The Nagpur Test As It Stands

End of Day 2 and India still hold the edge but only very slightly. The day belonged to England just as Day 1 belonged to India. Luckily India managed to win the last session otherwise they would have been in deep trouble.

Here is how the session tally goes as I see it

Day 1 DII
Day 2 EDI

So India has won 3 sessions while England just 1 and 2 have been even stevens. Yet India are only marginally ahead. THat maybe because one of the sessions I attributed to India was very marginal (Day 1 session 2) and the first session of yesterday was comprehensively England's. On second thoughts maybe I should give England the edge on Session 2 of Day 2 too. Yes that would make much more sense.

Anyway 393 was very much a par total and India need to bat well. The odds still favor them and this is not just me speaking. The fact that England got 100 runs more than they should have does not alter the fact that India need to get 550+. That is very much a constant.

I dont think it will be easy to score fast here. 300 runs a day is the max I think can be achieved. So if India find themselves around 440/5 or 440/6 with a Dhoni and a Pathan out there they should be more than happy with themselves.

England on the other hand have got to get wickets. If you dont get these batsmen out early they will make you pay. Luckily they have a chance in the morning. Overnight rain means that the outfield will be soggy play could be delayed and the pitch might have livened up. Therein lies England's chance.

The Batting:

Paul COllingwood was just superb - no 2 ways about that. No amount of cribbing about our poor bowling should take away credit from him. The way he picked the gaps was great and he showed that he had the big shots too when he lofted Harbhajan for 2 huge sixes. Harmisson played a cameo as he is capable of every now and again, but the real surprise was Monty (and a pain he was) For India, both jaffer and dravid batted really well - did the best they could given a negative (err, tight) line bowled by England. Initially I thought they could have taken a bit more initiative - but the end result was good for India and that probably justified the means. For all the beautiful shots Jaffer played I do think he has a technical vulnerability that will be exposed in places like England and New Zealand to the ball pitched on and coming in. Lack of a long stride forward and a tentative prod is what I see. Though he is better than Gambhir at leaving balls outside off and judging them. but i didnt happen to see any horizontal bat shot from him (not that the wicket allowed it) so cant yet comment on that aspect of his batting. Skipper Freddie OK .. I will hop to Freddie - I think he was too negative ... bowled a line well outside off and a length very short - and I don just mean Freddie the bowler but England in general - so trying to judge Freddie as captain here - Hoggard alone was looking dangerous. On a wicket that was slow and occasionally kept low it made sense to bowl wicket to wicket but it seemed the English were too afraid of the strokeplay of the Indians on the on side. India played well, really the way england bowled it would not have been possible to score much quicker without taking some risks.