England got off to a disastrous start, losing the wickets of Kieswetter and Cook with no score on the board. Trott and Pietersen recovered somewhat with the former playing some silken strokes before he was caught behind off Vinay. Later, Samit Patel and Bairstow also forged a patnership before Samit was dismissed by Yadav. But with wickets falling in clusters, England were always going to be short of a par score. The only positive that England can derive from this display is that Pietersen looked to be getting back in some sort of form. He looked to be in control, dispatching Jadeja over the sightscreen off consecutive deliveries before he perished chasing a wide delivery by Yadav. As an Indian, I know that our team feels a lot better with Pietersen gone and his wicket was as good as the match to India.
The hero of the day, I am not ecstatic to say is, Vinay Kumar, the much maligned(by me and others) military medium pacer. Honestly, I was hoping that he had a bad match so that the management would be hard-pressed to select Aaron. But Vinay bowled well, swinging the ball slightly on a pitch that offered a bit of help throughout. He took the wickets of Kieswetter and Trott, overall finishing with 4 wickets. Yadav once again bowled with good pace and found consistent away swing, which accounted for Pietersen. Overall, a good day for Indian fast bowling, which does not happen very often.
When India came on to bat, Bresnan and Finn bowled with venom early on. They found some help on this pitch and sent the ball nicely through to the wicketkeeper, often rushing the Indian batsmen with pace. Bresnan took both wickets but Finn was more impressive. He bowled at searing pace, often 150 plus and troubled all the batsmen. But his bad luck with wickets continued. Like what happened at Lord's and Cardiff, catches fell short, balls went to the boundary off edges and batsmen played and missed but did not nick. Like Sunny Gavaskar remarked with the oft-repeated phrase, "he will bowl worse on another day and get 5 wickets". Finn is an exciting prospect, as he is genuinely fast and being 22, he will get even faster. Cricket is a great leveler and I expect him to soon get bucketloads of wickets. Once they overcame that period, Kohli played a belligerent innings at more than a run-a-ball to guide India home. Gambhir played the role of second fiddle, as he often does, efficiently.
This was a clinical performance from India in which all the cogs in the wheel performed their part. Things could have been different if Finn could snap up either Kohli or Gambhir. England should have performed better because this was as similar a wicket to the ones in England as they are going to get. They should pull up their socks in Mohali, which also offers bit of pace and bounce. The exclusion of Ian Bell, the best English batsmen, baffles me and he should be brought back. Should they fail there England may well lose 0-5. The only thing that leaves bad taste is that Kohli was given man of the match. Vinay Kumar set up the win with his wickets and bowlers should be given encouragement in a batting-obsessed country. If we are to find good bowlers, we should give M.O.M awards to bowlers taking 4 wickets on flattish pitches, not batsmen smashing 100s on them.
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