England beat India

England beat India at the Lord’s winning the first nPower Test. Although England looked ahead throughout the test, there was always an expectation that India may just manage to draw which never happened. England bowled out the visitors for 261 in their second innings on day five to take a 1-0 series lead right after the first test.India from day one looked on the back foot, loosing Zaheer due to an injury. Despite that,team has certainly seemed to give its best. England are very strong on their home soil but then India are currently the top test team. This performance by the Indian side certainly was nowhere close to suggest of that fact .England seems better in every part of the game be it bowling or batting.England players looked more aggressive and agile on the field. If anything, they dropped a few catches which was in favor of India.

If one thinks India was crippled by the absence of Zaheer Khan, it is not a good enough reason to justify a test match loss. The team is made of 11 individuals and if one is out, others are still there to keep the team going. With the exclusion of Zaheer, the bowling department suffered the most, but many would agree that it was the batting that led India down.This loss is the first test loss under the leadership of Dhoni and Fletcher. India has a fine lineup on paper but they have not been able to put up a performance upto the level required. The last day of a test match usually one can understand, batting would be difficult with the pitch breaking up and troubling the batsmen. In this case, it was Lord’s ground where the pitch never breaks up. It only gets better for batting as the days progress. Fifth day or not, the pitch remains a good batting surface. The England certainly managed to pile up a lot of runs which Indian batsmen simply could not.

This is certainly not the kind of cricket which will help India retain their top test spot. England already have made It clear that they will be looking to de-thrown the Indian side from the top spot. It is the Indian side which has to respond now.