England claw back but India in front by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Event:

England in India 2008/09

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DateLine: 22nd December 2008

 

Again there was a delayed start to the game by more than two hours. The play was supposed to start by 9am but the play finally got underway only by 11am. India lead by 171 runs and they hoped to clean up the remaining vestiges of defense from England as quickly as possible, England must have hoped for some quick runs and reduce the deficit. But those plans were put to sword when Harbhajan in the company of Zaheer quickly removed the last remaining batsmen and handing India an overall lead of 151 runs.

 

But then in the second session England gave the Indian team and its supporters some jittery moments by removing Sehwag, which was a combination of Bell’s brilliant piece of fielding and Sehwag’s momentary madness, Dravid and Tendulkar. Laxman prodded around for sometime and was at the best scratchy. Gambhir shelved his attacking shots as soon as Sehwag left the scene and it was left to Yuvraj to up the tempo by scoring a quick fire unbeaten 38. The English think-tank took a leaf out of Dhoni’s strategy of strangulating the game and it worked to some extent till Yuvraj exploded.

 

India wipe out England

 

India had begun the fourth morning on a positive note - after heavy fog delayed play by two hours - by dismantling the last four England wickets in 10.5 overs. England resumed their first innings on 282 for 6, trailing by 171 runs, and proceeded to collapse against India's decision not to take the new ball. Harbhajan Singh struck first by removing Matt Prior who tickled an offbreak down to Dhoni and Harbhajan's doosra was too much for Stuart Broad and Zaheer Khan produced a ripper to clean up Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar prodded another tossed up delivery to forward short-leg.

 

England had thus lost six wickets for 22 runs either side of the close of play, giving India a handy 151-run lead. In the two overs before lunch, Gautam Gambhir played two trademark boundaries off his legs to indicate how good a batting track this still is.

 

England reins in India

 

The post-lunch session saw England wresting the control of the Test back from India. The bowlers tightened their line and length and the fielders played their part to strangulate India who found scoring runs like trying to find water in a desert.

 

Facing a deficit of 151 runs, England needed some extra ordinary stuff from their bowlers and fielders to stop India in their tracks. Just then a momentary minute of madness set in, Sehwag drove the ball back to Stuart Broad, who took some pace off the shot, and Sehwag harried out of the blocks. The ball rolled towards Bell at short cover, who gathered it and then, with the ball in hand, Bell dived forward to break the stumps and Sehwag continued his run back to the pavilion.

 

James Anderson and Broad bowled a fuller length in this innings and zeroed in on a precise line. After a courageous hundred in the first innings, Rahul Dravid was pinned in the crease by a persistent Anderson for 18 scoreless deliveries before Broad put Dravid out off his misery by castling him with the one that kept low. Andrew Flintoff was brought into the attack also adhered to a strict line. There was some swing for Anderson and Broad, and also movement off the pitch, and they coaxed false shots from Gambhir and Tendulkar. Broad plugged away at one end and was simply brilliant. The management’s decision to play him has worked in their favour as he was untiring and persistent troubling the Indian batsmen with a near perfect line of attack.

 

In the two overs before lunch, Gambhir who had started his second dig aggressively went into shell once his opening partner departed. Flintoff bowled short to Gambhir and Gambhir was just busy ducking and swaying all the time. Broad was replaced by Anderson and within three deliveries Tendulkar, beaten the ball before, steered one straight to Graeme Swann at gully. That left a nervy VVS Laxman - on a king pair - and Gambhir to see off a dicey passage of play. Laxman was lucky to edge Anderson wide of second slip just before tea. India extended their lead to 207, but had more than a problem or two doing so.

 

Yuvraj ups the ante

 

Post-tea session, the game just meandered along with English bowlers content on bowling the containment length. They decided to test out the patience of Laxman and Gambhir by bowling wide outside the off stump, the batting duo was satisfied in letting those go by harmlessly. Laxman was happy just defending along while Gambhir seemed to test his new found attribute in his batting arsenal: patience.

 

It seemed that they had shut the shop when Laxman was run out when Gambhir called him for a quick single. Yuvraj entered with English players chirping around his ears and instead of self-combusting he attacked and put England on the defensive. The bowler who had to bear his fury was Panesar whose series went from bad to worse in the face off Yuvraj onslaught. With 12 more overs to go the umpires offered the light to the batsmen and they decided to take it.

 

India has worked themselves into a favourable position and they should be looking at a position where it would be impossible for them to lose.