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KP's ton puts
England in the driver's seat |
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India
are three down already chasing a huge target of
380 to win the Lord's Test. The two best batsmen
of the side - Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar
are already back in the pavilion but there is a
slight bit of hope thanks to a fighting stand
between Dinesh Karthik and Sourav Ganguly. The
stiff target set by England was due to Kevin
Pietersen's 9th test match hundred. All the
three results are quite possible on the fifth
and final day at Lord's with the weather
expected to play its part!
The fourth day's play
was a special one for two people - one was
Pietersen and the other was R.P.Singh who picked
up a five-wicket haul. The morning session went
India's way with RP Singh picking up three
wickets. The first one was Vaughan playing onto
his stumps in his attempted drive. It was
followed with cruel bouncer that got Collingwood
helplessly fending that into the slips.
Collingwood just managed to avoid a pair as he
had got got a boundary before getting bounced
out. Another short delivery from RP Singh got
the wicket of Ian Bell, an attempted pull shot
crashing back onto his stumps. All these three
wickets came with RP Singh bowling from round
the sticks. England went into lunch with
Pietersen at 62 in the company of Matthew Prior.
The
second session started to go England's way as
they tried to extend their lead. Pietersen and
Prior played their natural game and soon the
Indians were giving up their hopes of bowling
out England quickly. Pietersen soon got to his
hundred which came in 148 balls. The partnership
for the sixth wicket was finally broken by
Zaheer Khan with Prior's outside edge finally
carrying to the keeper. Prior made 42 as England
got to a lead of 348. The next ball put Zaheer
on a hat-trick with Tremlett's tentative forward
defence rolling back onto the stumps. Zaheer got
his hat-trick ball to swing back late into the
blockhole but Ryan Sidebottom was good enough to
block it. The Indians managed to clean up
England for 282 with Kumble getting Sidebottom
caught in the slips off a skidder and RP Singh
taking Pietersen and Monty Panesar's wickets.
Pietersen (134 from 213 balls with 14 fours and
a six) was also bowled playing onto his stumps
off an attempted pull while Monty was done in by
a sharp reverse swinging delivery that trapped
him in front of the stumps. That was the fifth
wicket for RP Singh who brought in a lot of
pace, swing and different angles that helped him
to take excellent figures of 5 for 59 in 16.3
overs.
The start from Wasim
Jaffer and Dinesh Karthik was a promising one
until the former got out to a soft dismissal.
Anderson got the false shot from Jaffer, who
flicked him in the air and straight into the
waiting hands of Pietersen at short mid wicket
leaving India at 38 for 1. India's Skipper Rahul
Dravid got off to a cracking start with a
stylish square cut for a boundary. But it wasn't
going to be his day as he was adjudged leg
before the wicket to a delivery that struck him
just marginally outside the offstump. Tremlett
was the bowler getting the ball to nip back
getting Dravid (9) caught half cock. Like
Dravid, Tendulkar too disappointed, he was also
out lbw but to Monty Panesar. Tendulkar was
outsmarted by the left arm spinner with the
right hander playing for the turn as he got his
bat outside the line of the ball. Monty brought
the ball with the arm leaving Tendulkar (16)
dumbfounded. At 84 for 3, India were looking
very fragile but a gutsy partnership between
Dinesh Karthik and Sourav Ganguly kept them in
the business at the end of the day with 243 more
runs to win with seven wickets in hand. Karthik
was very impressive, positive in his drives
while Ganguly was mixing caution with sparks of
aggression. The southpaw did have his heart in
his mouth when he was dropped by Ian Bell at
silly point off a prod in Monty's bowling.
Dinesh Karthik has got himself to 56 and Ganguly
has got to 36.
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