Series win after 21 years !! Dravid allows Oval test to drift to a draw !!
In this hour of glory, especially after a long 21 year gap, let us not loose our objective in evaluating a test match performance - Dravid came a poor 2nd in terms of strategy and allowed things to drift and that allowed England to escape with a draw at the 3rd test match at Oval.
English batting in the 1st inning got a lease of life when Kaarthik spilled a regulation catch at leg slip (in fact, he has a habit of messing simple ones, for some reason). Cook went on to score a 50+ but Kumble fooled Vaughn at the right time and things could have gone worse had the Howell chap, not rejected that plumb LBW to Colly. Zaheer was not the same force as in Trent Bridge but the 2nd new ball worked wonders and there was a real chance to enforce the follow on by the end of day 3; but, Monty hung in there with Tremlet, who wanted to prove that he is a better bat than Sidebottom, who was sent ahead of him. In fact, this pair hung in there for 8 more overs on day 4 as well and that really delayed things for India.
In my opinion, Dravid should have enforced the follow on but somehow, he decided to play on and then came the familiar 2nd innings wobble of India. I wish, Karthik had struck it out for another 1/2 hour - that would have made a huge difference but he too got out and when the paper tiger - Sachin got cleaned out, like a tail ender, 11-3 was starring at Dravid and Ganguly. Dravid, then played an inexplicable slow killer that virtually eliminated the possibility of a result. Ganguly played a brilliant counter attacking innings but with Dravid not rotating the strike, precious time was lost and the eventual target of 500 came at least some 15 overs later than it should have.
The English batting in the 2nd innings was anhored by the peerless Pieterson, who again showed that he is the best of the lot (both teams put together); Kumble was not at all penetrative and the match petered out to a tame draw, not withstanding some artificial excitement in the end.
Indians certainly have reason to celebrate since test victories abroad have been as rare as sighting Haley's comet but let us not forget that they drew the test at Lords due to intervention by weather and by a proverbial whisker. Otherwise, the score line would have been 1-1, which would have proved nothing. The positives for India were the opening pair, a re-born Ganguly and a hungry Zaheer. The test series also revealed the old flaws of Tendulkar but as usual, everyone will forget about them, especially after a rare series win.
English batting in the 1st inning got a lease of life when Kaarthik spilled a regulation catch at leg slip (in fact, he has a habit of messing simple ones, for some reason). Cook went on to score a 50+ but Kumble fooled Vaughn at the right time and things could have gone worse had the Howell chap, not rejected that plumb LBW to Colly. Zaheer was not the same force as in Trent Bridge but the 2nd new ball worked wonders and there was a real chance to enforce the follow on by the end of day 3; but, Monty hung in there with Tremlet, who wanted to prove that he is a better bat than Sidebottom, who was sent ahead of him. In fact, this pair hung in there for 8 more overs on day 4 as well and that really delayed things for India.
In my opinion, Dravid should have enforced the follow on but somehow, he decided to play on and then came the familiar 2nd innings wobble of India. I wish, Karthik had struck it out for another 1/2 hour - that would have made a huge difference but he too got out and when the paper tiger - Sachin got cleaned out, like a tail ender, 11-3 was starring at Dravid and Ganguly. Dravid, then played an inexplicable slow killer that virtually eliminated the possibility of a result. Ganguly played a brilliant counter attacking innings but with Dravid not rotating the strike, precious time was lost and the eventual target of 500 came at least some 15 overs later than it should have.
The English batting in the 2nd innings was anhored by the peerless Pieterson, who again showed that he is the best of the lot (both teams put together); Kumble was not at all penetrative and the match petered out to a tame draw, not withstanding some artificial excitement in the end.
Indians certainly have reason to celebrate since test victories abroad have been as rare as sighting Haley's comet but let us not forget that they drew the test at Lords due to intervention by weather and by a proverbial whisker. Otherwise, the score line would have been 1-1, which would have proved nothing. The positives for India were the opening pair, a re-born Ganguly and a hungry Zaheer. The test series also revealed the old flaws of Tendulkar but as usual, everyone will forget about them, especially after a rare series win.
posted by Crick_Love at 12:36 AM
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