could happen.
 
Re: 1st Test: England vs India at Lord's

It looks very interesting at the moment. England 132 for 5. But Pietersen is still batting. Could India make a dent here? It's still very even as England have a lead of 229.
 
Re: 1st Test: England vs India at Lord's

England are 7/254, a lead of 351 runs.

Pietersen went on to make his century and is still there on 123. Pietersen got great support from Matt Prior who made 42 but he and Chris Tremlett fell to Zaheer Khan in the space of two balls as India struck back.

Ryan Sidebottom is the new batsman and is not out on zero.

That was Tremlett's second duck in this match, meaning he gets a "pair" on debut.
 
Re: 1st Test: England vs India at Lord's

England ALL OUT for 282, leaving the Indians with a fairly large task to chase 380 for victory. Tea has been taken on Day 4.

Difficult but not impossible. 4 sessions to get the runs.

This would be a great time for Tendulkar to finally deliver the goods at Lords with a big ton and bring the Indians home.
 
Re: 1st Test: England vs India at Lord's

Another horrendus collapse by the English tail - 5/31. Not quite as bad as the 8/46 collapse in the Poms first innings, thanks to a great ton from Pietersen and a good innings from Prior.

The Indian tailenders did not fare much better in their first inning with 5/46, so it really will be important for India to get a good start.

Karthik really needs to get some runs and spend some time at the crease in order to protect Dravid, Sachin, Ganguly and VVS from the new ball ... I am not convinced of his ability to open the batting as yet in test cricket, especially in English conditions.
 
Re: 1st Test: England vs India at Lord's

England would have to have one of the worst tails in cricket at the moment. Tremlett, Sidebottom, Panesar and Anderson are all hopeless with the bat. This is the second time they've been cleaned up quickly by the Indian bowling attack.

In this test, those four have contributed just 17 runs out of a total of 590. Just not good enough in my opinion. They should be aiming to score 50 runs between them each innings should they get the opportunity to bat. Surely that is not too much to ask?

Pietersen was out for 134 by the way with Panesar the last man to fall with both falling to the bowling of RP Singh. Singh picked 5/59 with Zaheer Khan taking 4/79.

In reply, India are 0/32 after 8.1 overs. Still need another 348 to win.
 
Re: 1st Test: England vs India at Lord's

India moved to 3/137 at stumps on Day 4. Tendulkar fell to Panesar for 17 but a nice little partnership between Ganguly and Karthik has seen India put on 53 runs since Tendulkar fell.

Ganguly is not out on 36 with Karthik on 56.

243 runs still required to win, you would think that these two would have to score most of those runs should India end up winning the game.
 
Re: 1st Test: England vs India at Lord's

This looks like going to be a fantastic 5th day for cricket. By default, I have to give advantage to England, simply because they're at their home and India doesn't do its best outside the subcontinent in general. Still, anything is possible. The 1st session of 5th day will be extremely crucial.
 
Re: 1st Test: England vs India at Lord's

The weather is very cloudy and damp, which means the ball is going to swing. It's a dream for a fast bowler, actually and this is the time for India to show if they're made of men or boys.
 
Re: 1st Test: England vs India at Lord's

I really thought India would have a chance of winning this game if Ganguly stayed around but he got out early and the wickets followed.

It's not over yet if you're an Indian fan, they're still alive but only just, bad light and drizzle is keeping play from continuing and has done so for the last hour.

They sit at 9/289, still requiring another 98 runs for victory. Earlier, Ganguly departed for 40 and Karthik 60 as they failed to add any decent contributions of runs to their overnight totals. Laxman made a useful 39 but he too fell by the wayside. It's been left to Mahendra Singh Dhoni who is currently 76 not out. He's had the tail to bat with and they haven't provided much help at all.

Game is still on though, it's just a matter of whether play can get underway again. England would be very frustrated at this break in play.
 
Re: 1st Test: England vs India at Lord's

Man, India was literally left off the hook here. I wouldn't completely blame them for a crap performance here, as overall it was a lot of intriguing cricket. But I'm sure England were going to win.
 
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