Tendulkar, Dravid rally India
Faisal Shariff
Adversity brought out the finest we have seen of Sachin Tendulkar yet in England, as he raced to a belligerent 44-ball half-century in the second innings at Trent Bridge.
Bad light stopped play with India on 99 for 2, still 161 runs short of England's lead, with the final day’s play to be negotiated to draw the match.
Tendulkar, unbeaten on 56, off as many balls, was batting with Rahul Dravid, on a fluent 34.
Morning session:
England plundered 127 runs in the 24 overs bowled in the morning session, losing the two overnight batsmen, Alec Stewart and Andy Flintoff, in the space of three deliveries.
India were compelled to trudge along with a mediocre bowling attack and unimaginative captaincy as England raced away to 468 for 7 at lunch, and a first innings lead of 111 runs.
It is a scary thought to walk out as captain of your team and not have confidence in your bowlers. No one would want to be Sourav Ganguly right now. Last night, Ganguly bowled the last three overs without taking the new ball. This morning he let the overnight batsmen Alec Stewart and Andy Flintoff get a measure of the pitch and then took the new ball seven overs into the morning session.
Ajit Agarkar bowled the first over with the new ball and after spraying it around, produced a beauty that swung away appreciably, took an edge and travelled to Sehwag at third slip.
The Indian celebrated but the astute Stewart stood at the crease forcing the television umpire to adjudicate. Replays confirmed that Sehwag had grassed the ball before getting his fingers around it.
Zaheer lost his bearings in the first over and was smashed around the ground by Flintoff, pulling him twice in the over through mid-wicket
"If the rest of the batters can put something together tomorrow, and we reach 500, then we'll be in a strong position. But the first-innings lead is going to be very important," skipper Hussain wrote in his newspaper column. His batters gave him more than the few he hoped for.
Batting with a refreshing freedom, Flintoff walloped Zaheer through mid-off and then pulled a long hop behind square for another boundary.
Stewart led a charmed life and reached his fifty with another slice of luck. Agarkar found the edge yet again, but saw the ball elude the keeper and first slip and dart to the fence.
Stewart continued living aggressively, but a shade dangerously, with a Chinese cut off Nehra to the fine leg boundary. An on-drive and two pulls through mid-wicket sent him soaring as the second highest scorer of the innings.
Agarkar, who pitched short too often, was punished with a flurry of boundaries, signalling that his days as a Test player are numbered. After a brief spell of decent swing bowling he returned to his indisciplined ways, sending balls down the leg-side, with Ganguly setting a field for the off-side.
Zaheer finally got through Flintoff, after the ball kept a tad low and knocked his off-stump out of the ground. (432-6)
Flintoff’s 46-ball 33 had entertained the sizeable Sunday crowd besides adding a useful 97-run partnership with Stewart. Craig White got off the mark and brought Stewart on strike.
Zaheer angled it across Stewart and bowled him in similar fashion, with the ball keeping low yet again. Stewart missed his 16th Test hundred by 13 runs but by then had paved the way for England to dominate the game.
The Indians celebrated the wicket but will need to reconcile to the fact that batting on this wicket with uneven bounce will not be an easy job.
England had overhauled the Indian total and every run that was added to the scoreboard put the pressure on the visitors with the odd ball keeping low.
A 35-run partnership between Dominic Cork and Craig White for the eighth-wicket saw England reach 468 for 7, a lead of 111 runs with five more session to be played in the game.
The ease with which England got to the fence was ample proof of the mediocre Indian attack. 63 boundaries amounted to 252 runs in the English total and as they raced away at a run-rate of 5.3; so did the game from the Indians.
Another interesting statistic was the number of balls England took to get their eighth (49) and ninth (51) fifties. In contrast the fifth fifty, when Butcher and Vaughan were at the crease, took 164 balls. England lost Mark Butcher and Nasser Hussain during that period with Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan -- India's best bowlers -- bowling in tandem.
Post Lunch session
England gained a 260-run lead as India finally managed to bowl them out for 617 at the stroke of tea. Craig White was undefeated on 94 as the hosts scored at a frenetic pace of 4.25 runs an over.
A mundane afternoon session exposed the pedestrian Indian bowling attack as the Englishmen continued to drive the visitors into submission with a frenetic scoring pace.
When the ninth wicket partnership throws up a hundred runs and the number ten batsman yawns through 102 balls, the quality of the bowling attack does need to take a rain check.
Dominic Cork strolled through to 31 before giving an easy catch to Wasim Jaffer at forward short leg to give Harbhajan Singh his third wicket.
