Sehwag, Tendulkar in full throttle

Kanpur's Green Park was a pretty wet park this morning -- two hours and ten minutes lost due to overnight rains meant that ODI number four was reduced to a 39-overs a side contest (8 overs for four bowlers, seven for the fifth, field restrictions in place for the first 11 overs).

The key to the contest was going to be the deck -- dry and cracked, with the turf moving around the cracks, all added up to the sort of track where the ball would slow down, and stay lower, once it had lost its initial sheen.

India brought in Mohammad Kaif for his debut, in place of VVS Laxman; and sat Sanjay Bangar out to accomodate Sourav Ganguly's return. England lost James Foster to illness, with Marcus Trescothick taking the gloves, while Graham Thorpe finally got a game.

The toss was tricky -- Hussain won it and on the principle that in uncertain conditions it is always better to put runs on the board than to hunt down a target, opted for first strike. And England got off to a rocket -- thanks largely to Nick Knight, and Ajit Agarkar.

Knight has been struggling for touch till date -- today, he came out seemingly intent on going for everything. And Agarkar, hero of the previous game, lapsed in length, line and direction this time round, going for 12 in his second over, then 15 in his 3rd.

India had a chance to pull it back, when Srinath in his third over got a good length ball to run away off the seam, defeating Trescothick's cut and finding the edge only for Ratra to mistime his dive and let the chance go -- Trescothick, at the time, batting 4 in a score of 24.

With runs coming in every conceivable direction, Ganguly was forced to ring changes. Harbhajan Singh was brought on as early as the 8th over -- and Knight immediately went for the offie, with a sweep and reverse sweep off the first two deliveries he faced.

It was all quite stirring stuff and with 66 on the board in 10 overs, England looked like running away to the kind of total that it is pointless to chase. With Trescothick, who started off slower than Knight, soon finding his legs and joining the dance, there was a period of paly when it didn't seem to matter who was bowling, nor what line was being bowled -- it all disappeared.

And then, typically, over-aggression put paid to the partnership. In the 11th over, Trescothick waltzed down to Kumble, aiming to hit him over the onside field, but mishit the ball and Dinesh Mongia, very safe in the outfield, held with ease (18 off 21 and England 71/1).

To keep the momentum going, England sent in Andrew Flintoff -- and the mayhem continued, with the new man putting Kumble away for a four and a six to bring up England's 101 in the 15th over. The first 50 of the innings had come off 46 balls, the second took just 43 deliveries.

At the other end, Knight continued to live by the sword. There was an element of predetermination to some of the shots being played -- especially the reverse sweeps and paddles. But there was also conviction, and power, in the shotplay that got him to a fine 50 off just 57 deliveries.

The 17th over of the innings produced the next breakthrough -- Flintoff, who in this knock played with more conviction than at any time during his India tour, went down the wicket to lift Kumble. By this point, the ball had softened under the relentless assault, the slower nature of the pitch began to come into play, and the batsman hit too early as the ball stopped on him, putting it up for Tendulkar to hold well at deep mid off (18 off 19, and England 111/2).

Knight and Hussain then moved the score along, never really easing up on the pedal. England looked on course for a mammoth total when, against the run of play, the game turned on its axis. Harbhajan's return in the 24th over saw Knight launching into the reverse sweep he had greeted the offie with earlier. The ball had started coming on much slower by now, however -- and that factor defeated the shot, Knight (74 off 82 balls) put it straight down the throat of Kumble at point, England was 144/3 and the madness set in.

Hussain had been looking under par throughout his stay -- and his dismissal mirrored it, as Harbhajan floated up a slower delivery well above the batsman's eyeline, Hussain misread it entirely and smashed it straight back to the bowler ((151 for 4).

Michael Vaughan has been the form player for England through this series -- but here, he batted like a novice. Saurav Ganguly had sussed out that the pitch was slowing down, and backed himself to bowl. More to the point, he gave up any attempt to look for swing, and was content to just pitch the straight line on three quarter length. Vaughan took an almighty swipe, looking to smash through the wide midwicket region -- and played all over the ball to be bowled (156/5).

