CRICKET/Second Test: For 78 glorious minutes yesterday evening, before the light closed in at Trent Bridge and brought a termination to play shortly after seven o'clock, the Little Maestro gave due notice. With his side facing a deficit of 260, after England had taken their first innings to a massive 617, and with two batsmen succumbing to the new ball inside two overs, Sachin Tendulkar bristled and beat out a warning that the second Test is some way from a foregone conclusion.
Tendulkar will resume his innings today having hit 56, from 56 balls, 44 of the runs coming in an orgy of boundaries off front and back foot and on both sides of the wicket as Matthew Hoggard, Andy Flintoff and Steve Harmison strove to tear the heart out of Indian resistance.
Flintoff dropped short and wide, only fractionally so but sufficient for Tendulkar to lay back and blaze the ball square. When the bowler for once overpitched he was driven to the same point boundary. At the other end Hoggard was driven straight and then from successive deliveries was driven through extra cover, sliced square for four more and then angled in a controlled fashion through the crouching slips to the vacant third man for another boundary.
In just over 17 overs, he and Rahul Dravid (34 not out) had added 88 for the third wicket after Hoggard, with the second ball of the innings, had removed Virender Sehwag, who for no apparent reason offered no stroke to a perfectly straight full length ball that almost hit him on the boot, and Flintoff had had Wasim Jaffer lbw with one that was straight enough but perhaps a shade high. At 99 for two, India are 161 behind England.
This had been a diffident series thus far for Tendulkar. At Lord's, he was frustrated by the England tactics just as he had been in India last winter. But he also brought with him the air of a troubled man. Yesterday, he carried the body language of a champion.
With time lost on each of the first three days, it is a tribute to the way that England approached their innings that the game is on course and very much theirs to win should the weather stay fine. The total, their highest since they made 653 for four at Lord's also against India 12 years ago, and their seventh highest since the second world war, came from only 144.5 overs.
Michael Vaughan's sublime 197 on Saturday set them on course, but at 341 for five overnight, and a new ball due, England were still behind India's 357. Quick wickets and the game would remain balanced.
India were never given the chance, though. First of all Flintoff and Alec Stewart added 97 for the sixth wicket, virtually at a run a ball, and then when both batsmen were bowled by Zaheer Khan in the same over, for 33 and 87 respectively, Craig White added a further 60 with Dominic Cork, hobbling on a bad knee but not requiring a runner, and then 103 for the ninth wicket with Hoggard, a record for England against India.
Even the last wicket produced 23 with Steve Harmison as White chased his second Test century against the odds. White was to finish unbeaten on 94 having hit 12 fours and a massive six on to the top deck of the Radcliffe Road stand, and having been just 27 when joined by Hoggard, can thank the batting progress made by the bowler under the tutelage of Duncan Fletcher. Although Hoggard's swish that brought his downfall was strictly from the lower order, the batting that preceded it for an hour and 49 minutes was well ordered and diligent.
Until Zaheer plucked his off stump from the turf, Stewart too had designs on a 16th Test century, although it would have been a controversial one. When 48, he was forcing Ajit Agarkar off the back foot and edged low to the left of third slip where Sehwag dived across and claimed a low catch. Stewart stood his ground and after consultation with the third umpire, was given not out, the second England batsman to be reprieved in such circumstance following Mark Butcher on Saturday.
An Australian survey has shown that of 11 referrals last year, 10 were made in favour of the batsmen. Stewart may or may not have been out, but the incentive is now there for batsmen, irrespective, to stand and play the percentages, knowing the odds are heavily stacked in their favour.
Guardian Service
