England struggle against Kumble -- and umpire

England took a bodyblow on the eve of the second Test, when Graham Thorpe was forced to fly back home to "attend to personal problems of an urgent nature", in the words of the ECB media release.

Ironically, on this day a year ago Thorpe played a gritty 64 not out to shepherd England to its first series win in Pakistan in 39 years, at Karachi's National Stadium.

Michael Vaughan came into the side as replacement, while the spin of Ashley Giles was brought in to replace the largest ineffective seam of Jimmy Ormond.

India meanwhile made the expected changes -- Javagal Srinath coming in for Iqbal Siddiqui, while Sanjay Bangar made way for Virender Sehwag to give India a very long batting lineup at the expense of the support seamer.

The Motera wicket -- red, with the barest smattering of grass -- reminded you of the one on which Javagal Srinath destroyed South Africa in 1996, with a burst of six for 21 to bowl India to a 64-run win. It's hard, with even bounce early on, not much lateral movement for seamers, a tendency to take spin early and as the game gets into days four and five and the pitch increasingly dusts up, to spin more, but also more slowly.

Nasser Hussain looked as surprised as everyone else when he actually won a Test toss -- and gratefully opted for first strike on a track made to order for batting.

Openers Marcus Trescothick and Mark Butcher, who in this series already have a 100-plus opening stand, played percentage cricket -- very patient in defence, perfect selection of the right ball to hit, and most importantly, superb understanding in the way they used the short single to transfer pressure from themselves and onto the bowlers.

Srinath bowled as well as he did in South Africa without, however, getting the same amount of assistance off the deck. The real revelation was Yohannan -- very full length, a noticeable step up in pace from his first Test performance, and some well directed bouncers, one of which had Trescothick mishooking into no-man's land.

Harbhajan Singh was brought in as early as the 10th over (England 33/0), and found turn from the first ball he bowled. And Kumble, when introduced, found bounce and just enough turn on the googlies in particular to make life interesting. With both openers concentrating better than they did in Mohali, neither spinner managed to do more than check the run-rate, however.

The last over before lunch saw Trescothick lose it a bit, taking a sweep, better spelt swipe, at Kumble's flipper to miss and get rapped on the pad in front of middle and off. Plumb, you would have thought. Umpire Ian Robinson didn't.

England went in to lunch on 79/0 in 29 overs at a decent 2.82 per over, with Butcher batting 35 (97 balls) and Trescothick 36 (70).

Spin at one end seam at the other was -- more accurately, remained -- the preferred strategy for the Indians. Srinath did manage to find the odd edge, but there really was little in the first day track to keep him interested. Kumble managed to find the bat pad -- short, however, of the short square leg fielder. And meanwhile, the steady accumulation by both openers continued -- with Trescothick getting to his fifty (96 balls) ahead of his partner.

With England going past the 100-mark, Ganguly finally decided to marry the two spinners. Trescothick greeted Harbhajan's re-entry with a superb sweep, getting under the ball and lifting over midwicket for a six.

Trescothick's batting in fact flowered during this session. Against Harbhajan, it was the controlled sweep, and a willingness to come down the track to flight. Against Kumble, Trescothick opted for the big stride forward, taking him to the pitch of the ball for his drives and negating any bounce the leggie might get. Good solid technique, and Trescothick -- with 66 and 46 to his name from Mohali -- settled down during the afternoon session to a display of controlled aggression.

At the other end, Butcher seemed to be settling down as well. Kumble, however, took the wicket an over after Butcher had got to his 50 (129 balls). An angled wrong 'un had the opener pushing tentatively, feathering the edge through to the keeper (124/1 in the 40th over), ending a partnership of 124 off 240 deliveries that set things up nicely for England.

Nasser Hussain seemed in a bit of a hurry, aiming a needless pull at a Kumble googly almost as soon as he came to the crease. In the event, though, it was Umpire Robinson who got the wicket. Hussain misread a Kumble googly that hit middle and turned towards leg, got it on the pad and Robinson figured the ball would somehow have reversed course and hit the leg stump (1 off 7, and 148/2 England).

Michael Vaughan came to the wicket shaking little bits of rust off himself. With four round his bat, the number four struggled against the spinners, pushing tentatively at spin of the off and leg varieties. But the real spin came from -- who else? -- Umpire Robinson. This time, Vaughan pushed blind at another Kumble googly (the wrong 'un seemed to be the leggie's staple diet today), the ball turned in, missed the bat by a good two inches, hit pad and elbow and popped up. Short square held, and Robinson upheld (Vaughan 11 off 38, England 172/3).

Shortly thereafter, England went in to tea with 176/3 on the board, having made 96 runs in the 26 overs that were bowled in the session, for the loss of three wickets. Trescothick walked back with a superb 99 against his name off 151 deliveries (and besides his fluent play to spin, the feature of his innings was the ease with which he placed and ran the singles), while Ramprakash had spent 7 deliveries without breaking his duck.

The first over after tea was a beauty. Trescothick batting 99 -- and Saurav Ganguly piled on the pressure by bringing in the field, to dry up the single. Kumble responded with a stream of five successive googlies, twice beating the bat, twice forcing hurried pushes until finally the batsman, seemingly desperate to get his century, cut tentatively at the fifth of the wrong 'uns and got the touch through to the keeper (99 off 156, England 176/4).

In the very next over, Andrew Flintoff gave Kumble his fifth wicket of the innings, and 18^th five-for of his career, when he pushed hard at a flipper (apparently, the lesson of Mohali that you need soft hands to play spin hadn't yet been learnt), got the edge and put silly point in business (0 off 2, England 180/5). Kumble had at this point got a wicket in each of three successive overs either side of lunch.

India missed a bit of a bet at this point, prolonging the seam of Srinath for just long enough to allow Ramprakash -- on nought when Flintoff was out -- to settle before putting the two spinners in combined harness.

Sweeping at Harbhajan seemed to have become the mantra for the Englishmen -- Mark Butcher produced a beauty, flat-batting one from line of off and hitting with the turn to sail it over the square leg boundary. For his part, White favoured the inside-out drive, and it began to look as though the Brits had learnt that the way to play off spin is with the feet moving forward. The 6^the wicket pair pushed the rate of scoring right along, with Ramprakash in particular stroking very freely.

Tendulkar came back in the 73rd over -- and immediately took out Ramprakash with a beauty. The first ball was the wrong one, Ramprakash went on the back foot aiming to push to the off, the ball turned back, skidded through, slid past the bat, brushed the pad and crashed into off stump to end a promising 59-run partnership, Ramprakash walking back with 37 (49 balls, six fours and a six) against his name (England 239/6).

Craig White and James Foster then dug in to bat England back out of the hole -- and White, in particular, went about his work in a fashion that reminded you of his outings in Pakistan last year, when he used his feet well, in attack and defence, against Saqlain Mushtaq and company. Foster at the other end was content to keep his end up as the Indians decided against using the new ball when due, and served up a straight diet of spin.

England closed on 277/6 off the allotted 90 overs -- a decent scoring rate of 3.11. The final session produced 101 runs for the loss of three wickets, off 25 overs, with Foster unbeaten 15 (49) and White walking back on a very well compiled 42 (113).

It was a performance that bettered -- in terms of runs, and the application that was brought to its accumulation -- Mohali by a long way. Given the conditions, though, England should have done much better -- and if it didn't, then all credit goes to Anil Kumble for his sustained hostility, and to Ian Robinson for continued incompetence that saw, on day one, three bad decisions.

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