Karthik proves his value !! Ian Howell goes blind !!

As expected, the oval wicket was a batsman friendly one and Dravid was glad to win an important toss. Jaffer and Karthik eased to an early pattern, where runs were easy to pick and Jaffer in particular looked to be in good touch. His upper cut 6 was a stand out but there were other pleasing strokes as well during his brief innings. His reach out shot to 3rd man, must have disappointed him since this is a kind of wicket, where a 100 is there for the asking. Dravid played positively and Karthik upped the anty by playing an innings full of utility - hurrying for every single run and egging his partner to run as well. Karthik's glorious off driver 6 off Monty was all class and some of his straight drives and cover drives were a treat to watch. Karthik has come off age for sure and just when things looked good - a double strike happened. Dravid got a very good yorker but I doubt very much whether Karthik feathered a touch or not.
Then came the excruciatingly painful innings, which we are quite used to from Sachin. He refused to play the hook or pull and looked every bit out of touch. He was tested by Anderson repeatedly and when Prior dropped him, he promptly shut shop. In the mean while, Ganguly was all class- his off drives, hoik off Monty and the leg side pulls were show casing a degree of class which we are used to; and then came the blinder from Howell (or Howler as Shastri put it). SG got a huge inside edge but Howell went blind and raised his finger and that was that. I wonder why Dravid and the rest of the India team did not stand out and do repeat of a Pieterson incident at Lords. The mistake was so huge and so obvious.
Anyway, VVS walked out and looked to be in good touch and if he can come up with a big score, India can put some big numbers. The tail must use Prior's benevolent byes since a mere 20 or 30 partnership can become 50 or 60 with Prior's handy contribution. India is still capable of messing up such a good start (it should have been easily 360 but for Tendu) but again, the pitch should help them to chart where they want to be.