Published: Aug 12, 2011, 11:01 AM (IST)
Edited: Sep 10, 2014, 07:45 PM (IST)
By Vincent Sunder
England did precisely what is needed in a Test match – ground the Indian attack to dust. The openers started slowly, settled in and then laid the foundation. Andrew Strauss caused stress, Alastair Cook lit up a slow fire that slowly that cooked the Indian attack, Ian Bell came ringing aloud and then Kevin Pietersen reminded you of the authority, if not arrogance, of one Sir Vivian Richards.
Rahul Dravid, uncharacteristically, failed to latch onto two regulation catches at slips, having Ravi Shastri commenting on catching! Where India lasted 372 balls in their first innings scoring 224 runs and losing all ten wickets, Alastair Cook has batted 339 balls to get 182 runs without losing his wicket! Summary of the day, folks!
Simon Taufell was one non-Indian sympathizer for India on the field perhaps, allowing one of the nine Amit Mishra no-balls to be productive enough to send away Strauss. David Lloyd was another in the TV commentary box, suggesting that Shantakumaran Sreesanth be let loose for 15 minutes against Pietersen to try and get under his skin. “Get nasty with him, it disturbs him”, was Lloyd’s suggestion.
Runs flowed as Cook ensured the ‘buffet’ he had produced was enjoyed by all those who came to the crease on Day Two. About the only time he stamped his presence in a long haul and potentially match-winning innings was when, finally tired of being made invisible by Pietersen, moved to 150 with a belligerent boundary.
Pietersen finally was adjudged leg before to Praveen Kumar. Given all his earlier vociferous leg-before appeals, Praveen seems unaware that a ball pitched outside the leg-stump cannot get a decision in favour of the bowler.
Pietersen reluctantly walked, apparently felt cheated. His walk to the pavilion was with strong shaking of the head. Dissent at the umpire’s decision? Is dissent applicable and punishable only if demonstrated at the crease and not when the batsman expresses it on way back to the pavilion? What difference does it make where you demonstrate it in these days of live telecast? Hawk-Eye confirmed the ball was hitting the stumps. A disagreeing shake of the head, if penalized when demonstrated at the wicket, should also apply if done away from the wicket before leaving the playing field.
Cricket, on Day Two, from an Indian perspective, unfortunately came down to this being a point to write home about as the bowlers didn’t look like getting breakthroughs. Even Dravid didn’t quite expect the Bell edge coming his way until it was too late, as much as he didn’t expect Eoin Morgan to Test him again at the fag end of the day. Hope he puts away these disappointments by making his bat talk when he comes to the crease next time around. Sreesanth, too, dropped Morgan.
Sunil Gavaskar felt that India may last another day should England declare with the score at the end of Day Two.
But all is not lost for Indian cricket fans, especially for the Mahendra Singh Dhoni fans. In a matter of weeks, the Champions League T20 will be on, and the whistles will emerge again for Dhoni, as the Test and the testing times will be a memory forgotten!
(Vincent Sunder aspired to play Test cricket, but had to struggle to play ‘gully’ cricket! He managed a league side to title triumph in the KSCA tournaments. He was debarred from umpiring in the gully games after he once appealed vociferously for a caught-behind decision when officiating as an umpire! After two decades in the corporate sector, he became an entrepreneur with the objective of being able to see cricket matches on working days as well. Vincent gets his ‘high’ from cricket books and cricket videos and discussing cricket)
