Oh No, It's Raining Again

Cook and Strauss

Only one session was possible after Andrew Strauss won the toss under heavy skies beside the gasometer at The Oval. Not even the weather worried him, nor the opposition's use of it, as the team sheet MS Dhoni handed him at the toss held no terrors, so for once, discretion was the better part of valour and he made a conventional choice.

By lunch, any questions about this Test were answered. Strauss and Cook were unbeaten but worse, untroubled in reaching 75. India looked flatter than the Hay Plain and with some justification. Their best bowler of the series, Praveen Kumar failed to start, still troubled by an ankle injury quietly sustained in the 3rd Test. He's yet to learn the art of Zaheer's histrionics. To describe the bowling as lacklustre would be a massive overstatement as it was poor, dispirited and disinterested and for once Dhoni's captaincy looked the same. They didn't actually wave the white flag but they had it at the ready.

No more play after lunch

The left armed Rudra Singh opened in place of Kumar and the change in class and ability was apparent from the first ball which disappeared way down the leg side. In his defence, he hasn't pulled on a first class boot for eight months and his last go round at Test level was more than three years ago but his efforts were insipid against such batting. Inshant Sharma was the best of the rest, finally bowling with venom and control and hitting the English skipper on the bonce with what Bill O'Reilly would have called a "sconner".

It's anyone's guess why Raina bowled before Mishra. Perhaps Dhoni thought he might have more control in the circumstances but it seemed a strange call.

The English openers were in danger of being bored back to the pavilion but Cook, in particular, seems as much unboreable as unbreakable and Strauss is still owed a hundred.

This will be a very one sided Test match.