Bad light denies England
Bad weather threatens play at Lord's
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Monday, 23, Jul 2007 10:30
Bad light has denied England victory at Lord's on the final day of the first Test against India with the hosts left just a wicket away from victory.
The Indian batsmen departed the field with their second innings score on 282-9, still 98 runs short of their victory target of 380.
England needed just one more wicket to secure the match, but with poor visibility and a threat of rain in the air in north-west London the players were forced to come off at 15:35 BST.
The umpires subsequently called for an early tea, and with dark skies and heavy cloud cover continuing overhead, the tourists were spared any return to the crease.
India began this morning needing more than 240 runs with seven wickets in hand, and endured a plodding start to the day to suggest they would be playing for the draw rather than chasing down what would be a record fourth-innings chase for them.
However England's seamers were soon in amongst the batsmen as first the key wicket of Sourav Ganguly fell for 40, trapped lbw by Ryan Sidebottom, before James Anderson coaxed opener Dinesh Karthik (60) to swipe at a wide one, which he edged to Paul Collingwood at slip.
Middle-order men VVS Laxman and Mahendra Dhoni sought to re-establish the innings and added 86 in a solid partnership before Laxman was bowled by debutant Chris Tremlett for 39.
Zaheer Khan (0) was then caught behind off the bowling of Tremlett, who has repaid the selectors' faith in him ahead of fellow youthful paceman Stuart Broad, while Anil Kumble (3) fell to Sidebottom and RP Singh (2) was bowled by the dangerous-looking Monty Panesar.
However Dhoni (76 not out) remains in place, along with India's 11th man Sree Santh (4 not out), as they frustrated England before poor visibility forced the players off for good.