India run into trouble at Cuttack

What happened at Cuttack was somewhat foreshadowed in Kolkatta, if you read between the lines of the match there.

My colleague Faisal Shariff, who had done the report on that match, made the point about India preferring to score through boundaries rather than working the singles. That style of play suits a belter of a batting track -- but the one at the Barabati Stadium, Cuttack, was hardly a belter.

On a pitch that slowed as the game progressed, the singles were what India needed -- and run outs, three of them, were what they got. And you feel like adding, serves them right -- if they won't concentrate on the basics (and nothing is as basic in cricket as running between wickets) as Wright is forever asking them to do, then rude awakenings are on the menu.

On a pitch sporting so much dew that play began 15 minutes late, Sourav Ganguly called the coin right and promptly inserted the opposition.

India went in with an unchanged lineup, while England dropped Ashley Giles (who, given that he can't bowl down leg side in ODIs, didn't quite know where to bowl in Kolkata) for Ben Hollioake.

Unfortunately, Graham Thorpe's diarrhea continued, which meant that he was making all the wrong runs for England just now. Or at least, an upset tummy is one version -- the other goes that Thorpe reported fit but Hollioake was preferred for his bowling skills.

The track was flat enough, but not quite Kolkata. With Srinath bowling an incisive first spell, both openers got a touch restive - with disastrous results.

As early as the sixth over Marcus Trescothick, who was looking to break free, aimed a swat at a short ball from Agarkar. The ball hurried through quicker than he anticipated, the shot hit the high part of the bat, and Dinesh Mongia held the skier nonchalantly at midwicket (24/1).

Hussain started off as if someone had stuck tintacks in the soles of his boots - there was a jumpiness, an edgy quality to the shot-play early on. India, looking urgent and busy in the field, kept the pressure up and Srinath, playing his 200th ODI, had the England captain aiming a vague pull, then foxed him with a superb slower ball.

England moved to 45/1 at the end of ten overs. And in the 11th, Nick Knight fell to the most obvious of traps. A leg slip was brought in, signaling the short ball. The fielder was set with a lot of arm waving by both bowler and captain, all of which probably underlined his presence all the more - and probably caused Knight to forget that there was another fielder back for the pull. Srinath sure enough produced the short ball and Knight, to whom it had been telegraphed well in advance, waved a dismissive pull at it - right down the throat of deep backward square (45/2).

For some reason, England played as though under enormous pressure - there was a hint of desperation to the shotmaking, and more than an element of chanciness about some of the singles taken as the tourists progressed to 75/2. Judging by the way they played, it did seem that they were not quite clear what sort of target to set.

England should have been in further trouble when, in the 20th over, Ganguly made one run away off the seam. Hussain tried to play it down to third man, the movement found the edge only for the ball to flash past Ajay Ratra's gloves to third man for four (96/2, 51 off 57 the partnership at that point). Ratra almost made up for that in the 23rd, when Hussain played one down at his feet and took off for another of this dodgy singles. The keeper was around in a flash, gloves off and the throw taking out the stumps at the other end - but Hussain was fractionally home.

But the same over produced the wicket - a needless one at that. Despite India's much improved fielding display, singles were on offer and the score was moving along nicely. Hussain however got an overdose of adrenalin and waltzed down, looking to whack Ganguly over long off. Ganguly had been bowling well, getting the ball to run off the seam either way - this was the one coming in, the movement got Hussain miscuing, getting the inside part of the bat and putting it up for Agarkar to hold with ease at long on. Hussain's 46 off 54 was not the prettiest innings he has played, but it had pulled England out of trouble and the last thing the captain needed was to undo the hard work with that rush of blood (114/3 in 23).

Two overs later Michael Vaughan - who, in a departure from his norm looked unusually aggressive today - attempted to sweep Harbhajan off his line. Agarkar, at deep backward square, appeared to momentarily lose the ball against the crowd - in the event, he dived but just failed to get his fingers under the ball (Vaughan 40, England 124/3 at that point).

Interestingly, much of England's problems owed to the fact that India upped its game in the field to a noticeable degree. The captaincy was far better than in recent times, the fielders stayed on their toes, and the bowlers almost without exception bowled the right length and line. All of this meant that England's batsmen couldn't quite break the shackles, and this produced a succession of errors.

