Aug 14: Indian team after taking a 500 lead to win the last Test match against England only managed to draw the match as Pietersen put a solid defense putting his second century of the series. England finished the match at 369 for 6 to draw the match and India won the three-match Test series 1-0 after 21 years that puts a new peace in the history.
England started their play from 56/0 with an obvious aim to draw the match but soon lost the wicket of Andrew Strauss (32) when the score was just 79. RP Singh was the bowler to take the wicket and VVS Laxman was at second slip not to make any mistake. Soon after, Anil Kumble struck brilliantly to remove the other opener Alastair Cook when Laxman’s safe hands do the rest. Cook made only 43 runs bringing the score board down to 86/2.
However, English skipper Michael Vaughan (42) and all-rounder Pietersen developed a good partnership before Vaughan caught behind by the wicket keeper MS Dhoni in the bowling of Sreesanth. The score was 152 for three when Paul Collingwood joined Pietersen and played brilliantly to cross the 250 mark. Again Sreesanth strikes well to get leg before wicket of Collingwood and the score board was 266/4.
Now India needs the last and the most destructive batsman Pietersen’s wicket but he played brilliantly to complete his century, however edged one of the out-swing delivery of Sreesanth that swayed to first slip Tendulkar who did not make any mistake.
England was 289 for five and India needed five wickets to seal the series 2-0 but the last recognizing player Ian Bell and wicket keeper Matthew Prior (W) did their best to sustain India’s bowling attack though Kumble got the wicket of Ian Bell (lbw), who completed his 13th Test Century after putting a brilliant 67 runs from just 62 balls.
From here India struggle to take any wicket though the last six-over were interesting to watch with lots of lbw appeal from the bowlers and in the end it’s a happy ending as England was able to draw the match after scoring 369/6 and India registered a historic win over England in a Test series since the last one in 1986.
In the end whatever Dravid’s decision in the debate of forcing England to follow-on or not but a win is a win and it’s a 1-0 win with some lovely moments for Indian cricket fans. Moreover, this series brought answer to a number of questions like a good opening partnership, a solid middle order stand and of course a defining bowling spell from the frontline bowlers. Let’s hope a similar performance from Indian players in the coming One Day Series.
- Man of the match: Anil Kumble for his brilliant 110 and five wickets in the final Test match of the series.
- England n-power man of the series: James Andersen for his consistent bowling performance in the series.
- India n-power man of series: Zaheer Khan for his consistent bowling through out the series.
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