We all know India has been slow starter… hence the practice match gets the importance to the core, and in recent past BCCI never kept a practice match for team India. but it was good to see that Indians played a practice match on this England tour… but all goes in vain.. 
Lords test started with very high note… this test has immense importance as this was 2000th test match and 100th between India and England.
Day 1
On day 1, 1st day ball was moving quite well… India started off well with 3 maidens on trot, and sooner Zaheer khan picked up two crucial wickets for India early on before he suffered hamstring injury.
As soon as Zaheer went back to pavilion, MS Dhoni deployed defensive tactics… poor thinking… taking wickets on regular interval is the best way to keep other side on check
Day 2
Day to started and MS Dhoni didn’t changed his defensive tactics, which helped England to put up good score…
Surprised to see Harbhajan got into defensive mode as well… he surrendered to the situation with out trying to fight that situation.. hardly seen any fielder around the bat… when Zaheer is not there on the field, automatically Harbhajan becomes the spear head of Indian bowling attack but he failed yet again to lead the attack… I failed to understand his tactics to bowl right hand batsman round the wicket… absolutely negative strategy. You just keep LBW out of the question when u bowl like that… Murlidharan became successful with this line doesn’t mean even you will be successful with similar strategy… alas…
though Praveen Kumar’s excellent spell came on day 2, but it was bit too late… England declared on 476… at that very moment I felt… we lost the lords
Last few overs England asked India to bat and we did managed to go to day 3 with out loosing wicket
Day 3
It was decent start on day 3… Gambhir got out to a peach of delivery by Stewart Broad… this wicket was well set by Broad… 2 short of good length away going deliveries and next fuller in swinging delivery… then comes Dravid… THE WALL… and he stood by that name and scored unbeaten century…
Along with Dravid, Mukund was also playing nice… he was scoring in a good pace…just before lunch break wide of off stump delivery done him… he dragged that ball on to stumps…
Then comes the lord on lords… he was running temperature… still he stepped out to save India… he played out the remaining time and India went 2 down to lunch on day 3… After lunch Sachin started smashing balls and looked good till the Broad’s out swinger did him… once again it was classy bowling by Stewart Broad… after Sachin’s dismissal… all Indians just came on to bat as if its just their duty to be present on the crease… Praveen Kumar smashed few balls here n there to avoid follow-on, but India end up 186 runs short which was a huge margin on Lords
India got out just few minutes before the stumps at day 3, and England survived
Day 4
India started off well on day 4 to claim 5 wickets early on… thanks to ultimate bowling performance by Ishant Sharma… he was looking good… he was running hard, pitching in right areas.. he was able to move the ball both ways… and he got wickets under his belt… England was 62/5 at lunch and Eoin Morgan and Matt Prior were on crease that time… that time I felt now India is showing why they are called #1 test team of the world… I thought now India has grip on this test… now India can pull of the win…
day 4 second session was disaster… surprised to see Raina started the new session… which was terrible terrible terrible decision… though Ishant came forward to say that he needed break… but I sense that he is just trying to defend his captain to be in captains good book… they took the advantage of this… and got settled.. Ishant took Eoin Morgan’s wicket… but by that time Prior was set… he carried on to make yet another century at lords… again England declared on 268/6 after Prior’s 3rd century at lords… 269/6 score suggest how poor captaincy and bowling was, when England were down at 62/5. England gave India 458 as target.
Gambhir was injured by Priors slog sweep, so he was not available for opening… and hence Dravid came to bat with Mukund… Mukund yet again done by Broad’s away going delivery… which he dragged on to stumps… then Laxman and Dravid steadied the ship and India went on to stumps 80/1… both were looking good… looking strong… again Indian fan woke up and started saying, we can save this match… but Day 5 was still there to be survived…
Day 5
Dravid got out early on day 5… and then Indian line up collapsed like pack of cards… they just didn’t applied themselves on the crease… mixture of poor batting and excellent bowling performance by England done India… and India lost the 1st test after tea…
What I feel is, keep England’s good bowling aside… India actually lost due to bad decision by Dhoni on 4th day’s second session…
Tags: 2000th test, England, India, lords, test
