London, July 25: England’s Test captain Andrew Strauss was understandably pleased after his side beat India by 196 runs in the first Test match at Lord’s, the 100th to be played between the two sides and the 2000th overall. Strauss was full of appreciation for his bowlers and team work which was crucial in England’s win.
Leading the four-match series 1-0, Struass believed there was still a lot of hard work ahead to keep up the momentum.
Excerpts from the post-match presentation:
On England’s performance
It was an outstanding Test match and an outstanding performance. Kevin Pietersen’s double hundred was one of the great innings I have seen from an England player in recent times. The bowling unit, all four of them, were outstanding all the way through the Test match. Stuart Broad came back in [and] showed everyone the quality he’s got, both with the bat and the ball. And the way the bowlers stuck at their task today was an outstanding performance; I mean the wicket is pretty flat and they had to build pressure, they had to be patient. Thankfully we got the reward.
On the victory being hard work as expected
Yes, it is always tough to bowl five down on the fifth day here but, if you’re going to do it, you need a very disciplined bowling attack and that is what we saw here today. I can’t praise them enough because they had to bowl a lot of overs and they started their task exceptionally well and thankfully they got what they deserved.
On how important the first day was, losing two wickets after being put in to bat in tough conditions
It was very tough batting conditions, probably as tough as I have encountered here at Lord’s. A lot of swing, a bit of nip, the cloud cover as well, so first to get through that [was a task]. There was some great technique shown by Jonathon Trott in particular and then Kevin when he came in, and that laid the platform to get 470 [464 runs] and from there on we were in control of the game.
On the confidence the bowling lends to the side, reflected in the declarations
We back ourselves to bowl teams out, we backed ourselves to get twenty wickets; we knew sometimes it was going to be tough on flat Test wickets but they complemented each other really well, the four bowlers, and if it is not Graeme Swann, it’s Chris Tremlett or someone’s always going to stick his hand up and get wickets. But we have to work hard. India didn’t give anything away but sometimes the harder you work, the more you really appreciate the win.
On Team India
They are a very good side as they showed in this Test match and I think they will probably get better as the series goes on; so we’ve got to raise our standard. It’s good to be 1-0 up [but] there is still a lot of hard work to do.
