Talk about a plan backfiring! MS Dhoni will have a lot of questions to answer after the humiliating defeat at the hands of England and this time at home. England who struggled to cope with Indian spinners during the first test; opted to play Mony Panesar instead of Bresnan to have a batter bowling attack for the Indian pitch. India went one step ahead by playing three specialist spinners; with Harbhajan Singh returning after a long gap of 15 months.

Monty Panesar took six wickets in the second innings to finish with 11 in the match

Things started to go terribly wrong for India after their entire batting line up except for the likes of Pujara and Aswhin collapsed like a castle of cards. Monty Panesar ripped through the strong Indian line up with a five wicket haul and fellow spinner Swann picked up four. With England getting so much out of a spinning track India were expected to wrap up England’s Innings quickly. Things started of pretty well after Ojha removed opener Compton and then Trott.

Alaistar cook who scored a century in the first test to delay India’s win on that occasion came up with another brilliant century to start the process to level the series. Partnering him was the man who was almost overlooked for the test series because of the controversies he was involved with – Kevin Pietersen. Pietersen was more comfortable than Cook with the Indian spinners and the two put on a massive show for the Indians to just stand and watch. Except for these two the rest of England’s batting order also failed to pass the spin test as England were finally all out for 413 with Cook and Pietersen scoring 308 of those. Ojha once again picked up five wickets for India. Harbhajan and Ashwin picked up 2 each.

With England acquiring the lead India had to come up with a solution to Monty Panesar and that is exactly what the failed to find. Panesar was ruthless in his approach as he picked up 6 wickets this time. He dismissed the maestro Sachin on both occasions. Gambhir was the only player who managed to make a decent score of 65. Oddly an opening batsman is not always the best player of spin. The only other batsman to reach double figures was Ashwin with 11.

The extras conceded in the match were more than or equal to the individual score of the entire top 7 batsman except Gambhir. The tale tells you how miserably they failed. It was a collective failure of the batsman. The bowlers did their part well. If it wasn’t for Cook and Pietersen then England would have had a similar story.

England must be now pondering over their decision not to play Panesar in the first test. Now the bragging rights go to England as they achieved an even more comprehensive victory that India’s win at Ahmedabad.

England came out for their second innings with 57 runs to win. Although the win was inevitable, India could not manage a single wicket.

There will be a lot to think about for Team India after this match specially if they have intentions to win the series.

Tags: 2nd Test, Cricket, England, India, Kevin Pietersen, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Monty Panesar, Mumbai, Test Series