Sunday 22 July 2007

Test in the balance

It was a great day of Test cricket at lords today to set up a last day thriller and there should be a result either way if the rain does not play a big part.

The day was dominated by Kevin Pietersen's century which really ignited after lunch when he stepped up the pace and raced to three figures. The period before lunch was more watchful and as the Indian bowlers were bowling well and hard to score off freely. The partnership with Prior set up a total of 379 which India need to win.

India had a steady start and there did not seem to be any swing which had caused them so many problems in the first innings. They however lost three wickets, amongst them the priced wickets of Tendulkar and Dravid. Karthik reached a fluent fifty and was really good as a partnership was built with Saurav Ganguly. Ganguly showed all his experience as he fought it out in a tense final session.

It is all set up for a cracking finish on the last day and I will be making my way down to Lords tomorrow to see a great days play. I will be praying to the weather gods to keep the rain away at least until the game has finished and then I can do the rain dance. If India reach 390, it will be a record breaking winning total at Lords. They still have the fire power to get there and the first session will be crucial. If the ball starts to swing, England's bowlers may have the final say if they balled the way they did in the first innings.

It is too close to call and the match has reached the close climax that many predicted between these two sides, but whereas many predicted the batsman to dominate, it's the bowlers who have taken all the accolades, with swing playing a major part.

I have just seen the weather forecast and it is predicting heavy rainfall for most of the day. It will be such a shame if the weather is the winner in this tantalising contest.

No comments: