Tuesday 19 January 2010

After Tendulkar it is now Zaheer

Well yesterday it was the most experienced man for India in Sachin Tendulkar who had to save some face for his team when he ended the day ensuring that India didn't lose all the ten wickets on day 1 and kept the hopes of a decent total alive though the chance for the same being freak. And, yesterday on day 2, Sachin Tendulkar completed the formality when India ended their first innings with the scoreboard reading 243 all out with Sachin Tendulkar remaining unbeaten on 105. Needless to be said this was his 44th test hundred and much to no one's surprise, he scored 29 out of the 30 runs that were scored yesterday.

The remaining 1 run was not scored by anyone and was contributed by extras. However, as expected, Bangladesh did start their innings the was everyone would have anticipated when they lost three quick wickets with the scoreboard reading 59 runs at the end of the day. That was the day when just 15 overs of play in the Bangladesh innings was possible and, India having a tough task at hand if at all India lose momentum on day 3. It had to once again be another experienced player in Zaheer Khan who had to use his decade long experience to shatter the stumps of two of the 3 Bangladeshi batsmen who got out.

If the day's play is considered, it looks like the Indian bowlers were well set to tackle the Bangladeshi batsmen and this may not be the case in the days to come despite the pitch posing problems for the batting side. Had it not been for the loss of play on day 2, may be India would have had the Bangladeshi batsmen well in their control. May be India would have succeeded in bowling the Bangladeshi batsmen all out. Now, one thing is for sure that India cannot hope of an innings win against Bangladesh. And the match will surely go upto the 5th day.

It was fascinating to hear that India had lost three quick wickets for 6 runs and Bangladesh had a better run when they had 5 runs in a span of which they lost 3 wickets. This was just one run less than what the number one team in test cricket could afford to do. Meaning there was a difference of just one run between the teams out of which one team topped the ICC test rankings and the other team was exactly opposite. So, is India only that much stronger compared to Bangladesh? So, with so much compromise India will continue to top the rankings atleast until the series against RSA starts.

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