CRICKET: Seek a metaphor for India's fortunes yesterday and there was need to look no further than the famous old gas holder which dominates the skyline square of the wicket. By Mike Selvey at The Oval
At the start of play it was virtually full, as buoyant as Indian spirits after the win at Headingley. But as a long day in the field wore on, it began to empty, past the giant poster of Alec Stewart with its premature message about Ashes coming home, down and down until by the time the shadows stretched out across the acres, it had sunk below the chimney pots and roofs of the redbrick houses beside the ground.
And as it deflated, so did India and their chances of returning home with the elusive series win away from the subcontinent and the glory that would go with it. If India were as abject in the field as England had been in Leeds, then they fell victim to another inspired piece of batting from Michael Vaughan, who for the third time this series and the fourth this summer compiled a century straight from the top drawer.
At Trent Bridge barely a month ago, he made 197 sublime runs and bemoaned the opportunity of a double century scorned. You don't get many chances at that he said ruefully at the time. That he should create another so quickly is merely in keeping with the player who currently is the most prolific in the world.
Vaughan will resume this morning on 182, his fifth Test century - all of them made in little more than a year - as England, taking advantage of the benign pitch, bowling to match, and another cracking early autumn day, pressed on to reach 336 for two.
With Marcus Trescothick, showing no obvious discomfort in his mending left thumb, he added 98 for the first wicket, and then when the Somerset left-hander, having made 57, let his adrenalin get the better of him as he mishooked to fine leg, a further 174 for the second with Mark Butcher.
Nor did it stop there for when Butcher was unfortunately caught at slip for 54, from the back of his bat as he attempted to sweep Harbhajan Singh's off-spin, Vaughan and John Crawley made good use of the extra hardness from the second new ball in adding a further 62 without being parted.
If India have gained a reputution as faint hearts when faced with crunch matches, they did nothing yesterday to disabuse the notion. The bowling teetered from the adequate, in the case of the two spinners Harbhajan and Anil Kumble, through the ordinariness of Zaheer Khan, to the desperate inadequacy on this pitch of the medium pace of Ajit Agarkar and Sanjay Bangar.
The out cricket degenerated into a litany of fumbles and misfields so that by the day's end, they looked a dejected bunch, the realisation already there that the chance has gone.
In a summer of batsmanship to take the breath away at times, has there been a finer stroke than that offered by Vaughan shortly after tea? His century was completed, courtesy of a mis-field, it almost goes without saying, when he advanced to Kumble with a dancer's balance and clipped him barely to the onside of straight, and on to the Vauxhall boundary, leaving the bowler sprawled on the floor.
Three years ago, before Duncan Fletcher began his coaching spell, the idea of an England batsman leaving his crease was anathema. Just one more way to get out, they would say, why bother. Now they do it as a matter of course.
Vaughan's achievement yesterday of four Test hundreds in an English summer places him in some stellar company and is all the more remarkable as he has defied a gammy knee. - Guardian Service
ENGLAND FIRST INNINGS
M Trescothick c Bangar b Zaheer 57
M Vaughan not out 182
M Butcher c David b Harbhajan 54
J Crawley not out 16
Extras (b8, lb12, w1, nb6) 27
Total (2 wkts, 90 overs, 365 mins) 336
Fall of wickets: 1-98, 2-272
To bat: N Hussain, A Stewart, D Cork, A Tudor, A Giles, A Caddick, M Hoggard.
Bowling: Zaheer 15-1-49-1 (4nb, 1w); Agarkar 15-1-72-0 (1nb); Bangar 14-3-31-0; Harbhajan 22-3-76-1; Kumble 20-7-80-0; Ganguly 2-0-4-0; Tendulkar 2-0-4-0
India: Sanjay Bangar, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly (capt), Venkatsai Laxman, Ajit Agarkar, Ajay Ratra (wkt), Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan.
Umpires: David Orchard (Rsa), Asoka de Silva (Sri) Third umpire: Neil Mallender (Eng) Match referee: Clive Lloyd.
England v Sri Lanka: first Test,
Lord's 115
England v India: first Test,
Lord's 100
England v India: second Test,
Trent Bridge 197
England v India: fourth Test,
The Oval) 182 not out
