India towards a certain win over England in the second Test

July 31: India now in a definite position to take 1-0 lead in the three match test series against England. The second Test from the beginning was totally dominated by Indian players in both bowling and batting. Now in the fifth and final day India after eliminating all English batsmen for 355 runs needs only 63 runs to record a certain win at Trent Bridge.

At the stumps of fourth day, India were 10 for no loss and both the openers Dinesh Karthik(6) and Wasim Jaffer(3) are at firm to repeat their good batting performance of the first innings.

The fourth day was fully entertaining as England skipper Michael Vaughan made his 17 th Test century and Zaheer on the other hand claims a five wicket haul. He made a good knock of 124-runs though was not enough to put a considerable total for India to chase. It was Zaheer Khan who dominated in the day taking five wickets and that made the difference in the match.

Indian pace star Zaheer Khan continuing a good performance in the first innings adds another five wickets to his credit. In this match he is so far the highest wicket taker with a total of 9 wickets in his kit including four in the first innings.

In the second innings, Zaheer in his 27-overs spell took five wickets by conceding 75 runs. He also got a good support from the other end by RP Singh, S Sreesanth and Anil Kumble.

Though England openers came to the crease with a positive bend of mind with a score of 43/0 already on the board but India did manage to register earlier breakthrough. Opener Alastair Cook couldn’t manage an in-swinger delivery of Zaheer and got lbw scoring 23.

Captain Vaughan soon joined Strauss and built a good partnership of 81-runs before Zaheer got his second wicket in terms of Strauss (55). He was caught behind by wicket keeper Dhoni.

Pietersen with an aim to cross India’s 283 runs lead in the first innings though start well but only managed to score 19 runs before trapped lbw by RP Singh. Vaughan was the only batsman who plays one of the best innings of his career and led his team to cross India’s lead.

However, the match started swinging away from England as Vaughan couldn’t manage to hold one of the deliveries of Zaheer that went on to hit the stumps after crossing his pad. In the very same over Ian Bell got lbw by Zaheer. This was his fourth wicket of the day.

However the most important wicket was of Paul Collingwood who holds the nerve to capitalize in such situation but failed in front of Zaheer’s out-swinger and caught behind in the slip by Dinesh Karthik. With this wicket started falling at regular interval and leggie Anil Kumble did the rest and best to eliminate the tell ender batsmen at quick succession.

On the fifth and final day India just needs 63 runs to register a comfortable win over England. Indian fans also don’t need to be worry about the weather as the met department forecast it as a sunny day. This time India has a great chance of a series win in England and seems possible with a 1-0 lead which is not far away.