Kumble Clocks 500 !! Eng hold the edge

I am some what behind in updating the blog, after 3 days of play at Mohali. Indian butter fingers in slips and lack of ideas in field placement for Flintoff and Pieterson allowed England to march onto 300 score. Dravid was the main culprit on both these points. Most international, experienced captains will employ 'inside out' field when they are against the free scoring batsmen like the above two. By that I mean, men in catching positions for the edges and men in the deep for the mishits. Rahul never did this and with the result, England ran away. Even then, if he had taken that sitter on 3rd morning off Munaf, things could have been different.
I have been predicting rain, poor catching and VS's rustiness and all 3 came true. Yuvaraj was consume in a clever piece of captaincy. Hoggy bowled to a 7,2 field and YS launched one in the covers, where Bell took a blinder. With India playing 5 batsmen (rather foolish tactic IMHO - and that too Piyush on a pitch, where RP Singh could have been useful. RD/GC combo had really come up with a poor tactic here), much will depend on this pair. Assuming the usual inability of Dhoni against the moving ball on a cloudy morning on 4thday, India might coceded easily a 100+ run lead. That eliminates one result completely - an Indian win. India has managed to crawl into a hole again and I see little chance of them coming out, having become brain dead.
On India's bowling effort - Kumble was outstanding and richly deserves the march to the 500 wicket club. For a spinner, who hardly turns the ball and who had to encounter cold shouldered treatment for years, he deserves all the accolades now. Also, Munaf is a decent find and his 3 wicket haul means that he should be persisted with. I would like him to bowl better with the new ball though and also sharpen his fielding and batting.