Rain, Rain go away…
Come again another day!
Rain mars first day's play
The nursery rhyme perfectly depicted the mood in both the dressing rooms yesterday after the first day’s play of the highly awaited Test series got off to a rainy start with less than 50 overs bowled. Zaheer Khan was the star of the shortened day’s play after having got rid of both the English openers and almost having got the better of Trott. But his day was spoilt when he was forced off the field after bowling 13.3 overs due to a suspected hamstring pull.
The early morning showers meant that the fans and players were made to wait half an hour for the match to begin. MS Dhoni, facing much better luck with the toss nowadays, called correctly and invited the England to take first strike in highly overcast conditions. Zaheer, bowling from the Nursery end, and Praveen Kumar, picked ahead of Munaf and Sreesanth, started of the days’ proceedings with 3 maiden overs. Zaheer kept the ball outside off stump and Strauss and Cook were content to let it go while Praveen swung the ball like a dream but the likes of Cook weren’t going to be troubled by the military medium pace.
Zaheer, who began troubling Cook the minute he began bowling on the stumps, struck first blood with one that nipped back sharply to reduce England to 19 for one in the 11th over. Zaheer vs. Strauss was being talked about as the contest that was being looked forward to with the left armer having dismissed the England skipper five times in ten innings. After some great bowling which left Strauss probing for the ball outside off stump, it wasn’t the greatest ball that got his wicket. It was a short ball outside off stump and Strauss went for the hook. Instead he top edged it to long leg where Ishant Sharma comfortably pouched the catch.
Jonathan Trott, averaging over 60, was the big wicket that India needed and Harbhajan almost got him with his first ball only to be dropped by Dravid at slip. Ishant did trouble Kevin Pietersen with a few short deliveries that moved in but apart from that the duo were in the comfort zone facing Harbhajan and Ishant. Dhoni was forced to bring back Zaheer to enforce a breakthrough and he responded getting Trott to nick one between slip and the keeper. Dhoni went for the catch and backed out once he realized it would be easier for Dravid but he didn’t go for the catch either as the ball rolled away to the third man boundary. Things were to get worse for India as Zaheer suddenly pulled up after he appeared to have pulled his hamstring.
The partnership moved to 65 while Trott himself trotted to an unbeaten 58 while Kevin Pietersen moved to 22 before the clouds opened up bringing a premature end to the first day’s play. Dhoni would have been happy with the way his bowlers bowled with the new ball and got rid of the dangerous openers but he would be left frustrated that he didn’t build upon the advantage and letting Trott off with a couple of chances.
At 127/2 at the end of the day’s play, it looks like honours even but if Zaheer isn’t fit enough to bowl in the rest of the innings, it would be a huge blow for India.
Tags: Andrew Strauss, Cricket, England, ICC World Test Championship, India, MS Dhoni, Rain, Sachin Tendulkar, Test Cricket, Test Match, Zaheer Khan