Vaughan reached his 50 in the 30th over, his ability to push the ball around and take singles being a standout feature of an innings that had, at that period, as many as 30 singles. England were 142/3 at the end of 30 overs (a score that at that point included 66 singles) and looking good for a sizeable score.

With Paul Collingwood settling down nicely and complementing Vaughan's batting, the runs began to come with greater fluency (50 of the partnership in 68). In the 34th over, Tendulkar's arm ball foxed Vaughan, who was way down the track, only for Ratra to fail to make a simple collection and take the bails off.

The 36th over produced a spectacular bit of cricket. Collingwood aimed a slog-sweep at Sachin, the ball flew like a rocket and Harbhajan Singh, at deep midwicket, stuck his right hand out at full lunge and clung on to a blinder. He was on the move when he took it, though, and he kept moving, ball in his hand as he fought to keep from going over the ropes. He even managed to fling the ball back as his left foot crossed the rope - the third umpire eventually ruled though that he hadn't thrown the ball back quick enough, and signaled the six. Fair enough - what foxed me though was how come, if the fielder held the ball, controlled it for all of three paces and still retained enough control to throw the ball back into the field, no one appealed for the catch.

In the very next over, Vaughan aimed a reverse sweep without too much conviction - no surprise that, it is not a shot he plays too often. The ball flew off the edge Vaughan knew not where, the batsman spent a few seconds searching for it before setting off on the run, and was beaten by the throw from short fine leg to the bowler's end, ending a fine innings of 63 off 80 (176/4).

The next ball almost saw Collingwood run out following a panicky charge after pushing the ball to short third man - but on this occasion, the bat made it fractionally ahead of the ball.

England however seemed to lose the plot around this stage. In the 39th over, Harbhajan Singh noticed that Flintoff was looking to slog everything, and pushed one down quicker and on a fuller length. Sure enough, Flintoff swiped, missed, and was bowled off stump (190/5).

The next over saw Ben Hollioake, on his comeback, completely misread a straight ball from Kumble. The batsman played with bat away from body, playing for the ball to turn away and leaving a wide gap for the straight ball to go through onto off stump (193/6). At this stage, three wickets had gone down for 18 runs in the space of four overs.

At 194/6 at the end of 40 overs, England were in danger of messing it all up. Collingwood (who brought up his 50 off 55 balls), looking very assured, however teamed up with a hyperactive Snape to mount the recovery. There was a lot of intelligent chip-and-charge stuff around this period, as England looked to keep the board ticking without losing any more wickets.

Srinath has of late been practicing the slower ball, and today he produced some superb variations at the death. He should have had Collingwood in the 48th over, when a slower Yorker had the batsman mistiming his push - Srinath stuck his hand out, but the dolly failed to stick.

To celebrate the let off, Collingwood off the first ball of Agarkar's next over (the 49th) produced a perfect flick to a ball on line of middle and leg, the ball soaring over the midwicket fence. Later in the same over, though, Agarkar produced a lovely yorker. The batsman just about managed to dig it out, but Snape, who had taken a start in his search for a quick single, tripped and Agarkar relayed the ball onto the stumps to end an enterprising knock of 22 off 30 (244/7) that had helped bat England out of jail. The 7th wicket partnership had produced a very useful 51 runs at over 5.5 runs per over.

England eventually closed on 250/7 - with Collingwood unconquered on 71 off 78, having guided the second half of the innings. India, thanks to a far better performance with the ball and in the field, took the honors in the first half - this was the kind of track where you needed 280 or more to be in contention.

Darren Gough started off with a bad first over - two successive deliveries, right in the slot, were creamed through the off side by Ganguly. But it wasn't to last - Mathew Hoggard finally got the ball on the fullish length, Ganguly pushed at it with no real movement of the front foot and, sure enough, was held at second slip.

Tendulkar, who started off in somewhat sedate fashion, upped gears out of the blue and savaged Gough in the 7th over with a typical on the rise extra cover drive followed by a punched straight drive in an over that produced 10 and led to England's premier seamer being taken off the attack (4-0-24-0).

