England, as expected tried to play a quick inning. Initially they got in the danger when Ishant took control of the game for a session. But then Prior and Broad got into a huge partnerships and at the end of 4th day closed the option of England losing the test match.
Ind vs Eng 2011 Series: First Test Preview
First Day Review
Second Day Review
Third Day Preview
Scorecard & Statistics
Three Sessions of the Day
The first session saw Ishant striking thrice and reducing England to 63/5. Morgan and Prior tried to stabilise but Ishant returned to send Morgan back and open the English tail. But Stuart Broad came good with the bat too scoring his 6th test half-century in the company of maverick Prior. Matt scored unbeaten century, adding to his half-century in the first innings. An unbeaten 162 run stand between both yielded England 457 run lead to declare.
India batted 27 overs in the last session and Broad removed Mukund early. At stumps India were 80/1 with Dravid and Laxman batting.
Matt Prior
The English wicketkeeper continued his good batting form of 2011 hitting his 3rd century of the year. His first century against India could not have found a better time to come as his undefeated 103 shooed away the Indian challenge, whatsoever it appeared when Ishant had struck 4 times. His third century at Lord’s has completed removed the chances of England losing the test now on the last day.
Before the century against India, at Lord’s he has scored undefeated 126against West Indies in 2007 and 126 against Sri Lanka in 2011 series. His first century against India is his 6th international century (all in Test matches), 4 of which have come at home and other two at Port of Spain (2009) and Sydney (2011).
Ishant Sharma
When all thought he is back to his slumber, he struck thrice removing dangerous Trott, Pietersen and Bell leaving England at 62/5. Later he removed Morgan too and England were 107/6. But after that his magic session finished and England were back to business of slaughetering Indian lambs.
Stuart Broad
First he took England out of danger scoring a quick undefeatced 74 runs and then he returned to take the only Indian wicket that fell today while chasing the target of 458 runs.
Fate of The Match
378 runs required to win for India, 9 wickets required for England to win on the fifth day of Lord’s 2000th test. There can be a draw if Indians apply themselves for extended 3 sessions on the last day, a tough task for them. In fact 9-wickets falling like 9-pins may not surprise any as Indians have successfully managed the forgettable feat of getting bowled out in 2-3 sessions. England is certainly not going to win as expecting Indias to score 378 runs on the final day is bit too much, specially when the same team did not even try to score 180 runs against West Indies in their last test.
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