Over the Bridge !

Who would have thought that after the mockery that surrounded the appointment of the coach of the Indian cricket team (remember they don't have a coach), yet they came out victorious !

Trent Bridge is a very historical test venue , 3rd oldest (first two being lord's and eden gardens), and so it was apt that history was created when India won by 7 wickets . (Its not very often that India wins overseas so we usually consider it history being created). Especially after the first test match one wasn't expecting such a retaliatory response from India. Kudos to those brave 11 men.

But a closer look at the match brings allot of interesting things to light.

Firstly the come back :
We have to admit that England were robbed of a famous victory at Lord's due to a) weather and b) the umpire's decision during the last over at the last day. The general opinion here in India amongst my fellow cricket heads was that its going to be tough to bring the moral up. Indians have been slow starters to overseas tours we know that but this was an overwhelming and resounding come back. What makes it even more remarkable was the fact that the current team did not have any coach ! Quite a remarkable feat for a side traveling abroad without a coach indeed.

The second thing that i felt was interesting was Zaheer Khan's first innings performance. I mean here is the man left out of the squad for almost an year and he comes back with such a bang. Throughout his exile we kept hearing about his performances for Worcestershire and took 78 wickets in the 2006 county season so that definitely helped him. He scalped Strauss and Voughan, two of the most experienced batsmen in the current england batting line up, very early (3rd and 9th over) which i am sure gave him more confidence to bowl the immaculate line and length and extract genuine swing throughout the remainder of the test match.
We saw how ruthless he was in the second innings and I somehow attribute it to the brilliance in the first innings. England will have to watch out for him during the remainder of the tour.

Third was Sachin's comeback. He made a brilliant 171 during the warm up matches and everyone thought he was set for a great tour. But Lord's was disappointing yet again for the maestro with a meager 37 and 16. Much was expected from him at Trent Bridge and he delivered. An outstanding 91 falling 9 short of a memorable century only due to a poor decision by umpire Toufel.
Now why this 91 was significant because he has now scored 460 odd runs. Now India has to play 8 more test matches, 1 vs England, 3 vs Pakistan, 4 vs Australia giving him 16 innings to score 540 odd runs to make another 1000 runs in the calender year of 2006-07. This means he needs an average of 33.75 runs in the next 16 innings to reach another year of 1000 runs. This proving that the maestro is well and truly back !

And finally Dinesh Karthik. The guy has a brilliant temperament. A calm and composed 77 in the first innings and a decent 22 in the second innings after a fifty in the second innings of the first test match means we have another player who can bat and wicket keep. This gives more versatility to the Indian side. And the fact that he is still 22 years adds more value to this fine young talent. Brilliant on the field is an added plus.