Cricket: India defeat England in second Test

July 31, 2007

India have beaten England by seven wickets in the second Test cricket match of the Indian tour of England at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, England.

Despite the loss of three wickets on the final day, the Indian batsmen comfortably reached the 73 run target set by England.

India lead the three-match series 1-0 after the first Test ended in a draw, and England must win the final Test at The Oval to avoid their first home Test series defeat since 2001.

The start of play was delayed on the first day as the outfield was wet following heavy rain. Before play finally got underway after lunch on Friday, India won the toss and captain Rahul Dravid chose to field first.

Zaheer Khan made two breakthroughs early in the England innings to dismiss Andrew Strauss and captain Michael Vaughan. R P Singh then trapped Kevin Pietersen lbw to reduce England to 47-3. Although Paul Collingwood and Alastair Cook shared a partnership of 54, India's bowlers found some swing and reduced England to 169-7 at the close of day one.

On the second day England were soon bowled out for just 198, with Zaheer Khan leading the bowling attack with 4-59. In response, the England bowlers did little to trouble the Indian batsmen, and Dinesh Karthik and Wasim Jaffer soon reached half centuries. The breakthrough came just before Tea when Jaffer was caught off Tremlett's bowling, while Karthik followed just after the interval. India soon surpassed England's first innings total, and Sachin Tendulkar scored a fifty and his 11,000th run in Test cricket. A partnership of 97 was brought to an end when Rahul Dravid was caught by Ian Bell, and bad weather forced the close of play soon afterwards with India on 254-3.

England struggled in the field on day three as India's lead passed 100. Sourav Ganguly scored fifty and shared a partnership of 96 with Sachin Tendulkar. After lunch, Tendulkar was dismissed by a controversial lbw decision, nine runs short of his century. After V. V. S. Laxman was dismissed for 54, India's tail-enders did not add much to their total and they were eventually bowled out for 481, leading England by 283 runs. Monty Panesar took 4-101 and Chris Tremlett took 3-80. Play ended for the day sixteen overs into England's second innings, with England still 240 runs behind on 43-0.

Michael Vaughan scored 124 runs on day four and shared a 112 run stand with Paul Collingwood (63), and Andrew Strauss scored 55. However England's last seven wickets fell for just 68 runs with Zaheer Khan taking 5-75. England were all out for 355, leaving India to chase a target of just 73 in their second innings. Three overs of India's second innings were played before the close of play on day four, with India on 10-0, needing just 63 runs for victory.

Indian bowler Sreesanth was fined half of his match fee for colliding with England batsman Michael Vaughan during the fourth day's play, breaking the ICC Code of Conduct which prohibits "Inappropriate and deliberate physical contact between players during play". The match was also marred by incidents of sledging.

On the final day India were hardly troubled in reaching their target although Chris Tremlett took three wickets, including that of Sachin Tendulkar for just one run.

England: A J Strauss, A N Cook, M P Vaughan (capt), K P Pietersen, P D Collingwood, I R Bell, M J Prior (wkt), C T Tremlett, R J Sidebottom, M S Panesar, J M Anderson

India: W Jaffer, K D Karthik, R Dravid (capt), S R Tendulkar, S C Ganguly, V V S Laxman, M S Dhoni (wkt), A Kumble, Z Khan, R P Singh, S Sreesanth

Man of the Match: Z Khan (India)

Umpires: I L Howell (South Africa) and S J A Taufel (Australia) TV umpire: N J Llong Match referee: R S Madugalle (Sri Lanka) Reserve umpire: N A Mallender