England Cricket 
/ Andrew Hughes / 23 July 2011 / Leave a Comment 
Another hundred for The Wall
"Even though several of the Indian batsmen made starts, only Dravid and, perhaps Sachin Tendulkar, ever looked entirely comfortable."
It wasn't quite the day that everyone expected, but there was some top quality Test match cricket on display. Andrew Hughes rounds up Saturday's play.
Yesterday it was Praveen Kumar and Kevin Pietersen who got themselves onto the Lord's honours board and today they were joined by the reliable Rahul Dravid with a century that was a model of concentration and skill. And but for some sloppy slip fielding there would have been a five wicket haul for Stuart Broad, who bowled beautifully and completely justified the England selectors' faith in him.
England can be proud of their fielding effort. They kept plugging away and managed to take wickets at important time. Even though several of the Indian batsmen made starts, only Dravid and, perhaps Sachin Tendulkar, ever looked entirely comfortable. There was a palpable disappointment when Tendulkar succumbed on 34 and from that point on, batting looked a real struggle as the English seamers got the ball to swing consistently and Swann extracted more turn than Harbhajan Singh had managed.
But can they force the win? The weather forecast is moving in their favour, with only the slight possibility of a shower or two on Monday. The market has the home side on as short a price as they have been all match on [2.58] but that looks a little short to me Assuming England declare some time after tea on Sunday, India will have to bat for about a day or so and they ought to be able to do that second time around. The draw might be the value bet as it has drifted up to [1.71]
Michael Vaughan thinks England have a great chance of winning the First Test if they get their tactics right and take their chances......
A big innings for KP; a five-wicket haul for Praveen and plenty of runs: Friday's cricket was high on entertainment. Andrew Hughes rounds up the day's play.
Rain and bad light brought an early close to the fascinating opening exchanges in this eagerly anticipated series. Andrew Hughes sums up the day's play at Lord's
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