By Zaheer Haque
The Third Test of this Series took place at Edgbaston and was being anticipated to be an evenly fought contest in comparison to the first two Tests that England won comfortably.
The Third Test of this Series took place at Edgbaston and was being anticipated to be an evenly fought contest in comparison to the first two Tests that England won comfortably.
England won the toss and chose to bowl which was the right decision as in English conditions always bowl first unless it is a really flat wicket.
The Test Match came to life in only the second over of the game when Sehwag who missed the first two Tests through injury was out first ball for 0.
Gambhir also returned from injury and was looking comfortable at the crease with Dravid and made a solid fifty partnership. Gambhir was next out and India was 59-2 which then became astonishingly 111-7. This collapse was down to excellent bowling and very poor batting as the pitch wasn’t misbehaving.
England having India at 111-7 would have thought that they would bowl India out for around 130. This wasn’t to be as India’s Captain Dhoni put up resistance with a good 77 and India eventually all out for 224. This is why I always say England should play 5 bowlers so they can bowl out opposition even more cheaply.
England batting response was unbelievable and no one could have predicted the level of punishment that would be handed out to India’s bowlers when England finally declared on 710-7 a stunning lead of 486.
It was the sensationally batting of Alistair Cook who made a brilliant 294 before he played the first really bad shot of his innings to be caught in the deep. He deserved 300 he batted in own unique style and never broke sweat despite batting for over 13 hours. This shows he has high levels of concentration and quite rightly named Man of The Match.
India came out in their second innings and it would be a matter of time as to how big a margin an innings win would be for England.
Sehwag came out to bat being on a King Pair. A King Pair is being out in both innings first ball for 0. Anderson bowled the perfect delivery to Sehwag who duly obliged and was caught in the slips to get a King pair the Third Indian to do so in Test Cricket. This was remarkable and unbelievable what Sehwag had achieved and he must have felt why he came to play should have stayed at home.
India second innings was exactly like their first innings with England as a team bowling brilliantly to have India at 130-7. India lower order started hitting out and India were eventually out for 244 and England won by a very big margin of an Innings and 242 runs.
This meant that England win the series 3-0 with a Test Match to play at the Oval. The Significance of this result means England become Number one Team in the world in Test Cricket a truly remarkable achievement and richly deserved.
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