After the first “day” of the 2,000th Test in
history- I had to get that in sometime – And while there weren’t any of the fireworks
that we now these two can provide that was thanks to the torrential rain, it
does put ant backers of the draw (as advised here) in a strong position and any
further rain is obviously a another massive pointer.
And now for the bad news. Zaheer Khan, our tip for top bowler
in the series and also the only bowler to take wickets, pulled up with injury.
The nature of his injury isn’t quite known but it looked bad and it can be
hooped that he’ll recover because more of the Vic Page’s success than is
comfortable depends on him and his performance.
The opening stages of play provided a fascinating tactical conundrum
as MS Dohni won the toss and elected to bowl, which was a huge stroke of luck
and a brilliant tactical decision rolled into one. By taking away the chance
for England’s bowlers to get at the Indian openers he provided his team with an
easier opening into the game which at one point looked as if it would be properly
exploited when the Indians had England at 62-2.
Praveen Kumar, our other cautionary poke at top bowler
(series) also managed to get plenty out of the new ball – he beat Cook's bat
three times in the opening over - and could easily have taken two or three
wickets had the chances gone his way. It’s to be hoped that with conditions the
same he can take a wicket or two to make up for Zaheer’s strain.
As the current situation stands England rode their luck to
reach 127-2 after Jonathan Trott was dropped by Rahul Dravid on eight and edged
between wicketkeeper and first slip on his way to 58 not out before the weather
ended proceedings.
Looking forward to tomorrow and one obvious wager makes a
lot of appeal. While Jonathan Trott played with a quite remarkable amount of
assurance his opposite number Kevin Pietersen, while showing flashes of talent,
looked a little jumpy and had a lot of luck in staying on the field. While he
could go on from this as he has done many times in the past Trott looks the
most likely to push on and that suggests it could play to back Kevin Pietersen
to be next man out at 5/6 with Victor Chandler.
The batting situation is very interesting as India’s main bowling
threat has been removed and England - with two of their best batsmen and plenty
more strong choices down the order – Seem settled and have most likely missed
the most troublesome period of bowling.
Advice
1 pt Kevin Pietersen to be next man out (6/5 VC Bet)
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