Related Links

Link to Scorecard

England fought hard in delaying the inevitable Indian victory in the morning session of the final day's play. Chris Tremlett's hostile spell of fast bowling saw India lose three wickets in chasing down the remaining 63 runs to victory. With a 1-0 lead, India are clearly holding the advantage going into the final Test at The Oval which starts from 9th of the next month.

Indian openers Dinesh Karthik and Wasim Jaffer gave a good start with their positive strokeplay to knock off a quick twenty runs at the start. Every now and then the English new ball bowlers did go past the outside edge without luck. Finally England could get a breakthrough when Wasim Jaffer attempted an ugly pull shot from outside off to be caught at gully off Chris Tremlett. Jaffer fell for 22 that came in 45 balls with three fours in an opening stand of 47. The promising Dinesh Karthik batted well with some solid drives and upper cuts before getting a snorter of a delivery which he had to nick it behind. Once again the bowler was Chris Tremlett getting the ball to kick awkwardly at the batsman. Karthik too made 22 with his runs coming in 56 balls with three fours.

The match was expected to be over through the pair of Dravid and Tendulkar. But Tendulkar lost his wicket after getting peppered with short pitch deliveries. Tendulkar also fell to Chris Tremlett, a short and rising delivery that was fended to the short leg fielder. Tendulkar had a struggle in his 15-ball innings in which he got just the one run but he had done his job in the first innings when it really mattered. The victory, the 29th overseas win and the fifth test match victory on England soil came not from the bat but in the form of four byes. Sourav Ganguly like Tendulkar was greeted with hostile short pitch deliveries so much so that he decided to back away from his stumps. Tremlett surprised him with a blistering yorker that swung a lot to miss both the batsman and also the keeper to run away to the fine leg fence. That was it at Trent Bridge with India getting the target of 73 in 24.1 overs. Skipper Rahul Dravid remained unbeaten with 11 from 28 with two fours and Ganguly with 2 from 4 balls.

England would think that have unearthed an exciting talent in Chris Tremlett who has got deadly figures of 3 for 12 in 7.1 overs. The Man of the Match was obviously going to be Zaheer Khan for his rich haul and also a career best of 9 for 134. India cannot lose the Test Series with this 1-0 lead but they know that England are going to compe up extremely hard at The Oval. There is lot of time before that final contest. Meanwhile India have an opportunity of playing a 3-day practice game against Sri Lanka A at Leicestershire that starts on 3rd August.

Top of the Page