Aditya
ICC Board Member
India In England
India Vs England
Natwest Series 2010
First Match : India Vs England
India,First Innings
Live From Cardiff.
England VS India-Day 1,Session 1
After India winning the toss and electing to bat the Indian openers,Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir with two umpires and England team came to field to start the much anticipated series. There was huge roar from the crowd when England team was coming to field. Gautam Gambhir marked his guard and new ball was given to James Anderson......
Horrible start for India!
So James Anderson finally started his run up and bowled a full length delivery to Gambhir and Gambhir did the right thing and played it on leg side for a single. First ball that Sehwag faced he 'smashed' it for four. James Anderson then scratched his head and gone back to bowl second ball. Next ball again was smashed by Sehwag for four and Anderson this time said few words to Sehwag but Sehwag didn't even bother to reply.......Next ball Sehwag faced he easily played it on leg side and took a single. Then Gambhir completed the first over with a dot ball and Anderson was very angry and he took his cap from umpire very angrily.........Many people thought that who will be the bowler who will share new ball with Anderson and it was the mighty Hoggard. England crowd roared very wildly, :happy :happy :happy That gave Hoggard confidence and he started his run up batsmen was Sehwag....Hoggard bowled a good length delivery but Sehwag was in a frame of mind to hit Hoggard for a big stroke and that was the reason he lost his wicket. He tried to hit a big stroke on straight but got thick edge and England keeper Matt Prior accepted that catch. Main thing was Hoggard got a great comeback. England crowd gone mad and was shouting very loudly. :happy On other hand Indians in the crowd got very disappointed.
Dravid the wall was the next batsmen. The very first ball he faced he putted it away for a single. Then the next ball Gambhir faced from Hoggard he putted it away for four. But in the very next over of Hoggard he was bowled.....Gambhir totally losted his concentration and came on front foot and then lost his bat too and was bowled. India suffered another major blow. But on other hand England crowd and team were pretty happy. :happy Next batsmen was the little master Sachin. He got off the mark with a stunning stroke on leg side for four.Then the rest all the bowls were defended by Sachin.....Next over by James Anderson got rid of Sachin....He bowled a full-length delivery Sachin tried to smash it on leg side but somehow ball went straight to fielder,Graham Onions and thw bowler Anderson,Crowd and England team were overjoyed. On other hand Dravid was very disappointed seeing 2 players getting out in front of him in such a quick session. Finally a partnership building!
Next batsmen was V.V.S. Laxman. All the Indian fans hoped that Laxman plays a knock which can help India to reach to a big score or to a respectable total. Thats what he and Dravid did. They didn't allowed any bowler to build pressure on them and specially Laxman he made sure that he at least take run rate to 4.00. Andrew Strauss then replaced Matthew Hoggard with Stuart Broad and it was a very bad decision. V.V.S. Laxman and Rahul Dravid played some classic drives and Stuart Broad had no clue what to bowl. Indians were finally able to have one good partnership......On other hand Andrew Strauss didn't replaced Anderson and soon he was expensive too....
Andrew Strauss desperate to get one of these batsmen out!
After Andrew Strauss saw that Anderson is getting expensive too then he introduced Graeme Swann into the attack. V.V.S. Laxman and Rahul Dravid had a chat in between the overs and i guess they were saying to each other that 'lets play these last overs before lunch defensively and take our team in a good position.' Thats what they did they played 2 overs of Graeme Swann very defensively same was the case with Stuart Broad but he went for plenty of runs too. In this mean time Rahul Dravid got to his fine fifty. In the end Umpire said 'Common guys lets now have some lunch' and Rahul Dravid and V.V.S. Laxman Shacked hands and had a smile on their faces. Now the question is can they help India to get to a big score?
A good partnership broken!
