India vs England 1st Test Match Preview, England beat India by 196 runs

India vs England 1st Test Match Preview

England beat India by 196 runs in this 2000th Test match at Lord's on Monday, which was also the 100th Test between India and England.

India started the day with an overnight score of 80/1 with VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid at the crease as a target of 458 runs loomed large. Eventually, the target proved too massive for injury-hit India.

In the morning session the visitors lost their opener Rahul Dravid when a James Anderson ball took a thick edge off his bat to land in the keeper Mat Prior's gloves. He fell for 36 and India were down to 96/2.

Post Dravid's wicket Laxman and Gautam Gambhir became overtly cautious, playing on the deliveries that were coming straight to the bat and leaving the rest. They didn't have a choice and they needed to stay in the middle for long to save the Test.

Gradually, the two started chipping away from the massive 458-run target. But the partnership eventually came to an end when Anderson came around to get rid of Laxman on 56. Laxman went for a pull and ended up getting caught by Bell.

In the next over England spinner Graeme Swann struck Gambhir on the pads and he was adjudged LBW on 22. India were 135/4 at the stage and were looking down the barrel.

Once again Sachin Tendulkar stepped in and once again his fans cutting across nationalities started praying for his elusive 100th international century.

Tendulkar's partner in the middle was left-hander, Suresh Raina.

At lunch India were 142/4, with Tendulkar and Raina at the crease and the visitors needed a massive 316 runs.

A few minutes had gone by into the second session when England bowlers got the man they wanted. Sachin's fans were again left disappointed when a James Anderson delivery trapped the batting maestro plumb in the front of the wicket when he was on 12.

This was after he got two lives. First a Stuart Broad ball trapped him leg-before when he was on 11, but he was saved as the DRS is not being used for leg-before decisions in this series. And then, a ball before Anderson got him, he was dropped in the slips by Andrew Strauss. So Tendulkar's highest at Lord's continues to be 37.

Post Tendulkar's fall, Raina and skipper MS Dhoni batted with resolve to avoid defeat. The two Chennai Super Kings team-mates could be seen sharing a good partnership in the middle. At tea, the two were going steady at the crease and India score was 218/5.

But the third session had a different tale to tell. Minutes into it, skipper MS Dhoni was seen walking back with Chris Tremlett claiming his first wicket of the innings when the India total was 225/6.

Post that wicket it was a matter of time before England players were out there celebrating their win. The biggest hurdle in front of them was Suresh Raina and James Anderson scalped him to increase his victims tally to five and provided England with a fine win 196-run win.

Raina scored a dogged 78, but could not save India from the jaws of defeat. Kevin Pietersen won the Man of the Match for his unbeaten double hundred.

India vs England 1st Test Highlights 2011. 

Test at Lord's, London, England, Thu, 21 - Mon, 25 Jul 2011 03:30 PM IST

• India won the toss & elected to field
• Result : England won by 196 runs
• Man of the match:  Kevin Pietersen

1^st Innings ENG: 474/8 (131.4) RR: 3.60 {Kevin Pietersen: 202* & Stuart Broad : 4/37 }

• Fall of Wickets: 1-19 (Alastair Cook, 11 Over) 2-62 (Andrew Strauss, 24.4 Over) 3-160 (Jonathan Trott, 61.2 Over) 4-270 (Ian Bell, 92.1 Over) 5-270 (Eoin Morgan, 92.4 Over) 6-390 (Matt Prior, 120.3 Over) 7-390 (Stuart Broad, 120.4 Over) 8-451 (Graeme Swann, 129.4 Over)

1^st Innings IND: 286/10 (95.5) RR: 2.98 {Rahul Dravid : 103, Praveen Kumar : 5/106 }

• Fall of Wickets: 1-63 (Gautam Gambhir, 18.2 Over) 2-77 (Abhinav Mukund, 24.4 Over) 3-158 (Sachin Tendulkar, 43.4 Over) 4-182 (VVS Laxman, 55.5 Over) 5-183 (Suresh Raina, 56.2 Over) 6-240 (MS Dhoni, 83.4 Over) 7-241 (Harbhajan Singh, 83.5 Over) 8-276 (Praveen Kumar, 89 Over) 9-284 (Zaheer Khan, 91.5 Over) 10-286 (Ishant Sharma, 95.5 Over)

2^nd Innings ENG: 269/6 (71) RR: 3.78  { Matt Prior : 103*, Anderson : 5/65 }

• Fall of Wickets: 1-23 (Alastair Cook, 11 Over) 2-54 (Andrew Strauss, 22.3 Over) 3-55 (Kevin Pietersen, 23.1 Over) 4-55 (Ian Bell, 24 Over) 5-62 (Jonathan Trott, 27.4 Over) 6-107 (Eoin Morgan, 43.2 Over)

2^nd Innings IND: 261/10 (96.3) RR: 2.70 { Suresh Raina : 78, Ishant Sharma : 4/59 }

• Fall of Wickets: 1-19 (Abhinav Mukund, 8.3 Over) 2-94 (Rahul Dravid, 34.1 Over) 3-131 (VVS Laxman, 48.1 Over) 4-135 (Gautam Gambhir, 49.2 Over) 5-165 (Sachin Tendulkar, 67 Over) 6-225 (MS Dhoni, 85.2 Over) 7-243 (Harbhajan Singh, 91.5 Over) 8-256 (Praveen Kumar, 95 Over) 9-260 (Suresh Raina, 95.4 Over) 10-261 (Ishant Sharma, 96.3 Over)

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