THOSE of the Lord's crowd who came yesterday expecting to see the new upbeat England may have been disappointed to find that the second day of this match was gritty, tough, industrial cricket, justified at times, pointlessly banal at others. For a long period during the afternoon, after Jack Russell had completed his second Test century and then totally lost the plot, it appeared to have come to a complete halt.
Russell was last out for 124, finally trying to break clear of the shell into which he had unaccountably retreated for the last, two and a quarter hours of an innings that lasted for more than six. He had seen the England innings progress through to the tea interval yesterday from the Thursday afternoon depths of 107 for five to 344, the proceedings tidied up by the young pace bowler Venkatesh Prasad who took the last four wickets for seven runs in 32 balls to finish with 5 for 76. India, in reply, chucking inexperienced batsmen, not so much into the deep end as the Puerto Rican Trench, lost Vikram Rathore for 15 to a sensational catch by Nasser Hussain at third slip and Nayan Mongia to a decision from Dickie Bird that defied belief and the geometry of the lbw law.
It was doubly unfortunate because he, and Sourev Ganguly, batting at three on his Test debut, were doing a sound job in protecting the engine room of the innings, Tendulkar and Azharuddin, until the ball had lost its bite. It is all the same to Tendulkar however, who played solidly until the close for his 16, by which time India had reached 83 for two, just 62 short of their initial target of 145 required to avoid the follow on.
In the final session, the England seamers found that conditions had changed dramatically since the first day when the ball darted and spat insidiously under leaden skies. Yesterday, the sun shone for the most part and any clouds were high. The pitch showed occasional variable bounce (although much of this was a result of Javagal Srinath's wonderfully undetectable change of gear) but had lost its malice. Mike Atherton juggled his pace men around - Chris Lewis and Alan Mullally from the Pavilion end Cork, Martin and, briefly, Irani from the Nursery - but although Lewis bent his back and Cork harrassed and bullied there was no consistently unsettling movement as Rathore and Mongia painstakingly added 25 for the first wicket.
It was Cork, probably in the final over of his opening burst, who broke the stand, forcing Rathore into a defensive shot and Hussain plunging thrillingly to his left. Instantly a ground that had been rendered stupefied by the early play began to buzz as Cork renewed his vigour and tore into the novice Ganguly. This though was a composed young man and not only did he survive, to reach 26, he drove and pulled Martin for boundaries and hooked Lewis for another. He and Mongia had taken the score onto 59 when Lewis, in his second spell, jagged one back. Apart from the fact that the ball was high and missing leg stump, it was the perfect lbw. Any controversy is welcome after the drudgery that had preceded the Indian innings.
