Saturday, Sep 07, 2002
Saturday, Sep 07, 2002 |
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Cricket
By G. Viswanath
England's Alex Tudor being caught by Rahul Dravid at first slip off Harbhajan Singh on the second day of the fourth Test at The Oval on Friday. — Photo: N. Sridharan
The brand new ball and Virender Sehwag's propensity to drive away from the body and on the up resulted in his dismissal, but Sanjay Bangar and Rahul Dravid, who played a role in India's win at Headingley, took on the England seam attack with confidence. Evidently the pitch at the Oval has been far more batsman-friendly than the one at Headingley and as it transpired Bangar and Dravid dealt with the situation, after the fall of Sehwag, in such a way that it must have been reassuring to their teammates in the dressing room. Bangar scored a run off every five or six minutes and off every four balls. He is not such a stroke maker in the mould of Dravid, who was more enterprising in dispatching the ball to the fence half a dozen times, three of them in a single over from Alex Tudor. India's first target now would be to reach 316 without losing too many wickets. England might be disappointed that it could not stretch its first innings beyond a score of 515, following Michael Vaughan's formidable effort on Thursday. But it was a day when England did not have the means to outwit Harbhajan Singh who finished with a five-wicket haul. For India, it is more likely to be case of so near, yet so far in its quest for a series win on foreign soil, outside Asia, in the last sixteen years. The trend of winning just one Test match as it happened in Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and the West Indies appears likely to be repeated in England too. There was a turnaround in fortunes for the visiting side after Harbhajan was ushered in for his second spell, well into the post lunch session. It was then that the possibility of England being bowled out in the first innings took shape. There would not be a convincing answer as to why Harbhajan was not introduced long before the first interval of the second day. He just bowled a single over before lunch. It is more mysterious as to why he was not called on to bowl when nearly three quarters of an hour of play after lunch had been gone through and after the lower order batsman Dominic Cork had pummelled Ajit Agarkar. Harbhajan had bowled a little over one-fifth of the 90 overs on Thursday and had broken the second wicket partnership of 174 by Vaughan and Mark Butcher by plotting the latter's dismissal. Having asked him to bowl 23 overs, Ganguly had defined his role in the last match of the npower Test series. Both the spinners — Anil Kumble and Harbhajan - together bowled only four overs which meant that there was an over dependence on the likes of Zaheer Khan and Agarkar today. That Harbhajan was more likely to deliver on a slow pitch was proved in his twelve over spell when he dislodged the dangerous and in form Alec Stewart, Alex Tudor and Dominic Cork, who scored his first half-century in in 67 months. Kumble struggled on a lifeless pitch, but a double spin attack before the ball had become very soft might have yielded better returns. England did not progress on Michael Vaughan's spectacular effort. That he would miss the ICC Champions Trophy in Colombo to undergo a keyhole surgery in his right knee was the first discouraging news England heard on Friday morning. The home team was looking forward to a first double century from the brilliant Yorkshire opener, but left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan terminated his innings inside the first fifteen minutes of play on the second day. It was the standard slanted delivery bowled from over the wicket that dragged Vaughan a little forward and made him edge to wicketkeeper Ajay Ratra. Vaughan had begun the second day in style, cover driving a swinging half volley and then easing his bottom hand for the ball to safely slip through the cordon behind to the third man fence. Ganguly promptly protected the third man fence and Zaheer produced the breakthrough India was looking for. There was plenty of drama in the first hour with umpire Ashoka De Silva pointing out to Zaheer that he was very close to damaging the pitch by running on the danger area. However, the left-arm seamer managed to evade a warning and even managed to get Vaughan's wicket. Things progressed slowly after the departure of Vaughan. John Crawley and Nasser Hussain appeared to be intent on defending, but after struggling to outsmart the disciplined bowling of Sanjay Bangar, Hussain lost his patience, drove in a reckless manner and edged Bangar to V.V.S. Laxman who made sure that the ball did not pop out of his fingers by pressing it against his chest. The steady line and length bowling of Bangar turned out to be very effective as against the profligacy of Agarkar. Bangar had earlier taken his first wicket winning an appeal for leg before against Crawley, from umpire Dave Orchard. Even when it appeared that India would wrap up the innings well before tea, Stewart and Cork frustrated the Indian attack and made sure that the gains of the first day was not surrendered. Cork proved his utility as an all-rounder and vindicated his selection ahead of Ronnie Irani or Steve Harmison. His half-century made in more than two hours of bold batting, was an important contribution that took England towards the 500-run mark. SCOREBOARD
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