England’s woes seem to have avalanched into something truly daunting. Everything seems to have gone a bit haywire for the hosts, who seem to be far off from the task of breaking the losing streak, which is now, nine-match strong. And if all goes well for the visitors, they might well be on the threshold of setting some of their own records straight.
Hello ladies and gentlemen, the climax of the second Investec Test between India and England is all about to unfold and India would be smacking their lips as they are ready to draw some English blood. “Why is there no third man?†one of the commentators wondered aloud, ripping apart some of the strategies that Captain Cook employed. Bizarre as ever, none of them actually worked. In fact, if you look at both the Test matches, nothing clearly has worked for the hosts, whose struggles don’t seem to reach their full stops. Be it Ravindra Jadeja having the last laugh, plotting revenge on field, the Indian tail refusing to stop wagging and England’s own batting flop show, led by Cook himself, things are falling face flat for the English team.
On Sunday, it looked like the Indian team had descended on the grounds of The Lords with a plan; a plan that was not just detailed, but was also well executed. Murali Vijay set things up for the Indian camp. Although he ended up missing his century by a whisker on 95, it was, nonetheless, an effort worth applauding, and in Rahul Dravid’s words, better than his century in the first match. Pujara and Dhawan did manage to consolidate bits of it, but the Indian middle order failed miserably. When that offered some hope to the English team, Sir Ravindra Jadeja walked into the middle and showed exactly why he’s famous both on and off the field for his heroics. His 68, clubbed perfectly with the new kid on the block — Bhuvaneshwar Kumar — gave the Indians a lot of reasons to rejoice.
Bhuvaneshwar continues his unbelievable form, batting more like a batsman than like a tailender. His third fifty in a row shows why he is probably the dream tailender any team could ask for. With their sights sets on a win, the penultimate day saw the Indian bowlers, this time, taking their turn to rock the English boat. 4 wickets down already with 300 + runs to win, neither history looks too optimistic, nor do the English lads.
With Ravindra Jadeja wielding his bat like a sword, let’s see what miracles he will unravel for the Indian team, much to the misery of the hosts. An exciting day of cricket beckons!
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