Sunday, July 31, 2011

England v India: Trent Bridge Test, Day Two

Day two. After the events on day one, could England bounce back? Here's what happened on what turned out to be a very, very eventful day in Nottingham:

Quaxman starts where he left off the previous evening. Anderson can't get his length right and Quaxman takes advantage.
He hits the birthday boy to the boundary for a four.

England's length is not great and Dravid also takes advantage.
Here he hits Broad for a four.
And then, controversy rears its ugly head. Quaxman gets a great delivery from Jimmy...
And England are convinced that he's got a nick on it behind.
Strauss reviews the decision straight away. He's convinced there's an edge and doesn't even consult with any of his players.
But Hotspot is inconclusive. Quaxman appears to have edged it, there's definitely a noise, but there's not enough evidence to overturn the not out decision from Aylesbury Rauf.
England are perplexed, but they have to carry on with the game. Quaxman lives to fight on.
And he reaches a 50.
He hits Bresnan for a four...
And duly raises his bat.
But then Bres bowls a cracking delivery and there's no doubt that Quaxman gets an edge on this one.
He's caught behind and India are 93-2.
Dravid and Tenduckar survive the further onslaught and India reach 117-2 at lunch. England will be hoping for wickets after the lunch break, India, for runs.
And soon after the interval, England do pick up a wicket.
Tenduckar gets infected by chasing it outside off stump itis and is caught by Strauss at first slip.
He goes for 16, 84 less than many people wanted. It reduces India to 119-3.
But before England can get too excited, there's the small matter of The Wall to contend with.
He reaches another 50 with a four off Broad and celebrates with Raina.
Raina, clearly struggling, finally puts himself out of his misery by getting an edge on an Anderson delivery.
He spoons it straight to Morgan and India are 139-4.
England's revival could've been so much better...
As Yuvraj nicks one off Broad into the gully region...
But KP has his butter fingers out and cannot cling on. It proves to be a costly drop as it allows India to rebuild and reach 215-4 at tea.
Things carry on as normal as Yuvraj continues his assault on a struggling Graeme Swann.
He reaches a 50 with a four. Unfortunately.
Dravid reaches three figures for the second Test in a row.
He turns one off Swann round the corner to reach the boundary and duly celebrates another magnificent innings.


And then, suddenly, the match explodes into life again. Broad gets Yuvraj poking outside off...
And is caught behind by Prior. He goes for 62 and what follows is an extraordinary spell of bowling from England. India are 267-5 and it's about to get a whole lot worse...
In the 88th over, Broad manages to get Dhoni. He, like many other batsmen in this match, flashes at one outside off...
And is easily snaffled by Anderson at second slip.

India: 273-6.
Broad comes steaming in again and manages to make it look like Harbhajan Singh has been rapped on the pads.
But in reality, Harbhajan has got a massive inside edge on it.
It doesn't stop England and the Trent Bridge crowd appealing with gusto and Erasmus raises the wing.
Harbhajan is not pleased, but remembers that his board doesn't like Hawkeye, so he can't refer his LBW decision.
England, of course, don't care and Harbhajan has to go. Hahahahahaha at you.
Anyway, in comes Kumar. India are 273-7. Broad is on a hat-trick. And what does Broad do? He only goes and bowls him.
Broad has a hat-trick and a five fer and half of the cricket loving population wanting to propose marriage.

Broad salutes the crowd. Trent Bridge is rocking. England are rocking. India are shell shocked, but they have a lead. It's not as much as they'd like.
The Wall gets caught up in the madness. He decides to take on Bressie Lad...

But can only find Cook at third man, who happily takes the catch. India are reduced to 273-9. They've lost 4 wickets for no runs in the past two overs.

And England's revival is complete (ish) as Sharma succumbs to the hero of the hour.

Bell takes an absolutely stonking catch at short leg and India are 288 all out.
Their lead is only 67, something that again looked highly unlikely at tea! They must do some damned good duck food up at Trent Bridge, especially in the case of Stuart Broad.
England know that they've still got a mountain to climb, but Broad's superb spell has got them back into the game.
Unfortunately, Cook doesn't get the memo and decides to that he can't be bothered to bat for ages.
He's caught by Yuvraj Singh and England are 6-1. It's not an ideal start and with Jonathan Trott nursing an injury (sob), Ian Bell comes in at number three.

England lose no more wickets and close on 24-1. Strauss will know that he needs a score, Bell will know he needs to support his captain. Day three promises to be an absolutely stonking day and I'm spending it down in Southend watching Essex play Somerset. I planned this well.
That was a hastily put together day two. I really, really hope England can bat out the day tomorrow, as I've got a ticket to day 4. And I'm going to be incredibly annoyed if I have to get up at 5 on Monday to go to Nottingham to see an Indian victory by 10 wickets. TOUCHWOOD THAT THIS SCENARIO DOESN'T HAPPEN!

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