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Thursday 11 August 2011

Bresnan, you beauty!

The English seam attack is relentless. They delivered a faultless performance on day one of the Edgbaston test. Strauss throws the ball to any of his three seamers, and they bowl disciplined lines and a nagging lengths, never letting up the pressure on either end. And as we know bowlers are like Alsatians, they hunt in pairs.

For me the stand out performer was Bresnan. Unassuming big lad, who seems to amble in, tick the speedometer at 85mph, and always bowls to a plan. He induced the hook from Laxman with a surprise bouncer, yet again, to be caught at fine leg. But the real beauty was the outswinger, bowled from wide of the crease, moving away just enough to beat the technically perfect defensive blade of the man in form, Rahul Dravid. It doesn't get better than that. Inducing a mistake throw a false stoke or a poor leave is one thing, but to produce that beauty was something else. It was unplayable, if there ever was an unplayable delivery.

The Indian batting crumbled into submission, Sehwag, Gambhir, Tendulkar, Raina, until Dhoni with support from Praveen, took the attack to the bowlers. The belligerent Dhoni got his side past 200, and for once in this current series demonstrated that the only way to deal with a world class bowling battery is to take the attack to the opposition.

By the end of the day, England were back in control of the game completely, exposing yet again that India can not take the field with four bowlers, not with their quality. Today, on day two, India will be made to toil and be lucky if they can pick five England wickets.

It was good to see Strauss back amongst them, and Cook working hard to find form. As the pitch gets slower, Bopara, KP, Bell and Morgan will be a handful. India may not regain control of this game hereon, but it will be shame if they don't put up a fight.

Hope we get a full day of play. Happy viewing!

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