India defy English order to win test
December 15th 2008 23:43
Having watched England dominate the first Test for three days and two sessions, Virender Sehwag issued a frightening warning on the fourth evening with an innings of brilliant skill and power, while Sachin Tendulkar made good on the threat with a superb unbeaten 103.
Yuvraj Singh also played a very fine knock, refusing to be goaded by Andrew Flintoff and showing that he may have the temperament for Tests to go with his terrific talent.
It was wonderful to see Mumbai's favourite son play one of his greatest innings, and Tendulkar's 41st century will mean so much to many, particularly in the aftermath of the Indian terrorist attacks.
England really were in the box seat to claim this test victory.
After losing all the one day internationals against India in the lead up to the two test series, England were finally in a position to deal some of their own punishment.
When the time for execution came however, England failed once again, with fingers pointed at spinner Monty Panesar for the defeat.
Sure, he was bowling against some world class batsmen, but they themselves were under immense pressure to chase down the fourth largest total in Test history.
Panesar really had to step up against India but didn't. His ineffective bowling proved costly to the whole team as captain Kevin Petersen was forced to make field changes that were mere defensive moves, rather than attacking ones.
From there, India, who are the masters of playing against spin on their day, had the whole field to play their shots, with nothing but grass standing in their way for easy runs.
And so they plucked away England's formidable total with relative ease in the end, and when the time came to lash out, they did so with no hesitation.
Tendulkar was the man once again to deliver India the most unlikely of victories in what many are considering one of the greatest test matches of all time.
One of the greatest possibly, but rest assured, it is one England will want to forget in a hurry.
Their mindset heading into the second test will be one of anger and frustration. They really should be 1 nil up.
Instead, they now find themselves on the cusp on another series whitewash, after earlier suffering some one day humiliation.
India on the other hand will have their confidence sky high.
After coming off a test series win over Australia, many would have been disappointed to see the Indians lose to home soil against a below par English outfit.
But their are good signs for world domination if India can put themselves in trouble, yet emerge victorious in the most challenging of conditions.
In the end they won the test match and it should give them the confidence to put on a show in the second test and wrap this series up 2 nil.
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