Heartbreak for Sri Lanka, ecstasy for India.

The World Cup Final
A tightly contested World Cup Final ended up in a 6 wicket victory for India, who ended their 28 year wait for the most prestigious prize in world cricket.

India will have their captain MS Dhoni and vastly underrated Gautam Gambhir to thank for the victory though, who both made brilliant totals in India's chase to get 275. The game started in a confusing manner, when match referee Jeff Crowe allowed a re-toss after nobody was sure on what Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara called, but won the toss second time around, and made no hesitation in batting first on a pitch that looked full of runs.

Final day drama in the Cricket

Pakistan's Umar Akmal celebrates victory over England








Even though we were only in the 4th day of events at the Brit Oval, it was obvious that this match would be finished before the close of play on the 5th day, with Pakistan only needing 148 runs to win the 3rd test match of this series, and give themselves a chance of drawing the series 2-2.

England's last line of defence was broken in the first over of day 4, with Steven Finn getting one run before Stuart Broad was caught at mid-on by Mohammad Asif. So, with only 148 runs needed to win, this seemed like a straight forward job, but we are talking about a team who usually crumble under pressure.

However, Pakistan were determined to prove all their doubters wrong, but it started badly when Graeme Swann caught Yasir Hameed on the 2nd attempt, after nearly dropping the edge after Anderson's beautiful delivery. This gave England a huge boost of confidence to pull off an unlikely victory.

But there was still a long way to go, and Pakistan showed this by strolling past the 100 run mark, losing only 3 wickets with Imran Farhat, Salman Butt and Mohammad Yousuf all getting decent scores, passing the 30 run mark and the captain Salman Butt was even 2 runs off a half century before being caught by Paul Collingwood. However, I don’t think Butt would’ve been too fussed, with Pakistan only needing 45 runs for a famous victory.

After coming out from lunch on 115-3, we started to see the first signs of Pakistan’s nerves and they made hard work to try and win the game. They lost their 4th wicket for 124 runs, with Azhar Ali being the victim of a very silly run out. It went from bad to worse, however, with Mohammad Yousuf being bowled by Anderson to put Pakistan on 131-5. England started to gain some emphasis in the game, and grabbed another wicket after Kamran Akmal was given LBW from a very good delivery by off spinner Graeme Swann. This led to a very baron spell for Pakistan, and underwent extreme pressure from both Anderson and Swann, and it seemed unlikely they would even get a run.

They did find the 16 runs in the end, and cruised to an unlikely victory when the match started on Wednesday. Some great individual performances including the captain Salman Butt for his 48 in Pakistan’s 2nd innings, and Saeed Ajmal’s very impressive 7-71 in 31 overs. I do think however that England will bounce back from this shock defeat and win the last match at Lords to make it 3-1 in the series.

England vs Pakistan: 3rd Test at the Oval

The 3rd Test was predicted to be another white-wash victory for England, with Pakistan's batting order being nothing short of abysmal. And with the overhead conditions, and a pitch perfect for seam bowling, it seemed that after England won the toss and chose to bat first was quite a strange decision.

Their decision proved to backfire after they lost 7 wickets for only 94 runs, with a mixture of a brilliant bowling display by Pakistan and a shocking display with the bat for the Englishman, with the top scorer being Eoin Morgan with a mere 17 runs. However, there seemed to be a hint of some light at the end of the tunnel, with an impressive 84 by wicket-keeper Matt Prior. His partnership with Stuart Broad got England to 213-8. However, in the end England could only manage a poor 233. The highlight was Pakistan's Wahab Riaz, who claimed a very impressive 5-63.

This put Pakistan in a strong position to attempt to capitalize on England's underestimations of their young, inexperienced side, and they certainly did this, ending their first innings on 308, giving them a lead of 75 runs. This was much better than their recent batting scores against England!! The highest scorer was Azhar Ali, who was only playing his 5th competitive test match for Pakistan, once again showing how young this Pakistan side actually is. Even if he hadn't played many games before, he was making batting look like a stroll in the park with his variety of strokes. Mohammad Yousuf also had a decent innings, grabbing himself a solid 56 from 102 balls.

England's 2nd innings needed to be a much improved one, otherwise they could be staring at defeat in the 3rd test. However, it wouldn't be an easy task, with Pakistan seeking a win to make the score 2-1 and give them a possible chance of drawing the series against the current T20 world champions. It wasn't the start England wanted though, with Andrew Strauss being caught and bowled for just 4. The introduction of James Anderson as night watchmen at number 3 seemed to give England some stability, and they got to a decent 194-4, with Alastair Cook grabbing his 13th Test Match century, eventually being caught by the wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal for 110. Jonathan Trott also contributed to the total with a reasonable 36. One of the worrying aspects for me was how Kevin Pietersen once again had a very average, if not poor, innings. With the Ashes coming up this winter, will the England selectors be prepared to drop him for arguably the most important test series in World Cricket??

Back to the game, and a storm was approaching for England, and it wasn't going to be very nice. After tea on day 3, their collapse was unbearable as an England supporter, seeing Pakistan take 6 wickets for only 26 runs, dreadful. With England on 221-9 at the close of play of Day 3, I cannot see the last 2 holding on for long tomorrow morning. Hopefully, Broad can get a decent half century without taking any risks. With a lead of only 146 runs, we need a resolute batting performance by lunch tomorrow and hopefully Andersen and co. can do us a favour in the bowling department!

I will report back the last events of this thrilling test match when it finishes.