The CouchExpert

 Muthukumar Ramamoorthy

 31 July 2011

As much expected by the fans of India and as much feared by the dressing room of England, the first few hours of the first session went Indians’ way despite the loss of the Very Special Laxman – but before which he made sure that he gave enough support for the Wall to become even taller. It seemed so obvious that Laxman really played into the same kind of delivery that he missed nipping it marginally the previous delivery – from a spectator view it was clear lack of concentration. Following Laxman the master blaster Sachin once again started off with great confidence and middled the ball so sweet. Trent Bridge can supposedly be said as the little man’s English home soil.

Wish Sachin could have played longer than he did before lunch and had scored 40-plus leaving the English bowlers worried going into their dressing room for lunch. It was indeed disappointing to see Sachin having played that shot. Having left the good balls, it was another delivery that he should have probably let go. It was once again the very previous ball after leaving it go, the master went down the track where it was pitched and symbolized the angle of the ball by waving his hands. Knowing the trajectory of Broad’s brilliant swing so well, a champion batsman falling to such a shot would have left those fans holding placards waiting for his 100th 100 annoyed.

Rahul Dravid produced a master class on Day 2 at Trent Bridge

Thus far, it was so magical to see Jammy bat and Stu’s bowling – pitching it up and swinging with only Bresnan pitching a little short of fuller length and hitting the good length area of the partially green deck. As soon as Raina came into the crease all the seamers started targeting the chest area as expected! Raina would still need a lot of patience rather than knowing to duck or hook. His body language was so evident that he was tested with the short pitched deliveries and he desperately wanted to put away anything falling fuller or close. If Mukund played to get out to a sitter by a very first delivery of Anderson, Raina was undone by his own hunger for runs – giving away his wicket for another sitter and brought Yuvi inside the park who is again fighting for a place in the XI.

Besides thanking his seniors, Dravid and Laxman, for having played so well and rubbing off the shine of the ball, Yuvi must also have thanked the nature as the sun was out mostly during his stay in the crease making a better batsman friendly pitch. Having got into the XI only through injuries for others, Yuvi played to his strength and did his best to create confusion for MSD and others to decide the XI for the next test. Dravid’s century was much supported only by the free strokeplay of Yuvi off the old ball. Their century stand not only ensured India going past English’s score but promised a big lead.

All was well for the Indians until the new ball was taken. It required another Laxmanesque technique in Yuvraj to survive the brilliance of Broad and Anderson in their initial spells with the new ball. It was a beauty of a delivery that every bowler would love to ball to a southpaw and what tested the temperament of Yuvi. Broad did so well to get rid off Yuvi who was threatening the Englishmen inching towards the 3 figure mark. But thanks to Yuvi for having got India a slender lead before his exit.

With a hat-trick to blow-away the Indian lower order, Stuart Broad produced magic in front of his home crowd.

It was nothing of a delivery from Broad that sent the Indian captain Dhoni back into the dressing room. With the ball still new, the seamers still doing good using the beauty of the pitch, one would have for sure let the ball go if he had watched from the dressing room what the #2 batsman Dravid had been doing for more than 200 mins in the middle.

It was Dhoni’s reckless shot marked the beginning of the Indian batting collapse falling like 9 pins. Adding to it, Harbhajan’s next ball exit to a very poor decision from the umpire must have ignited the anger of the Indian fans for the reluctance of BCCI on UDRs. Taking lead over it, Broad was so magical on his home turf and claimed the first hat-trick disturbing Praveen’s furniture!

Imagining what could have been the state of mind of a man standing at the non-striker end who had been playing since overnight nobody would. Say the Wall threw his wicket looking for runs with only tail left. Broad finished the formalities thereafter through the reflex of Bell with a mega catch.

Looking back, though the English bowlers were brilliant in their spells, tested, troubled…. It seems more that the Indian batsmen threw away wickets at crucial times. There wasn’t so much of beauty and perfect wicket taking deliveries by the Englishmen. Indian seamers looked much better than English in this regard. Proving this, Ishant bowled a beauty by making Cook go back without sweating at all.

Another day slipped from the hands of India where they could have easily said “Advantage India”; hardworking local lad Broad helped the English side back in the contest making it to be a close contest!