Paul Collingwood is the other form player -- and he emulated Vaughan, trying an identical shot off the same bowler, to give Ganguly his second wicket, again bowled, in two overs (166/6). Immediately after that, the captain had to leave the field, clutching the high part of his hamstring -- but by then, he had done the required damage.

India got its act together in the second half of the innings. Using the slower pace off the track to advantage, the bowlers maintained a line just around off with a packed field on that side, choking down the runs and forcing England to bat out the death overs in subdued fashion. A 31-run seven wicket partnership between Ben Hollioake and Graham Thorpe seemed to hold out some promise until the former miscued an attempted hoist off a Srinath slower ball, and holed out to deep mid on (197/7).

Thorpe and Snape managed to take the score to 218/7 -- but the Indian bowlers did superbly at the death, permitting a mere two fours in the last 12 overs.

219 to chase meant that a good start was vital. Ganguly's hamstring injury meant that Sehwag got to walk out with Sachin Tendulkar for the second straight game. There was a moment of uncertainity right at the outset, when Tendulkar shaped to flick the first ball he received, from Darren Gough. Trescothick held way down leg, England was convinced it had got its man -- but after watching close to a dozen replays including a couple where the ball was magnified, damned if I can tell with any certainity if the ball touched bat, or if it didn't.

From then on, it was pure mayhem, as Tendulkar and Sehwag took the floor for a dance of destruction. Gough, for the second successive game, was blasted out of the attack as Tendulkar cracked cuts, drives and pulls at him at will. At the other end, Sehwag began to mimic his icon shot for shot and, after a while, pulled away with a blistering display of power-hitting. It's not often that Tendulkar scores at over a run a ball and is still overshadowed -- but here, courtesy his partner, there were stretches of time when you actually forgot that Tendulkar was present at the crease.

Successive fours off Flintoff in the 11th over rocketed Sehwag to his 5th ODI half century, off just 36 balls with 10 fours in a team score of 90 -- and when the 11 overs were up and the field could be pulled back, India had racked up 98 without loss. More importantly, the two openers had gone out facing a run rate of 5.62 -- and had knocked it down to just over 4.5 when the restrictions went off.

By now, conditions were beginning to mirror the England innings -- the ball getting smashed squisy, the pitch slowing down. The two openers throttled back a bit -- but Sehwag is temperamentally incapable of spending too much of time at half throttle. An attempt to blast Collingwood over the on side field saw him playing too early as the ball stopped on him, bringing to an end a blistering knock of 82 off 62 balls (134/1 India, going at 7.73 runs per over, the asking rate down to an easy 3.3) that set India nicely on the road to a win.

Saurav Ganguly came in himself at number three -- without a runner what is more, so his hamstring is obviously not a major worry. Tendulkar greeted his captain by making him run a quick single -- run number 11,000 for Tendulkar in his 284th game.

In Chennai, a similar sort of start had been offset by a collapse. This time round, there was no encore -- Tendulkar throttled right back, and still managed to bring up his 53 (and India's 153) off just 46 deliveries. Meanwhile, Ganguly figured that there was no way that the ball would come at his throat on this deck, at this point in time -- and right from the outset, took to planting his front foot forward and inside the line, and blasting the ball as straight as he can when his confidence is high.

The 25th over saw Ganguly blasting yet another straight drive, after coming down the track -- but later in the over, Gough foxed him with the slower ball, Ganguly trying the same shot only to play too early, miss it completely and watch his off stump fly (26 off 32, 179/2 India).

India's progression told the full story -- the first 50 came off 33 balls, the second off 34, the third off 55, the fourth off 46. It was an awesome display -- and each time you come across one of these, you wonder just what the team's overall results would be, if they could play at even 75 per cent of this level all the time.

In the 30th over, Tendulkar decided to end it with a flourish -- a flat-batted drive back over Snape's head got India to within six runs off the target, so the next ball saw Tendulkar dance down and duplicate that shot -- only, this time, ensuring that he hit higher, got the distance and elevation right, and sealed it with a six to walk back on 87 off 66 balls. India had 9 overs, and 8 wickets, in hand at the finish.

The win took India to a 3-1 lead, and ensured that at the very best, England can only hope to win the last two games and square the series.

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