England vs New Zealand 3rd Test-

With me missing out on some cricket action after the Commonwealth Bank Series which got over some two weeks ago,there was absolutely no option than to go in for the test matches between Sri Lanka and West Indies on one side and simultaneously the test series involving England and New Zealand on the other.

And much to my amazement,these were not boring.These test matches set up the stage for the viewers as do the test matches involving their mother land.With England winning the third test against New Zealand,it not only was a treat for England fans,but also a treat for cricket lovers,because even New Zealand came close to chasing the world record score of 553 runs set by the English batsmen.

With this fact going unnoticed by mot of the fans over the world,New Zealand's total was the highest total put up by any team in the fourth innings of a test match.the previous best being 418 by West Indies way back in 2003 against Australia.The highlight of the innings being the 40 ball 77 by T.G.Southee at the fag end of the New Zealand innings.

And not the less for England,who had found a match winning bowler in Ryan Sidebottom-who finished with a wickets tally of 24 including a rare hat-trick in the first test.And much delightment for the only spinner-Monty Panesar-who picked up 6 wickets for 126 runs.At the end,it was a great save for England,which would have been a nightmare had Southee continued his heroics for a couple of minutes.Well-is this the likely England squad for the upcomming Ashes in England coming up in a year??Lets wait and watch!!!

Must Watch Video:Ryan Sidebottom taking 7 wickets.

Ryan Sidebottom-A Hattrick In Vain..

Very rarely does one come across a test match or any match for that matter where the team has a bowler taking hattrick and ending on the losing side.Ryan Sidebottom is one of those lucky guys I can say.The hattrick however helped the team a lot,for they could manage to restrict the hosts for a score of 177/9 before the New Zealand captain-Daniel Vettori declared the innings.

But,the damage had already been done by the New Zealand team,first by putting up a score of 470 before bowling out the England team for 348,taking a lead of 122 runs.A target of 300 was supposed to be too much for the English batsmen,who were found to crumble to 110 all out.The result-New Zealand won by 189 runs.

Is there any other situation where a team player has a hattrick and ends on the losing side.One such case that comes to my mind is the third test between India and Pakistan at ,Irfan Pathan being the bowler.Then we have Alok kapali who took a hat-trick against Pakistan to see his team lose by 9 wickets.

The other such instances that I can give is:
1)J.Lawson against Australia-WI lost by 9 wickets
2)Darren Gough against Australia-England lost by 98 runs
3)Petherick against Pakistan-New Zealand lost by 6 wickets