England Outplayed India in 2000th Test at Lords

As the curtains came down on the 2000th Test, and the 100th between the India and England, the home side's desire to win proved to be stronger than the visitors' resolve to stay in the battle. India on paper is much stronger side while in the ground they are playing like minnows. Set what would have been a world record total of 458 runs to win and with one wicket down overnight, the tourist Indian's main task was to bat throughout the fifth and crucial final day to force the draw as they have no change by any corner to beat England here in Lords.
Needing nine wickets to win on the final day, England made the perfect start, removing three batsmen Dravid, Laxman and Gambhir in the morning session, and taking the key wicket of Sachin Tendulkar after lunch who made only 12 runs. Tendulkar always chokes whenever India need him to stay at the wicket too long, he use to throw away his wicket and leave, its a practice from him while as a senior and matured batsman, he have to stay as long as possible as he is the key player of India, what Indians think and so wrongly thinking by the poor Indians.
They needed a major innings from either Rahul Dravid, Laxman or Sachin Tendulkar, who was looking for his hundredth international hundred in his final Test at Lord's, but none of them remained successful, even they get second life, as Dravid dropped a simple chance on 35 by Bell at short leg, Dravid added just one more run to his score before he flung the bat at a wide away-swinger from Anderson and was pouched by Matt Prior behind the stumps. Tendulkar was lucky to survive an lbw appeal from Stuart Broad,one of a number of poor decisions by umpire Billy Bowden and was dropped in the slips by England captain Strauss but then missed a straight ball from Anderson and was trapped in front for just 12 off 68 balls after that their fellow Indian batsmen did not have the ability to keep out a fired-up England attack.India battled through to tea with five wickets intact with Suresh Raina offering stern resistance as he made 78 off 136balls with 10x4's and the skipper MS Dhoni,the last recognized batting pair, going into the final session of the day but with the captian falling early, their chances too went up in smoke, Chris Tremlett removed captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni after making merely 16 which is not a captain responsibility and the tourists' tail offered little resistance.
Raina showed great stomach for fighting but in the face of the enormity of the task, his innings wasn't going to save India from the inevitable, none of the tail-enders try to stay at the crease to give Raina support, Harbhajan soon went when he plays that mosquito-swat hooky-pull of his and balloons the edge high and down to wide mid-on where Tremlett holds it easy.Then smart Stuart Broad cleaned up the remaining tail of Praveen Kumar for 2 and Ishant Sharma for 1 to completed a superb and historic victory in 2000th Test match.
James Anderson was the real hero in the second innings as he grabbed his 11th five wicket haul in the longest form of the game, he took 5 for 65 while Broad got 3 for 57 and India limped to 261 all out as England clinched the opening Test of the four-match series by 196 runs for a 1-0 lead in the four match series, going to Trent Bridge, the venue for the second Test. Kevin Pietersen remained Player of the match for his unforgettable 202 not out.

I, Muhammed Anwar Fazil age 35 live in the biggest city of Pakistan, Karachi. I m graduate in commerce and now doing job as accountant in a private firm since 1993. I love English and enjoying to write articles on different topics. I have successfully submitted articles on top website and they accepted my articles on different topics gladly.