CRICKET: England let India off the hook yesterday. In the sort of damp, overcast conditions that all swing bowlers relish, Nasser Hussain's insistence on attrition at all costs rebounded as India's batsmen, led by the outstanding Virender Sehwag, showed the patience of yogis in resisting temptation outside off stump.
Though 210 for four may not sound like riches when the fragility of the Indian lower order means England could storm back and wipe out the remainder of the innings, the honours went to the visitors on a first day curtailed to 66 overs because of bad light.
Hussain was convinced that a strategy which worked so spectacularly on the parched surface at Lord's would produce similar results at Trent Bridge. But it was a day to bowl the opposition out by conventional means.
The ball swung, hugely at times for Matthew Hoggard, the best and most successful of the five England seamers on display - Ashley Giles had been omitted, given the damp and patchy surface and the likelihood of a rain-interrupted match - and it brought him the early wickets of Wasim Jaffer and Rahul Dravid.
India had opted to bat, but Hussain would have chosen to field anyway. Right from the start he set seven fielders on the off side and no protective fine leg. At first sight it was an attacking move, but in fact he was encouraging his bowlers to maintain a wider line than they might wish in order to guard themselves against the vacant leg side and Indian batsmen adept at propelling the ball there.
Hoggard became stereotyped, bowling from close to the line of the stumps and booming away outswinger after outswinger wide down the off side where a batsman with sufficient patience could flag it through with impunity.
The rest of the bowling was disappointing after the sterling efforts at Lord's, although Steve Harmison, given his first cap, began to show his capabilities after some nervy, short-pitched stuff early on. He hit the pitch hard, using his height to generate bounce as the pitch quickened slightly throughout the day, and might have picked up the wicket of the Indian captain Sourav Ganguly if Hussain had posted a third slip.
Dominic Cork, though, for all his competitive bluster, is short of pace now, and he was fortunate to induce Sachin Tendulkar to drag an attempted pull from wide of off stump on to his wicket from the toe of his bat when the master batsman seemed set.
As it was Ganguly had settled in by the time the light closed in, having batted diligently for almost two hours for his 29, and his partner VVS Laxman had arrived at the crease for the final half-hour and played with a flourish and freedom denied anyone else all day, reaching 22.
The day belonged to Sehwag, however, who in only his ninth Test innings completed his second Test century (to go with three fifties) before Craig White uprooted his middle stump with a full-length delivery when, for almost the first time in over four hours, he became careless.
This was a remarkable display of opening batsmanship from a young player who until this series had batted for his country only at six and seven and whose natural inclination, as shown in one-day games, is to belt the cover off the ball.
To allow deliveries to pass by is anathema to Sehwag. Key to his innings, however, was the ability to recognise the genuinely bad ball as opposed to the sucker wide ball and dispatch it. So he leg-glanced Andrew Flintoff, then cut savagely, and he speared Hoggard through extra cover to reach his fifty.
Later he slipped into the nineties by driving a rare half-volley from Harmison and then cutting him over the slips. If reaching a century might have brought about his downfall as he reached for a wide ball and hit it square barely out of reach of the diving Michael Vaughan at point, then it was all part of the adventure. This is already a seriously accomplished player. Guardian Service
INDIA First innings
Wasim Jaffer b Hoggard 0
V Sehwag b White 106
R Dravid c Key b Hoggard 13
S Tendulkar b Cork 34
S Ganguly not out 29
V Laxman not out 22
Extras (b1, lb3, w1, nb1) 6
--
Total (4 wkts, 66 overs, 287 mins) ... 210
Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-34, 3-108, 4-179.
To bat: A Agarkar, P Patel, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, A Nehra.
Bowling: Hoggard 21-6-54-2 (1w); Cork 11-3-45-1; Harmison 14-7-33-0; Flintoff 14-3-37-0; White 6-0-37-1 (1nb);
ENGLAND: Michael Vaughan, Robert Key, Mark Butcher, Nasser Hussain (capt), John Crawley, Alec Stewart (wkt), Andrew Flintoff, Craig White, Dominic Cork, Stephen Harmison, Matthew Hoggard
Toss: India.
Umpires: Rudi Koertzen (Rsa), Russell Tiffin (Zim) Third umpire: Jeremy Lloyds (Eng) Match referee: Clive Lloyd (WIs)
