Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Test Match Report (IND-ENG) 2nd Test: Indians rule the Britishers

No sight is worth watching than seeing the sea of Tricolors flying high in a country that never allowed our ancestors to fly the Tricolor when they were in India. They say Zaheer prefer blue over pink and i say that they prefer to be f***** by Men in Blues. Indian performance is best described by the last picture of the match. It is incumbent on me to delineate the performance of Indian players

1. Waseem Jaffer (7/10) 62+22=84 runs
He played his role with perfection along with Dinesh Karthick and laid the foundation of great Indian Victory.
2. Dinesh Karthick (7.5/10) 77+22=99 runs
The highest scorer for India in this match and he started the Indian proceedings with great assertiveness. He has enough talent to reserve a regular opener place.
3. Rahul Dravid (6/10) 37+11*=48 runs
He found some touch in this match. He made some very good decisions like taking new immediately in the English inning, giving ball to Ganguly in first Inning and asking England to bat first. He has started learning the art of captaincy and we all know that he is a fast learner.
4. Sachin Tendulkar (7.5/10) 91+1=92 runs
He found his nemesis in Simon tauffel in first inning. He was well set for that inning but luck deserted him, nevertheless he produced a inning of character.
5. Sourav Ganguly (8/10) 79+2*=81 runs and 1 wicket
He is going from strength to strength in this series. He was instrumental in curtailing England first inning by dismissing the highest scorer of England. His figure (8-4-11-1) resembles with the figure of a top class bowler. His first inning was one of the most fluent inning of recent past and second best inning of the match after the Vaughan's innings. He also found his nemesis in Simon Tauffel just like Sachin.
6. VVS Laxman (7/10) 54+DNB=54 runs
He also played his role with perfection and proved all the nonsense about the credibility of Indian middle order wrong.
7. MS Dhoni (2/10) 5+DNB=5 runs
After the Lords heroic he decided to take rest and did nothing in the match apart from catching the leather.
8. Anil Kumble (6/10) 6 (lower order wickets) and 30 runs.
He was not that Kumble that we all know. Some how he managed to grab the lower order wickets but he was far from impressive. His first inning 30 runs was the most impressive contribution he made in the match.
9. Zaheer Khan (9/10) 9 wickets and 10* runs
He was Man of the Match. His performance was exemplary in both the innings. He has been giving scathing replies to all his detractors. By showing bat to English players after that insult he showed that "Gone are those days".
10. RP Singh (7/10) 1+2 = 3 wickets
He took the key wickets of Pietersen in both the inning and the ball he bowled to Matt Prior was the beauty. He played his role as a partner of Zaheer with perfection.
11. Sreesanth (3/10) 1 wicket
He was far from impressive in this match but no one will forget the beamer that he bowled to Pietersen. He was partially responsible for the prize wicket of Pietersen in the second inning.

It was a well deserved victory and India dominated all the sessions of the match except the first two sessions of the fourth day. It was a sight to watch Sourav and Sachin performing under Rahul and they say they were conspiring against Dravid for the sake of captaincy.

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