White got to his half-century with a superb cover-drive, off Zaheer, as VVS Laxman let the ball slip through his legs. Supported by number ten batsman Matthew Hoggard, the duo piled on the agony with a 103-run partnership.
Nehra finally forced Hoggard into swishing at a wide delivery for Dravid to complete a regulation catch at first slip. The Yorkshireman went for 32 runs -- his highest first-class score -- but played his part for the team.
Harmison failed to hang in and help White get to his hundred, holing out to Jaffer at point just moments from tea. White was undefeated on 94.
England were dismissed for 617, gaining a match-winning lead of 260 runs.
What else would you expect of a indisciplined seam attack that lets through almost 80 boundaries and a captain that lets the opposition saunter through for 150 singles. Zaheer, Ajit Agarkar and Nehra have Test averages of 37, 42 and 40 respectively outside India.
The English batsmen scored 87 runs off Harbhajan through fine leg and square leg, and yet Ganguly didn't employ a leg slip or a backward square leg.
Tendulkar gave 15 runs in his six overs, beating Michael Vaughan repeatedly. Sehwag gave 18 off his six, and they bowled just four overs together. In comparison, Ganguly’s five overs cost 42 runs.
Ganguly lost hope too early and once the seam attack failed to deliver, he just didn't exercise any damage control techniques.
England have realised the advent of the modern game over the last five years. Scoring rates will have to improve in Test matches and players will need to read Tests as 450 overs instead of 15 sessions. Australian Test skipper Steve Waugh had stated that they would have to score a minimum of 300 in a day.
India batted at a rate of 3.5 in the first innings while England scored at 4.25, with Vaughan almost getting to his double century in a single day, prompting Hussain to say that it was one of the best batting performance by an English batsmen he had ever seen. At Lord’s on a flat belter of a wicket the Indian batting crawled at 2.69 runs and despite their batsmen hanging around for two sessions there weren’t runs for the showing.
A weary Indian side will find it hard to save this Test match without a brilliant knock from one of its top batsman.
Post Tea session
Virendra Sehwag joined Sir Don Bradman, when he was dismissed for a duck in the second innings, as only the second batsman ever to be dismissed for a hundred and a duck at Trent Bridge.
After surviving a caught behind appeal off the first ball from Matthew Hoggard, Sehwag was struck a yorker on middle stump with his bat still in the backlift position.
India, batting for the second time to save the Test, were 0 for 1. And after Jaffer got off the 'pair' and played a delectable four through mid-wicket, Andy Flintoff pitched one on length and struck him in front to push India on the mat at 11 for 2. Hawk-eye confirmed that the ball would have sailed past over the stumps, but that made little difference to the Indian cause.
Tendulkar and Dravid met again in the middle under circumstances not alien to them. Shutting off the cautious line of attack, Tendulkar cut Flintoff for a four and then drove Hoggard with contempt.
Tendulkar cover drove Flintoff twice before Hoggard faced his wrath. Three boundaries came in one over. Rocking onto the back-foot Tendulkar drove him to the cover fence. The next ball was square driven and then he snicked a third -- the least convincing -- four through the slip cordon.
Dravid, batting at a quicker pace then he normally prefers, square drove Harmison for four and the Tendulkar-Dravid combine brought up the fifty run partnership in 58 balls.
Tendulkar was middling the ball with the confidence of a batsman who had just scored a double ton in his previous innings and seemed out to prove a point to all those who doubted his genius. Bad light stopped play with India on 62 for 2, still trailing by 198 runs.
After a 35-minute delay, when play resumed, Tendulkar struck Hoggard for three fours in a single over. The first was an effortless straight push, with minimum backlift, that darted towards the fence. Gliding Hoggard through gully for his second four, Tendulkar drove him past mid-off to bring up a lightning half-century off merely 44 balls, laced with 10 boundaries -- most of which shredded the seven-on-the-off-side field with angles that only he could visualize were possible.
The off-side theory for Tendulkar was redundant and Hussain will have to burn the midnight candle with coach Duncan Fletcher to chalk out a strategy to stop a batsman who has touched divine zone.
35 runs had come in the four overs after the delay and India were scoring at an unheard of rate in Test cricket, of 5.5 an over.
13 minutes past seven and the umpires offered the light to the batsmen, which they duly took and walked off the pitch.
India had scored 99 runs in the post tea session at a blustery pace, and the 88-run partnership between Dravid and Tendulkar had set the stage for India to redeem itself and save the game on the fifth day.
