A powercut prevented me from writing a morose review of the first day’s play of the Lords test match. All the familiar ingredients of Indian cricket team’s travails abroad were there- a clueless captain, nervous fast bowlers, dropped catches and the opposition batsman raking up the runs. England ended the first day at 280 odd for 4, with the last two wickets falling near the end of the day’s play.

The second day has been nothing short of remarkable, reminding us what test match cricket is all about. After a thundershower and some excellent mopping up display by the groundsmen, the Indian pacemen went about dismantling the English batting lineup. Sidebottom’s stumps were shattered right away by Singh, then Pietersen played a very lose shot to give Dhoni a regulation catch off Khan.

Ten minutes later, Sreesanth joined in the party with wickets of Matt Prior, Chris Tremlett and Monty Panesar in quick succession. Good swing bowling and all three dismissals being LBWs, the young lad obviously having learned some valuable lessons from the first day’s play. Khan’s dismissal of Bell, soon after meant that India had taken 6 wickets in just 11 overs. England dismissed for 298, six of the last seven batsmen scoring just 2 runs between them. An astonishing afternoon by Indian standards, really.

Indian First Innings:

After the quick dismissals of Karthik and Dravid; Jaffer and Tendulkar set about ressurecting the innings with a lot of patience. Tendulkar played really well for his 37 before getting out to Anderson. Jaffer’s wicket late in the day means that the test match is evenly poised. India ending the day on 145/4, 153 adrift of England’s first innings score.

I am hoping for a good knock from Laxman- it seems to me that he is always (and sometimes unfairly) one bad knock away from being dropped. A good innings here will set him up well for the next two test matches. Also, its going to be very interesting to see how Dhoni performs, with all the talk of dropping him for Yuvraj Singh. And how will the Indian team play Panesar? And what of the weather! Hopefully, we will see atleast 75 overs play tomorrow with India taking the first innings lead and with Laxman scoring a fine century.