Story India's Journey To World Cup 2011 [Commonwealth Bank Series 2010]

[AkshayS]

Gambir bowling and picking 2 wickets.
Unbelievable.

He never bowled a bowl in international Test cricket.:doh

 

[Aditya]

India In England

India Vs England
Natwest Series 2010
Second Test Match : India Vs England
Live From Lord's

Good recovery from England,End of Day 4!!!​

So,After the tea match again started. Swann and Collingwood were not at all taking risks,They were taking singles because a partnership was needed. Even Gambhir now was not able to take wickets and that's obvious because he's a part time bowler and we cant expect much wickets from him. Swann normal batting is to hit boundaries and play aggressively. But he was not able to play aggressively,Collingwood was taking most of the strike but one thing was that Swann was doing well in staying at the crease. Collingwood was very lucky,Few of his catches were dropped but still he was not loosing his concentration. India bowlers and Captain were absolutely clueless... :what

Weather was overcast and ideal for sleeping but players can't skip the game. :sleep Dhoni was changing bowlers from both the ends but it was not working,England were inching closer to the target. Gambhir was taken off the attack for sometime but when he was brought back to bowl Collingwood smashed him for few boundaries. Collingwood carefully fined the gaps and smashed few boundaries. Swann didn't got carried away by that and continued taking singles rather than hitting boundaries and getting out..

After smashing couple of boundaries Collingwood reached his very well made fifty. Again the man showed that how well he plays under pressure. Whole England team clapped for his well made fifty. After reaching to his fifty Collingwood was playing in the similar fashion he was playing before his fifty. After few minutes when it was closing to the end of day 4. Swann smashed Harbhajan Singh for couple of boundaries and then umpires decided to end the days play. What a day for both the teams,Sometimes India on top and sometimes England. Now the question is what will happen on day 5? Will England win the match? Or India will get few quick wickets? Only time will tell lets see what happens...

You can still participate in Play N Win contest before the day 5 starts you just need to guess the team who will win the match... Will it be India or England or Rain will come into the play and there will be a draw? Members who will predict correct answer will get 5,000 vcash. Till now the members who have participated in the competition are SachinGr8(India Wins),Yudi(India Wins).​

ENG : 168/6 after 72 overs
Extras : 13

P.Collingwood 64(164)
G.Swann 31(87)

Last Wicket : S.Broad 2(10)

ENG need 46 runs to win

 

[Varun]

Collingwood has settled down here, England should easily win this...

 

[Aditya]

Will be posting day 5 update tonight at approximately 9.00 pm IST. You can participate in the Predict N Win competition till then.

 

[sachin_rocks]

england wins

 

[Aditya]

India In England

India Vs England
Natwest Series 2010
Second Test Match : India Vs England
Live From Lord's

So, It was all set for day 5 to start. Players made walk to the middle to start the days play. Both the England batsman, Swann and Collingwood were looking happy. England got a solid progress and were all set to start the match. On other hand Indian players head were down, They were looking disappointed but the experienced men?s of the team, Dravid and Sachin were trying to cheer up all the players.

MS Dhoni took his time to set the fielding, Sachin and Dravid in the mean time were talking to the bowlers to share the ideas and cheer them up. Ground was full of crowds, After all the match could well be one of the better test matches ever. So, All the players got settled and umpire called ?play?.

All set for a thrilling contest!!!​

Swann had the intentions of being attacking. Indian bowlers were not at all at their best, They were nervous and frustrated at the same time. Dravid,Sachin and Dhoni were continuously cheering up the boys and it did work at a point of time. Collingwood was struggling on day 5. He was looking nervous and that?s fair enough, Whole team was depending on him and he was not able to handle the pressure on day 5. Zaheer Khan used his experience and rolled his fingers over the bowl to get some swing, He bowled a full length delivery and Collingwood tried to flick it but a fielder was there and bowl went straight to him. Whole Indian team was jumping here and there because they got wicket of main batsman of England side Collingwood who was the key to win the match for England. :happy :banana

After Collingwood wicket pressure was on England but Swann continued playing attacking cricket. Anderson, The new batsman, was trying to be defensive but he didn?t succeeded in it and got out for a duck! Anderson tried to push the bowl on leg side but got slight edge and bowl went to the keeper and Dhoni took a great catch. India got yet another wicket! :happy Onions, Next batsman was even not able to do anything special with that bat and got out in typical tail-enders way. Sachin Tendulkar pitched the bowl short and Onions thought to leave it but bowl got some spin and Onions misjudged it and hence got bowled. Pressure now on England and we are set for a thrilling cricket match. Who says test cricket is boring? Test cricket is damn interesting,16 needed by England to win but just 1 wicket in hand. Can Swann be the man to win the match for England or will India manage to get 1 wicket? For the members of PlanetCricket we have extended the Play N Win contest time. Now till the next update gets posted members of PlanetCricket can participate in Play N Win competition. What are you waiting for? Chance to win 5,000 vcash price just guess the team who will win the match and you will get 5,000 vcash price.

