After England stitched a comeback from 90/4 at the lunch to 357/6 at the end of third days play has made India’s way difficult in the test match. It is surely one team that can win from here and that is England. The Virat Kohli’s men have to play out of their skin to close out on a draw and hope that they can outperform England in remaining three test to claim the series. But is it that easy to bat through the course of two days to claim a draw ? The answer may be “No” from some of you, considering India’s poor run with the bat in the first test followed up with the first innings of the second test. So what are the chances?
Can India still win?
This might be the question of some passionate fans like me who would never want India to loose the test match. But to be practical, there is a healthy 289 runs lead with England and India will need more than one day to close out on this lead and then make some 150-200 runs and invite England to bat, that does not looks a possibility from here on. What is a certain possibility lies in the fact that they can bat through the course of this time and ensure a well fought draw. But can they still do it?
Yes they can…
Rain to play the spoiler
The day 4 of the test match might get washed away by rain. The play starts 3.30 PM in India and at 11 AM in London.
According to the weather forecast in London there will be clouds circling the sky from 9 AM in the morning to 2 PM in the noon. There is a good chance of rain in-between but it may surely arrive from 3 PM to 7 PM. The play continues till 7.30 PM.
If the rain gods can bless Indian team, it will be a matter of 2-3 hours of play today or even less than that.
Day 5
The forecast states that the weather will remain partly cloudy with bright sun day. The last day of the test match might be a full days play and India need to ensure that they can bat for 90 overs to ensure a draw.
Peeping into the history
When India toured England in 2007, Rahul Dravid’s side was nine wickets down and needed more than 150+ runs on the last day of the first test match at Lords. MS Dhoni and Sreesanth were on the crease and it was an England victory on the cards. The Indian duo spend some half an hour on the crease before rain came to the party and the test match was finally called off as India managed to eke out a draw from jaws of defeat.
They won the next test match at Nottingham and then draw the last test match at Leicester to win the series 1-0.
In 2018, India is down by 1-0 in the series, but rain gods may again destroy the party for England and boost Indian men with some luck to bounce back in the series. This is again a possibility.
Do you think India can draw the test match?
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