So after half an hour Indian batsmen Rahul Dravid and V.V.S. Laxman came to bat with two umpires and England team....They Started off pretty decently Laxman played few uppish strokes but he was safe all the time and soon got to his well played fifty.......After reaching to his fifty,Laxman started playing grounded strokes so he can be on a safe side but on other hand Dravid started hitting boundaries but the good thing was he was also playing grounded strokes. After Strauss saw that a partnership is building he had a nice long chat with Swann before his over and Swann moved around the wicket. Rahul Dravid obviously knew that they will try to stop the run flow in the boundaries so he started taking singles. But this time Strauss was not at all worried about players in the middle taking too many singles.........Then after few minutes Strauss brought Hoggard into the attack by replacing Swann and in other over he replaced Broad with Swann to change ends for Swann. Then in this over Swann bowled one flighted delivery and Dravid putted it on the leg side and took 2 quick runs. Strauss came to Swann and said few things. Then Swann bowled a short length delivery Dravid played it on straight but the fielder managed to get a dive and got the ball and throw it to keeper very quickly Laxman and Dravid both were saying run run run but in the end Laxman got back in his crease but Dravid was unfortunately run out. He did showed his frustration while going into the pavilion but even he knew he cant do anything now about his dismissal.......
3 wickets lost in this session
After Dravid dismissal next batsmen was Yuvraj Singh. Swann ended his over with Dravid run out and Strauss decided to replace Hoggard with Graham Onions then Onions started his new over. Laxman gave Yuvraj strike on the first ball of the over and Yuvraj marked his guard and was ready to face his first ball. Onions bowled full length delivery on off side and Yuvraj handsomely putted it away for four. But on the very next ball Yuvraj tried to defend the ball but ball had so much pace that it gone straight to the silly point fielder. Yuvraj was very disappointed with his dismissal and so he should be because after hitting a boundary and getting out in that fashion is really frustrating. Next batsmen was Indian captain MS Dhoni.........Dhoni defended all the rest 4 balls and that ended Onions over. From other end Strauss replaced Swann with Collingwood and that was a very very bad decision. V.V.S. Laxman decided that this is the over where he should play some uppish strokes and thats what he did. He smashed 3 fours in the over and Dhoni on other hand managed five runs from over he took 3 singles on the 5th ball of the over and then took two runs on the last ball of the over.
Collingwood's expensive over.
After that such a good over Laxman now thought that he can quickly get to his century but thinking about too many boundaries resulted in his dismissal....Graham Onions started his over an bowled four dot balls. Laxman thought to hit a boundary rather then taking a single. There were no fielders on the straight boundary so that was the place where Laxman thought to hit the boundary. Onions had a clue that Laxman may will try to hit a boundary so he bowled a full length delivery and somwhow got some swing Laxman tried to hit it on straight but left the gate open and was bowled.....After Dravid even Laxman lost the chance to get to a well deserved hundred but nonetheless a good innings from him....
Laxman's dismissal
After Laxman dismissal next batsmen was Harbhajan. Harbhajan made sure that he regularly gives singles to Dhoni and he was successful in it. On other hand Dhoni just managed to hit one boundary in his 25 before umpires said common guys its time for 'Tea'. This was a OK session for India but it was a good one for England they managed to get rid of Dravid Laxman and Yuvraj but can they get rid quickly of Lower Order as well? No one knows let see how they will go after Tea.
Not a huge score from India!
So after the 'Tea' match started again. Dhoni had a plan in his mind from the ball one after Tea he started playing attacking cricket and on other hand even Harbhajan tried his luck to play big strokes. There was a good partnership building but unfortunately Harbhajan lost his concentration and hence was out. Next batsmen was Zaheer Khan who too didn't manged to stay for long time at the crease. Andrew Strauss saw that the tail can be collapsed and replaced Graeme Swann with Collingwood. Dhoni was on strike Dhoni tried to defend the bowl but ball got some surprising bounce and managed to hit top of middle stump. Dhoni was shocked with his dismissal and he also knew that after his wicket India had a loss of at least 20 to 30 runs in their final scorecard. After Dhoni dismissal Zaheer and Sreesanth followed him after just 1 over and India were all out for just 293. England whole team was very happy with their performance but now the main task comes,Batting. No one can say what will England manage to do with Bat or What will Indian bowlers will manage with bowl lets see......Now lets have a look at Indian batting scorecard and England bowling scorecard.
Indian Batting Scorecard
England Bowling Scorecard
Now we are heading for a break after the break we will take you straight to the live action.
To Be Continued
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