So if tehre was any doubt as to who was a better team, tehre is none at the moment. Strauss and his men have proved beyond doubt as to who is a better side and why they are the favorite to win not just this match but the series.
Ian Bell played an outstanding ining, and took the
match away from India. But there were more players to come who added to Indian injuries. Pietersen scored 63 runs while Morgan played a defiant inning of 70 runs.
But it were Prior and Bresnan who damaged the Indian team most. They played in a one day international fashion and scored runs in excess of 5 runs per over. In fact the whole English team’s average was 4.36, a sort of new thing in the test match.
Prior just faced 55 balls and scored 64 runs that included a massive six and 8 fours. Bresnan was supporting him well and was playing at 44 runs when the third day’s play ended. England were playing at 441 runs.
The scenario now is altogether different now. No one had thought that the English team that wilted under pressure in the first inning would be able to score so many runs. If England are able to take alead of more than 450 or even 400 runs- they are going to get anyhow- India will have virtually no chance in this match.
England first innings: 221 all out
India first innings: 288 all out
England second innings:
Andrew Strauss c Dhoni b Sreesanth 16
Alastair Cook c Yuvraj Singh b Sharma 5
Ian Bell c Laxman b Yuvraj Singh 159
Kevin Pietersen c Dhoni b Sreesanth 63
Eoin Morgan c Dhoni b Kumar 70
Matt Prior batting 64
Jonathan Trott c Dravid b Kumar 2
Tim Bresnan batting 47
Extras: (b 9, lb 3, w 1, nb 2) 15
Total: (for six wickets in 101 overs) 441
Fall of wickets 1-6 (Cook, 3.4 overs), 2-57 (Strauss, 19.1), 3-219 (Pietersen, 55.2), 4-323 (Bell, 77.6), 5-329 (Morgan, 80.2), 6-339 (Trott, 82.4)
Bowling:
Praveen Kumar 29 5 93 2
Ishant Sharma 24 3 115 1
S. Sreesanth 22 5 103 2
Yuvraj Singh 10 0 41 1
Harbhajan Singh 9 1 47 0
Suresh Raina 7 0 30 0


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