But typically, once Tendulkar gets into overdrive he gives the bowlers a chance. Here, it was Hoggard who found the edge as the batsman slashed at an ordinary delivery outside off stump - only for the ball to bounce fractionally short of Trescothick at slip (39/1 at that point, with Sachin 22 off 23).

The very next over saw another let off. This time, it was Flintoff's turn to suffer. Brought in as replacement for Gough, the bowler got Mongia slashing outside off and on this occasion, Knight at second slip dived and spoilt what was an easy catch for Trescothick at first slip (44/1 India at that point).

The let offs in quick succession appeared to come as a wake up call for both batsmen. Mongia began finding the range and timing on his shots and once his partner got going with two superb strokes through the off, off Hoggard, Tendulkar promptly throttled back and settled down to milk the bowling. India cruised along, to 99 in the 21st over before a bit of bad luck came along to make up for the good luck Tendulkar had enjoyed earlier. Mongia played a perfect straight drive off Hollioake, the bowler got a fingertip to it, and Tendulkar, backing up, was caught off his ground as the ball crashed into the stumps at the other end (99/2, Tendulkar 45 off 60).

Sometimes, that is all it takes -- a stroke of luck going in favour of the fielding side -- for the wheels to come right off the batting cart.

Here, the wheels came off with a vengeance. In the 25th over, Laxman from the non-striker's end was in a deep dream of peace when his partner called him for a simple run. Not the fleetest of foot at the best of times, his initial lethargy cost him dear as he was caught well out of his ground (India 110/3).

Virender Sehwag needed to settle down in the middle -- but apparently the middle order batsman decided that it was hit or bust. Gough was brought back and, in the 28th over, Sehwag to a ball that didn't come on after pitching looked to force on the on but managed only to pick out Knight at midwicket (121/4 India).

In the 29th over (India 124/4), Foster had a chance to stump Hemang Badani off Collingwood, but made a mess of the take and ended up breaking the wicket with his gloves, enabling the third umpire to give the batsman in.

The let off did not prove too costly, though -- in the 31st over, Badani played one out on the on side, there was a bit of hesitation in the field and Hoggard, running well around the line in the outfield, produced a flat hard throw that Foster did very well to take and break the stumps, with Mongia out of his ground. The left-handed number three had looked good in his 82-ball innings of 49, but succumbed to bad judgement on that run (India 130/5).

Ajay Ratra, early in his innings, was lucky to survive a plumb LBW off Hollioake, but then found good range and timing on his shots and started hitting them with crisp authority. Badani too seemed to be hitting his straps, but when Hollioake went around the wicket and produced a slower ball, an attempt to hit the ball out of the park on the on side produced the mistake. The change down in pace deceived the batsman, the shot gained height without distance, and was easily held at mid on.

Ratra took over the onus of scoring and was doing very well, too, when Flintoff was brought back. A straight ball, a misguided flick to leg, and Ratra was bang in front, ending a crisp innings of 30 off 40 (179/7).

Harbhajan Singh came in, played with his wonted vigour for a brief space, then got into an awful tangle trying to clip Flintoff out on the leg side and became the bowler's second LBW victim in succession. (185/8 in the 41st over).

From that point on, Agarkar and Kumble batted with some sense, a modicum of fortune, and some determination. 215/8 at the end of 45 overs counted as a recovery of sorts -- and India at that point were 36 short, with 30 deliveries to go.

The crowd, already making for the exit, scrambled back to their seats when Kumble began the 46th over with a clubbed four straight back down the track, to the bowling of Flintoff.

A clever slower ball from Darren Gough foxed Kumble into mistiming his attempted heave down the straight field, and Collingwood at midwicket did very well to run backwards and hodl, India then 224/9 and still 27 shy off 20 balls.

Agarkar batted superbly throughout this period, showing a lot of sense in his shot selection. With 17 needed off 9 deliveries, he stepped away from the stumps to try and smash Gough over cover, misjudged, and managed only the edge through to the keeper to seal a 16 run win for England.

The series is level -- and now it is the turn of the home side to come under the hammer, as the series shifts to Chennai for the third game.

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- 1st ODI at Kolkata

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