Who will get Man of the Match? Pietersen for his brilliant 202 not out in the first innings? Anderson for his five second innings wickets and a total of seven in the match? Broad for two brilliant bowling performances and a superb second innings? Or my choice, Prior, who played for the team throughout, keeping wicket excellently and producing two brilliant knocks. Second innings we were in trouble when Prior came to the crease but, Gilchrist like, he seized the initiative and took the game away from the Indians. It was a brilliant knock in the circumstances, the sort of innings we associate with Gilchrist and Botham in his pomp.
So, we are 1-0 up in the series and a victory by two tests will see England anointed the best team in the world. Through the dark, dark years of West Indian and Australian domination that seemed impossible but this is a superbly gifted team with, before some smart arse says it, South Africa's second team outplaying their first eleven!
India have played their part in this test and were unlucky with injuries so remain dangerous. We move on to Trent Bridge now. With Strauss struggling and Morgan not convincing, perhaps Gooch should come out of retirement to wield that 333 willow!
10 comments:
a great day for English cricket. Well done lads!
I'm starting to like this blog again. In the last four or five months you have been overly negative (and before you say it I am not one of the happy clappers who refuse to see negatives in the team) but your last 5/6 posts have been thoughtfully writen so keep it up. On the test match it was briliant. Two very good sides playing in such rare circumstances where they both had a realistic chance of achieving their goals in sunny conditions in front of a capacity crowd. I cant remember a better day for test cricket in quite a few years.
Be fair John, what has there been to be positive about?
Watch out for a young lad called Reece Topley. I played with him in the u17's and 19's for Essex and he's really really good!
kevin in manchester writes .. yeah brilliant day, to be fair India suffered an unusual clutch of injuries to key players but that's the way the cookie crumbles. Prior was a key innings but built on the shoulders of pietersen's double ton, however you have to take twenty wickets to win so I'd have thought about giving MoM to broad- however that's splitting hairs a fabulous team effort. and v pleased you have opened the way to discuss test cricket on your blog- i agree the world's greatest game.
I agree about KP's first innings performance but his dismissal second innings was sadly predictable. Overall, Prior scored almost as many runs for once out and kept wicket superbly. I agree Broad was another strong contender. He looked different class on Saturday and Anderson was lucky his name went up on the Honours Board ahead of him in this game. How unlucky was Broad with that lbw decision that was turned down? They don't come plummer than hitting middle half way up!
kevin carries on
also big up to mark cavendish winning the green jersey in the tour de france.it was an amazing achievement- first ever british jersey of any colour on the tour.. gets my vote for sports personality of the year.yeah on refelction prior!
Not a cycling fan - too many drugs. But agree, it was an awesome performance.
Shockingly, Strauss didn't even mention Prior when listing the great performers in his post match Sky interview. Clumsy oversight. Mind you, he forgot to appeal after a very thick edge was taken. Maybe his eyes are going!
HF - what has your drug abuse got to do with congratulating Cavendish? LOL
Post a Comment