After an unconvincing effort for most of the day, Zaheer Khan and RP Singh produced an inspired burst with the second new ball to break trigger a collapse of the English line up which has become an all too familiar feature in this series now. They lost 7/43 in the first innings at Lord’s, 7/97 in the first innings at Trent Bridge and 7/68 in the second innings today. Their best effort was at Lord’s, thanks in large part to the century stand between Prior and Pietersen.
Both Zaheer and RP demonstrated the ability to swing the ball both ways and got better as the day progressed. Zaheer was the stand out performer. Sreesanth on the other hand had a horrendous day – his second terrible day out of 4 bowling days on this tour. His figures in the first innings were better than he deserved as well. RP improved vastly from his first innings effort. Zaheer’s has been the (potentially) match winning effort. Strauss’s wicket was the opening that kept India in the hunt, even though it was followed by two reasonable stands – 45 with Kevin Pietersen and 112 with Paul Collingwood. It was in the company of Pietersen that Vaughan came into his own. In partnership with Pietersen, he was at his very best. He was helped to some extent by the Indian bowling – 49(58) off Kumble and 14(17) off Tendulkar.
Sreesanth is in serious danger of earning a reputation as someone who is not always honest. He was constantly heckling all the batsmen, even though he was bowling poorly, then he inadvertantly (hopefully) let slip a beamer and apologized immediatly. So far so good. But later, he went round the wicket very briefly and bowled a bouncer which was the biggest no ball in living memory. Sreesanth was so poor, that the commentators were at a loss to explain what he was upto. It was definitely one of the most bizarre displays on a cricket field in a long time. Being excited is fine – but being out of control is not.
India will look to wrap up the game tomorrow. They should aim to score at better than 4 an over and win in style. It has been a memorable game, with Zaheer appearing on the honours board.
Kartikeyadate's Weblog 
July 30, 2007 at 9:04 pm
Whilst England has produced 7-43 etc, what about 10-62! That shouldn’t happen but there is always an “if” when it comes to India and nailing down a win.
My thoughts so far:
1) Players making a comeback have been the leading performers: Zaheer, RP Singh and Ganguly. (NB Sreesanth did the same in SA).
2) “Luck” is always with the winner. Vaughan’s dismissal could be one such luck. England were “unlucky” because they couldn’t find the edges on day 3, etc. You do better if you ignore luck and go about trying to win.
3) Sachin-Ganguly and Sachin-Dravid have been great pairings. Likewise, Jaffer and Karthik seem to work well together.
4) I wouldn’t be too harsh on Sreesanth. Even Chappell conceded he had to be “managed” for his own good.
Issacn