4th Test - Kennington Oval

THE FINAL NAIL IN THE COFFIN 

AT KENNINGTON OVAL, LONDON

- By S.Ravichandran

Indian whitewash, which very much on the cards, finally happened.  India went into the 4th and final Test trailing 0-3 in the series, facing the danger of being whitewashed and losing the 2nd spot in the ranking.  England won the toss and rightly chose to bat.  As the experts opined, this pitch was batsman friendly, at least for the English batsmen. Strauss and Cook gave a reasonably good start.  Ian Bell who came in at No.3 played a great knock, scoring his first double century.  Ian Bell was eventually out for 235. Pietersen impressed again with a fine knock of 175.  Rain interrupted the match very frequently and England chose to declare at 591/6, realising that there not much time left in the match to bowl out India twice. 

India once again started in a disappointing manner, losing Sehwag for 8.  Laxman, Tendulkar, Raina and Dhoni didn't give sufficient time to the batters to follow, even to tie their pads.  As usual Rahul Dravid stood like a rock at the other end, compiling a painful 146 runs of 378 balls.  India reached exactly 300 runs, the first time they reach that landmark in the series.  Having experienced all types of humiliation like normal defeat and innings defeat, follow-on was the only thing which India didn't experience in the series.  That too happened in this test. 

In the second essay, Sehwag looked somewhat comfortable, but he fell for 33.  Dravid fell to a controversial decision when he was at 13.  This wicket confirmed England's chances of winning the match.  However Sachin Tendulkar and Night Watchman Amit Mishra had different ideas.  They slowly built a huge partnership.  Amit Mishra outshined Tendulkar throughout the innings, which was a huge surprise for all the cricket lovers.  Having compiled a very useful partnership of 144 runs for the 4th wicket, the largest by India in this series, Mishra was bowled for 84.  Now the focus shifted on Tendulkar expecting him to complete the 100th century.  Sachin fell for 91 which was a huge shock for the fans.  The fans experienced even a bigger disappointment as the Indian innings which was going in the right direction towards saving the test, started crumbling. Last 7 wickets fell in a span of just 21 runs which is a clear proof of India's batting effort in the series.

India lost the series 0-4, achieving an inevitable whitewash.


With Sehwag and Ishant being ruled of the ODI series, India will have tough time in the ODI series also.  They will have a sigh of relief only if the pitches are not bowler friendly.