At 124 for eight on the first day of the Test match, it looked highly improbable that England would go on to win the Test match, let alone manage a 319-run victory. But that is precisely how the second Test match at Trent Bridge between India and England ended, leaving India down 0-2 and with some serious issues to contemplate.
India Crash To 319-Run Loss To England
The day’s play went according to script for the home team. Probably even better than they anticipated. England resumed from 441 for six and their lower-order added 103 runs to the total, with Tim Bresnan shining through with a 90 to his name. Stuart Broad continued with his good form with the bat with a 44 as England set the Indians a never-achieved before target of 478 for a win.
Even less realistic was the number of overs that India had to bat to save the game; a whopping 168.
The trouble for the Indian batting was that they had gone into the innings with three prior innings without getting to 300. All of a sudden, the expectation was for the side to achieve a near-miracle.
Unfortunately, what would have upset the Indian fans by the time the play had ended was that India got close to neither of the aforementioned targets. They lasted only 47.4 overs and after being in a danger of being bowled out for less than 100 at one stage, limped to a miserly 158. None of the top seven batsmen, bar Sachin Tendulkar, got into double-figures.
More vitally, four of the batsmen were dismissed to the short ball – either trying to go for the pull or while trying to fend the ball off. Two others, Tendulkar – who scored the innings’ lone half-century –and Dhoni, fell lbw offering no shot.
The writing was on the wall when India’s only form player, Rahul Dravid nicked one from Stuart Broad to the wicket-keeper. From then on, it was a procession as India lost wickets at 6, 13, 31, 37, 55 and 55, before Harbhajan Singh swung his willow around for a quick-fire 46. By this time, Bresnan had scalped his first ever five-wicket haul, apart from being on a hat-trick once.
Broad was the obvious man of the match after his superb all-round effort in all the innings of the game. There is a nine-day gap between this and the next Test match, with the Indians playing a two-day warm-up match against Northampton.
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