Dravid's men had to settle for a draw after looking certain to winWell well well. Who the hell would have thought that 17 wickets would fall on the final day of India’s first tour match played against Sussex. After a spirited comeback yesterday by Sussex, this match was heading to be an boring draw. But as so happens when India is playing, something had to give. India lost wickets in order to score quickly and finished their second innings at 184-8 declared. This gave the touring side a final lead of 272 runs. The surprise with the bat was the performance was No 10 batsman, RP Singh, who smashed 41 runs in only 46 balls and was the team’s top scorer.

With the ball, too, he got the crucial wickets of Sussex skipper Yardy and Rayner. However, it was the final interval that really made things interesting. Sitting comfortably at 46-3, who would have thought that Sussex would end up scraping through for a draw. India picked up 9 Sussex wickets in less than 2 sessions, and with Zaheer Khan to spearhead the attack, things are looking very interesting from England’s point of view. Martin-Jenkins was stubborn as usual and helped his side avoid an embarassing defeat.

For India, the biggest plus would have been the batting of Gambhir and Karthik at the top of the order. Jaffer has all but sealed his fate for the first match against England with a couple of disasters. Karthik is definitely one of the openers after his solid performances in both the innings. I still believe that India should get back Sehwag as he is the ideal foil for Karthik. Whereas Karthik can be rock solid at one end, Sehwag can really hurt the opposition with his aggressive style of play. And his performances in tests have not really been that bad. Its the one-dayers that he has struggled in. This is where I think the selection committee made the biggest goof-up.

However, past is past, and we need to concentrate on the present and the future. Jaffer may get another chance in the next tour match, and if he does not reach three figures then he is definitely out of the first test match, that should be the logical move for the team management. Sachin and Saurav are sure to get a spot, and Zaheer and Ishant Sharma are also going to get a berth. That means Bose would be one of the unlucky guys to miss out, and given his rather disappointing performance, I can’t blame the team management. This also means that Ishant Sharma will have to bowl much better as for now, it seems that Zaheer, Sreesanth and RP Singh will form the pace trio.

With the bat, India have a couple of big problem. Both Yuvraj and Dhoni have been extremely disappointing, with the latter still in one-day mode. Yuvraj’s consistency in poking at balls outside the off-stump is both annoying and a disaster in the making. He has to learn when to leave and when to hit in test cricket. And so far I don’t see any evidence for his inclusion in the Test squad.

With Dhoni, its even more baffling. He can play like a test match in ODIs, however, when it comes to the actual thing, he wants hit every ball for a six. If these two really want to justify their positions in the test team, then the next match is their only chance.

Anil Kumble would be extremely disappointed that he could not get No 11 batsman JD Lewry out, as he had almost 2 full overs to bowl to him. However, knowing Kumble, he is going to make up for that in the next match.

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