Ambrosia

Three tests. That's how much Tim Ambrose has played.

Fourteen months. That's how much time is left before the Australians arrive.

Time, one would think, for the English media and fans to start howling for his blood. For the next fourteen months, Ambrose needs to keep justifying his spot in the side.

Geraint was not a good enough keeper. Read was not a good enough bat. And Prior was the recurring nightmare.

Ambrose needs to be extra-safe behind the stumps and needs at least one good outing with the bat. Something like his counterattack at Wellington will help.

Lights on... Camera.. And Action!

Attitudes toward cricket under lights seem to have undergone some kind of shift since India last toured these shores. Correct me if I am wrong, but I cannot remember India having played a single match under lights in England. But this series features as many as three!
If this is what Twenty20 cricket did to England, then I am all for it, boss. But other than that, can anyone shed some light on this? What happened to the English fear of floodlights?

Beautiful.

Everything was just the way it should be. England showed just enough resistance to make me sit up and take notice, but not nearly enough to make me fret. Vaughan showed the world once again, why he was such a highly regarded batsman. If Ganguly was the artist on the third day, here was Vaughan - determined to sculpt a masterpiece. Strokes flowing freely from his bat, he dominated Anil Kumble through the day, and it was only a moment of charecteristic cricketing fortune that got Vaughan out. The scoresheet will say bowled, Zaheer Khan. And he deserved it too, all nine of those wickets, bowling such taut swing bowling. What a remarkable comeback it has been for this man, a far cry from his extremely wayward days hardly a couple of seasons ago! And he had to work hard for it too. Strauss and Collingwood did hang around, and it would not have been too tough to give it all up. To India's credit, both Zaheer and RP were spot on through the day, and Sreesanth had his usual quota of dangerous deliveries too. RP picked up two crucial wickets, both with screaming inswingers delivered from around the stumps: Kevin Pietersen thrust his pad out, while Prior had his middle stump uprooted with a ball that is going to see many many television replays.
Contentment is already here. Now for the Indian victory. It wont be too late.

Third day of the second Test

It was the best batting that Ganguly and Tendulkar had shown in years. In fact, to look for the last time that Ganguly played a knock of such beauty, not to mention value, we'd have to go way back to 2003 and the Gabba. Something similar could be said of Sachin too. And the amazing part was that, Ganguly, Sachin and Laxman scored runs against some very good bowling - particularly from Sidebottom and Tremlett. True, Anderson was off his radar and probably Panesar too, but Sachin had to bat out of his skin to survive Sidebottom before he could take out some tools from the cupboard of memories. Pleasure to watch.

What was painful to watch was Sree Santh's bowling. Needless to say, it was a humiliating loss of rhythm. The manner in which he comes back to bowl today morning will tell us a lot more about this National Breakdancing Champ.

First Test Blues?

India's famous middle order kneeled before the rawest of swing bowling attacks. Not for the first time. On India'a last tour here, only Ajit Agarkar had the courage to stick his bat out between India and defeat at Lords in an attack that was missing Gough and Caddick. Much like this time, where the unheralded had to bat India out of trouble - namely Kaartick, Jaffer and Dhoni.
After being worked over by Anderson in the first innings, like he were a toddler, Dhoni needs to be congragulated in the manner in which he recovered from such humiliation.
Several things went wrong with the batting, not least among them the reluctance to go down the wicket to spin. Monty Panesar is a beautifully balanced bowler, but his threat is compounded by playing him from the crease. Also, a certain nervousness with the footwork against the swingers - never completely forward, never completely back.
Anyway, let us hope that the lessons of the first Test are imbibed well. If they do, a few cracking batting displays similar to 2002 cannot be ruled out. The 2002 series started an (all-too-short) golden run for Indian cricket. But make no mistake. This is a batting line-up in decay, and a more than Herculean mental effort would be required to revive the glory days of Edbagston and Adelaide.

An English Swansong?

This is where the world first sat up and took notice of a precocious tiny fifteen-year old with tight curly hair who had just saved his team the blushes with a superb hundred. And as he returns to the island nation of seam and bloody bad weather, one can be certain that thoughts of the karmic circle, mortality and retirement are not too far away. After all, his idol Viv Richards too walked into the sunset after an English summer.

Yesterday, Sachin scored the second of his consecutive nineties against the South African visitors. And what a knock it was, distinct from the touch n' feel nature of the first, and far removed from the trudging nature of his innings' in Bangladesh. Cut, pull, hook, crunching drive, quick single: all the elements that made him the pre-eminent batsman of the late nineties and early 00s. If this is to be his swansong, and he has given us no indication that it will be, then England better watch out.

Another English summer

I don't think there is anything quite like watching India tour England. The very first practice match itself will prick every optimistic bubble in my body when the Indian batting will fold before some dibbly-dobblers. And from then on until the first Test match, I will rejoice like a true Indian fan, looking for individual performances - a Dravid hundred, a century opening partnership, a Zaheer five-for, a belligerent rearguard from Dhoni, all interspersed with healthy amounts of rain and polite clapping.
And then the Test matches will begin. If it clicks, it is beautiful - like Leeds. If it doesn't, it is heartbreaking, because the batting would have very likely gifted wickets to a part-timer. Both teams, after having faced West Indies and Bangladesh respectively, know that they will be facing stiffer opposition. The currently wayward English fast bowling (Sidebottom notwithstanding) will be coached by one Mr. White Lightning. India will arrive in England with an as-yet-unappointed coach. We can watch KP against Kumble and Tendulkar against Monty. Hopefully Vaughan will be fit and that will raise Dravid's captaincy game as well - as one who does best when pitted against the best. I can't wait.