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

Nice Sweet Update.. KIU

 

[AkshayS]

India will win man.

 

[just_cricket]

India will win.
Nice update mate - out of interest is that a Metallica font you are using for the pics?

 

[Dutch]

Excellent presentation: I love it when people really take care with these things. Nice!

 

[Aditya]

India will win.
Nice update mate - out of interest is that a Metallica font you are using for the pics?

No,The font name is Unrealised.

Cheers for the response guys.

 

[Aditya]

Update is ready. Will be posting it tonight 9.00 pm IST,Members who have not participated can still participate before I post the next update.

 

[treva]

England to win. We are good at batting when we are 9 down

 

[Gorro_124]

India truely have a good chance...
@treva:Its true!!!

 

[Aditya]

India In England

India Vs England
Natwest Series 2010
Second Test Match : India Vs England
Live From Lord's

England wins,Series level 1-1!!!​

​

​

So,16 was needed and England had just 1 icket in hand. Crowd was shouting and singing to support their team England. Overhead conditions were not ideal for play but who cares till their team plays well. Swann was not taking any kind of risk; He was taking singles because England just had one wicket in hand. On other hand Indian bowlers were putting their heart outs to get one more wicket. Each and Every run from England side was appreciated. Dhoni was continuously cheering up his bowlers. Swann was taking singles and Plunkett was doing well to stay in the middle with Swann. Swann slowly and steadily took England innings forward. When it got very close, England needed just 6 runs. MS Dhoni gave bowl to Harbhajan. There were lots of question raised by commentators about why did Harbhajan didn?t bowl much? Is he injured or what?

Harbhajan bowled 3 bowls and most importantly 3 dot balls then on the 4th bowl Plunkett gave a single to Swann. Swann defended the fifth bowl and on 6th bowl he took a single. Next over was bowled by Sachin, Punkett defended 4 balls and then tooka single and on the last bowl of the over Swann took a single. Swann defended next 4 balls of Harbhajan but on the 5th bowl he smashed him for a six and England won the match!

Swann's six ended India's hopes to win the match​

All the Indian fans were disappointed in the stand but on other hand England fans were so happy with their team?s performance. It was party time for them! There are lots of things on which India need to improve but England played so well and deserved the victory.

Players made walk to the respective pavilions,Happy England side,Dissapointed Indian side​

Post Match Presentation​

Welcome our viewers at post match presentation of this 2nd Npower test match. We saw some great cricket played over these 5 days but in the end there could be just one winner and this time it was the home side England.

Firstly I would like to call the loosing captain MS Dhoni.

So, Dhoni your team lost this match. What do you think could be the reason of this loss?

There are various areas on which we need to improve on. Our openers are not at their very best, When one opener clicks other doesn?t so if our openers can click we can win matches. Our bowlers are injured so I hope till next match the bowlers can be fit again.

Do you think that fielding needs to be improved as well? That?s the area where you guys were not at all good in this test match.

Yes, We need to improve our fielding big time. We can?t let so many catches drop, If we would have taken the catches of Collingwood and Swann we got, we could have easily won this match.

Yeah Dhoni, best of luck for the next match, Indian fans certainly hope better performance from you guys.

Thanks a lot!

Now its time to have few words with the winning captain, Andrew Strauss.

So Andrew, Good performance from the boys. Happy with the performance?

Yes, Quite happy with the performance. We won the match with just 1 wicket but still a victory is victory.

These days team are struggling to find good bowlers. But England has some different case, All of your bowlers are bowling very well. Maybe because of conditions suit there bowling as well?

Obviously, Bowlers are bowling very well. Conditions are ideal for the type of bowling they do and hence were are playing well.

Yeah, well played in this match Andrew best of luck for the next match.

Thanks, Mark.

Now its time to give away the man of the match award and man of the match for this match is Stuart Broad for 9 wickets in the match and 40 runs with the bat in the 1st innings.

Well played Broad. You surely will be happy with your performance?

Yes mate, Happy with mine and team?s performance. Though I wanted to make runs in the second innings as well but Swann played really well and won the match for us.

You are working hard on your batting. Do you think that you can be now shifted up the order if needed for England?

I?ll love to bat up to order for England but right now we have quite good batsman batting up the order so I am fine lower down the order.

OK, Well played and continue the good work.

Thanks.

We were running a competition Predict and Win and the winner of the competition are Treva and Varun Rustagi. They both get 5,000 vcash price. Congrats guys. It's bye for now we will meet our viewers again in the next 3rd Npower Test Match, It's bye for now.