Live score India Vs England second Test Match at Mohali!

Indian batting line up collapsed after the second wicket partnership as India ended the first innings with 453 runs on the board:
India resumed their innings with 179/1 with two unbeaten batsman taking guard once again for the day. The overs which were lost last day due to bad light was not possible to make up due to bad light today also. Play started at 9o’clock. As the day progressed, Dravid and Gambhir settled themselves in the crease properly. They played some very good strokes all around the ground. At one time the score card read as 320/1. But then Gambhir departed trying to heave Swann in the cover but ended up giving a simple catch to the backward-point. Dravid tried to accelerate the scoring rate and but his lofted shot found the safe pair of hands of mid-off. Sachin was plumbed in front of stumps in the bowling of Graeme Swann. VVS Laxman seemed to have lost his touch a bit. After fighting for 23 deliveries, he got out to Flintoff on the 24th ball without making any runs. Yuvraj and Dhoni tried to increase the runrate but fell cheaply. Some end firing from Mishra and Harbhajan took the score pass 450 runs. India ended the innings with 453 runs on the board. Flintoff ended up with 3/54 while finished the innings with 3/122.

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India chased down 387 runs on the fifth day!

India chased down 387 runs on the fifth day to create a new record, Sachin came up with his 41st ton!
A triumphant side always has something extra ordinary that defines the fate of the game. The match between India and England was proving the point of saying these words explicitly. India could never have expected more what they have achieved today.

This has been a fluent performance for last half of the year that has made even the strongest side in the world look like baby-sitters. India has surpassed all bounds of odds and has achieved the well deserved victory for their performance in the last few sessions of the match.

This match was undoubtedly in the grasp of the Englishmen but it was Sehwag who turned down all equations last day to give India more than good chance of winning this test match.

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India Vs England 1st Test Match at Chennai!

Strauss’ ton could not stabilize the score, England reduced to 229/5 in day 1 of the first test!

India is in a great position after the first day’s play in the most talked series after the Mumbai Blast. The fate of the series was in the hands of the ECB personnel as they were terrified by the Mumbai blast. But at last the decision went in favor of cricket and the cricket fans had a sigh of relief when today England team came up for the 1st test between India and England in Chennai. The bombs might have forced the series a bit far but the intensity has not dropped down a single bit. The entire craze was vividly visible in the field when India was giving a torrid time for the England batsman.




The day started off with a prayer for the deeds in the blast of Mumbai. The players wore black badge to show their protest against the kind of violence that was showed by the terrorists in the Mumbai blast. England captain Kevin Pietersen won the toss and elected to bat first in a flat pitch. Two openers did a splendid job to keep India at bay till lunch. Cook and Strauss were extra cautious against the Indian seamers. Especially they hardly took any chance against Zaheer Khan in the starting period. The run rate was slow but the key factor was that they did not loose any wicket till lunch. In between lunch and tea the Indian spinners did their job but only Harbhajan was capable of removing Cook in the session. After the tea break, India was back in hunt for wickets.

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Ponting under heavy pressure as a captain as well as a batsman!

After the first and second day of first test at Bangalore, nothing seems to be going in favour of australian captain Ricky Ponting. He is under a lot of pressure for his batting and for his captaincy also. Ricky Ponting never made good scores here in India. But on the first test, when he scored the first century for Australia, it was imagined that he has gone through the patches of his career and now able to score freely of the Indian attack. But to his dismay, all went wrong horribly in the seconf innings itself. Only Watson could stand against the formidable Indian attack in the second innings of the first test. India almost sneaked the first test under the nose of the Australians.

But it became certain in the second test on the first day itself. Both Sourav and Sachin playing splendid innings made him look like a dumb head with the burden of captaincy. He never got the courage of attacking any Indian pair. He gave them time to settle down and then expecting them to throw their wickets away. He put men on the boundary even with the new ball. That was the worst part of his captaincy till now. Apart from his spinner, all the remaining bowlers are very good fast bowlers. But instead of attacking the Indians with full flow, he tried to defend and that has cost him the second test match.

His batting looked extreamly helpless against the attack of Ishant Sharma. Apart from the first innings, Ishant claimed him three times cheaply. That’s been one of the biggest problems of Australians of late in this series. The other problem this captain is having is the failure of Hayden and fast bowler Brett Lee. Haden has been constantly struggling against the moving ball of Zaheer Khan and the outburst was shown in the second innings of the Mohali test. His anger made him fall in the second innings. Indians seems to have a plan going against Lee. They never try to hit him until the ball is there to hit. And they are very keen to use his pace rather than forcing a big drive.

Now Ponting as a captain is under lot of pressure as his team fears to lose the Border-Gavaskar trophy. As a batsman his problems are heavy against the tall fast bowler Ishant. He has to solve these problems as soon as possible before this series gets over.

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Kumble will be under pressure when India will face Australia at Kotla ground, Delhi!

One of the unfortunate people to miss the second test was the captain of India. Anil Kumble missed the second test due to a shoulder injury. This injury cost him the match. He had to sit in the bench and watch the players to make toil Aussies hard on the field.

Again he had to rest in the ac room while his team mates gave the Australians a torrid time out there while they were batting. But now he is determined to get back to cricket in the upcoming test at his favorite hunting ground Firozshah Kotla, Delhi. Anil Kumble has been a legend in the Indian cricket. And his favorite hunting ground is the Kotla ground at Delhi.

Here he has taken more than 50 wickets in six test at an average of less than his career’s overall. The best of his performances, of course the 10 wicket haul came in this ground way back in the late 90s. In that day he ruined Pakistan with his deadly spin bowling. In the recent times, Kumble has been going in a rough patch.

He went wicket less in the first test against Australia even in the second innings of the game. He never looked in comfort. He gave away too many loose deliveries to score off. This time there would be pressure on him as the selectors has seen the performance of Dhoni as a captain in tests. And his batting capabilities have refined in the captaincy.

At the same time the ruining of senior players are going on in the BCCI to inject fresh blood. So this will be a real test for Kumble who has more than 600 test wickets in his bag. One more aspect should be noticed here.

Inclusion of Kumble would mean that Amit Mishra has to sit out. This is again a test for the selectors whether to give preference to the old war horse or to the new buzzing talent who bowled superbly against a formidable Australian side.

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