|
India have advantage going into Day 5 |
|
|
|
|
Written by Akshay
|
|
Sunday, 12 March 2006 |
|
India started Day 4 in a precarious position at 149/4. It got worse as Dhoni got out adding only 4 runs to his overnight score edging a Harmisson delivery to Jones. Harmisson bowled a good spell in the morning backed up by Hoggard at the other end. Dravid's resillient batting and Pathan's positive strokeplay got India through that period of play. Dravid went on to get a classy 95 and Pathan played well with Kumble to get to his 50. Kumble and Harbhajan then strung together a very useful partnership of 53, Harbhajan contributing a quickfire 36 out of those, before nicking one from Flintoff. Piyush Chawla hung around for a while before getting deceived by a Hoggard sower delivery only to scoop it to backward point. Munaf Patel struck a couple of lusty blows before the Indian innings came to and end through the dismissal of Kumble bowled by Plunkett. The Indians had got a crucial and useful 38 run lead.
The England innings started in a subdued manner with the Indian new ball bowlers bowling a good line and length. Munaf Patel struck the first blow by getting Cook to edge one outside the offstump to Dhoni. Ian Bell joined Strauss in the middle but the innings never reallly saw any momentum. Things moved along slowly as the spinners were introduced early into the proceedings. Both Kumble and Harbhajan bowled excellently without luck. Then, with the score on 50, Kumble struck getting Strauss. The left hander went for a sweep only to hit the ball onto his boot and deflect it to Dhoni. Harbhajan then got the prized scalp of Pieterson with a somewhat doubtful decision but then the luckless off spinner deserved some luck for his efforts. Collingwood and Bell tried to consolidate the innings and succeeded for sometime but never really got going. Kumble got Collingwood to edge one to Dravid, England now 88-4. Flintoff joined Bell in the middle but he too found the going very tough. The ball turning, fielders around the bat and the crowd right behind the home team ; this was the first time on this tour that the English batsmen got a feel of what batting in India really means. Kumble struck again this time getting Bell got scored a gutsy but lucky 50. Kumble bowled one particularly unplayable over to Flintoff where he beat the bat 4 times out of 6 balls. Flintoff and Jones will have to contend with all this and more as they attempt to get England out of this hole tommorrow. India on the other hand would like to focus on taking 5 wickets quickly and force a result.
|
|
Last Updated ( Sunday, 12 March 2006 )
|
Home 
News 
