At the awards ceremony Rahul Dravid said that they decided to go for the win at tea break. In my opinion India should have stated the fireworks a little earlier, say one hour after the lunch break.
The combination of Wasim Jaffer and Rahul Dravid played really well and had built the platform from which the stroke players could launch the final assault.
Jaffer played a brilliant innings and to score a 100 in his come back match is a great achievement. He has a wide range of shots all round the wicket and this is a very good sign. Technically he is very compact player and today he showed that he can be the ideal foil for the explosive Virender Sehwag.
Rahul Dravid also played a gem of an innings and his was truly a skipper's knock. He played a shot arm pull shot and that shot reminded me of the great GR Vishwanath.
His partnership with Jaffer proved to be a match saving one.
The other thing that comes out from this match is that it is the attitude with which one plays the game that matters most.
Almost everyone was saying that the pitch is a docile one. But the way Matthew Hoggard bowled proved that if the bowlers are willing to give their best the pitch will help them.
Even Sreesanth and Pathan got more wickets than Harbhajan and Kumble. Monty Panesar also bowled very well.
Pietersen, Collingwood and Cook showed that just a little bit of common sense is required to make a good score.
Coming to the Indian bowling, I was very disapponted by the way the Indian spinners bowled. Even a rookie like Monty Panesar got the turn and bounce but Harbhajan and Kumble could not. The ball from Monty that got Rahul Dravid out was a very good ball and it turned a lot.
Our spinners were inconsistent with their line and length and so we should not blame the pitch for not taking the wickets.
But we cannot blame our spinners for not picking the wickets fully as the fielding by India in the match was also very poor. Our fielders dropped a lot of catches and if those catches had been taken may be the result would have been a little different.
Overall it was a very poor fielding display and India must improve if they want to win Test matches regularly.
Even the England team was guilty of dropping catches at crucial moments and if Ian Blackwell had taken the catch of Dravid just before the lunch break things would have been different.
In the match the toss also proved to be very crucial and if India had won the toss and batted then things would have been different.
But this England team has proved its sceptics including myself wrong. We had written then off even before the start of the match but they showed excellent fighting qualities.
They had India on the backfoot for most part of the match and proved to be the better team.
But India can also take some positives from this match like the bowling of Sreesanth and Jaffer's batting.
Rahul Dravid was also smiling at the end of the match and his body language showed that he was very positive and looking forward to the next Test match.
(Krish Srikkanth is a former skipper of Indian cricket team. He maintains a regular blog on IBNLive. His website is www.www.krishcricket.com)
About the AuthorKrishnamachari Srikkanth Krishnamachari Srikkanth was one of the most destructive batsmen who could decimate the strongest and most fearsome attacks in the world by his vast r...Read Morefirst published:March 05, 2006, 20:04 ISTlast updated:March 05, 2006, 20:04 IST
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India played with a positive attitude on the final day and even though the target of 368 in 90 overs was improbable, the way India approached the target in the last session was commendable.
At the awards ceremony Rahul Dravid said that they decided to go for the win at tea break. In my opinion India should have stated the fireworks a little earlier, say one hour after the lunch break.
The combination of Wasim Jaffer and Rahul Dravid played really well and had built the platform from which the stroke players could launch the final assault.
Jaffer played a brilliant innings and to score a 100 in his come back match is a great achievement. He has a wide range of shots all round the wicket and this is a very good sign. Technically he is very compact player and today he showed that he can be the ideal foil for the explosive Virender Sehwag.
Rahul Dravid also played a gem of an innings and his was truly a skipper's knock. He played a shot arm pull shot and that shot reminded me of the great GR Vishwanath.
His partnership with Jaffer proved to be a match saving one.
The other thing that comes out from this match is that it is the attitude with which one plays the game that matters most.
Almost everyone was saying that the pitch is a docile one. But the way Matthew Hoggard bowled proved that if the bowlers are willing to give their best the pitch will help them.
Even Sreesanth and Pathan got more wickets than Harbhajan and Kumble. Monty Panesar also bowled very well.
Pietersen, Collingwood and Cook showed that just a little bit of common sense is required to make a good score.
Coming to the Indian bowling, I was very disapponted by the way the Indian spinners bowled. Even a rookie like Monty Panesar got the turn and bounce but Harbhajan and Kumble could not. The ball from Monty that got Rahul Dravid out was a very good ball and it turned a lot.
Our spinners were inconsistent with their line and length and so we should not blame the pitch for not taking the wickets.
But we cannot blame our spinners for not picking the wickets fully as the fielding by India in the match was also very poor. Our fielders dropped a lot of catches and if those catches had been taken may be the result would have been a little different.
Overall it was a very poor fielding display and India must improve if they want to win Test matches regularly.
Even the England team was guilty of dropping catches at crucial moments and if Ian Blackwell had taken the catch of Dravid just before the lunch break things would have been different.
In the match the toss also proved to be very crucial and if India had won the toss and batted then things would have been different.
But this England team has proved its sceptics including myself wrong. We had written then off even before the start of the match but they showed excellent fighting qualities.
They had India on the backfoot for most part of the match and proved to be the better team.
But India can also take some positives from this match like the bowling of Sreesanth and Jaffer's batting.
Rahul Dravid was also smiling at the end of the match and his body language showed that he was very positive and looking forward to the next Test match.
(Krish Srikkanth is a former skipper of Indian cricket team. He maintains a regular blog on IBNLive. His website is www.www.krishcricket.com)
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