If Test cricket is about sending messages to the opposition, and to a large
extent it is, then India and England spent the fourth day of this game
sending each other mixed ones. A typically meandering third-innings
performance from England contrasted with the most thunderous message of all,
which came towards the end of the day from the frenzied blade of Virender
Sehwag. His blistering assault on England's bowlers means that both teams
return today in the knowledge that all results are possible.
An Indian victory remains the least likely, given that they will have to make
more runs to win in the fourth innings than anyone has made in India before,
and 232 more than any team have chased successfully in Madras (Chennai).
With only seven wickets falling yesterday, a draw is still a possibility,
although India do not enjoy batting in a defensive manner. This may play
into England's hands since wicket-taking opportunities are more likely to
present themselves against batsmen taking a chance or two.
That India have been sucked into a run chase at all today is solely down to
Sehwag, who blazed away in exhilarating fashion, so that by the close India
had managed to reduce their deficit by 131 in a little under a session's
worth of batting. Sehwag fell 17 short of what would have been one of the
most brilliant of Test hundreds, but his failure to reach three figures,
perishing leg-before while trying to paddle-sweep Graeme Swann to fine leg,
should in no way diminish his achievement. There were two other hundreds to
celebrate, but Sehwag played the innings not just of the day but of the
match.
He played with glorious freedom, unconstrained by the situation, the
reputation of the bowlers and the pitch, at one end of which the topsoil is
completely worn away. England's batsmen had managed two boundaries
throughout the afternoon; within 15 balls, Sehwag had found the rope six
times. The merest hint of width outside off stump saw the ball skimming
through the arc between backward point and third man, mostly along the
ground, and once all the way over the rope for six. If England's plan is to
bowl short and wide at Sehwag, it needs revisiting.
Within six overs, India had 50 on the board and Kevin Pietersen was forced to
turn to Monty Panesar. Not that Sehwag was worried, belting a full toss into
the cheap seats, carting him over square leg again, before hurtling down the
pitch and smashing the spinner straight for six more. His own fifty came up
in 32 balls - the second-fastest in Indian Test history - and by the twelfth
over the score was 80. Exhilarating stuff.
The effect on the mood of the moment was startling. The crowd, restrained, by
Indian standards, for most of the match, suddenly hit full pitch with the
growing awareness that a miracle was unfolding. The biggest effect was on
England, though. The bowlers, Andrew Flintoff apart, wilted under the
onslaught. James Anderson and Stephen Harmison sent down dross with the new
ball and Panesar was forced into his best Ashley Giles impression, bowling
way outside leg stump into the rough. England were on the defensive and
panicking, and no amount of faux smiling from the captain could fool anyone
that it was otherwise.
Changing the flow and the mood of a game, of course, is what great players do
and with a career average of more than fifty, and a Test strike-rate of over
80, Sehwag is certainly that. Fresh from a triple hundred in his last Test
here and with an average in Madras of more than a hundred, England may even
feel that they got off lightly. But it is to be hoped that Sehwag's innings
impressed upon them the transformational qualities of aggressive intent. For
it was in the afternoon session yesterday that England lost their way for
the first time in the match. At lunch they were 244 for three, a lead of
319, with two batsmen set, Andrew Strauss with a hundred to his name and
Paul Collingwood approaching one.
This was foot-on-throat time, but instead of keeping it there, England offered
a hand, picked India up and dusted them down. Only 23 runs were added in the
first hour after lunch, 57 runs during the session in total. Momentum, never
easily won, was frittered away.
There were, to be fair, mitigating circumstances. The pitch was slow, Mahendra
Singh Dhoni, wisely, refused to take the new ball, the over-rate was
funereal and India's tactics defensive. These were not conditions in which
boundaries were likely to come thick and fast. England needed to be “busy”,
to use Strauss's term from the first day, but instead were idle. It sent a
cautious, fearful message at a time when India were on their knees. And so
England meandered without purpose to a declaration.
Test cricket is a remarkable game because of the speed at which things can
change and until the mid-afternoon slackness, England were in total control
thanks to an epic performance from Strauss, who added another hundred to his
burgeoning collection, and a typically doughty century from Collingwood.
Strauss's second hundred of the Test occupied 394 minutes, giving him more
than 12 hours at the crease in total. Without match practice for two months,
he is making up for lost time. He became the tenth Englishman to score two
hundreds in a Test and the seventh to do so against India. It was a feat of
extreme endurance and high skill and rarely can he have played better than
he did from lunchtime on the first day onwards. The “Little Master” Sachin
Tendulkar thought so, too, offering a handshake in congratulation. High
praise indeed.
Strauss added 214 for the fourth wicket with Collingwood, a record for any
team at this ground, and it was a partnership of like-minded souls, both
being phlegmatic and pragmatic cricketers. Like Strauss, Collingwood prides
himself on his mental toughness and, coming in as he did at 37 for three,
this is another innings he can add to his “runs when needed” collection. It
was entirely fitting that his seventh Test hundred should come with a
utilitarian nudge through square leg. This was a grand display from a
batsman whose worth to the team cannot be measured by the beauty of his
strokeplay.
Strauss, Collingwood and Sehwag will have slept soundly last night knowing
they have done their bit but, as with all good Tests, there is uncertainty
as to what the last day will bring. The irony of Sehwag's brilliance is that
it has forced his team-mates to take a risk today, which may well be
England's best chance of winning.
Strauss makes history
Andrew Strauss wrote his name in cricket's history books yesterday by becoming
only the tenth England player to score centuries in both innings of a Test.
C A G Russell 140 & 111, Eng v SA, Durban 1923
H Sutcliffe 176 & 127, Eng v Aus, Melbourne 1925
W R Hammond 119* & 177, Eng v Aus, Adelaide 1929
H Sutcliffe 104 & 109*, Eng v SA, Oval 1929
E Paynter 117 & 100, Eng v SA, Johannesburg 1938
D C S Compton 147 & 103*, Eng v Aus, Adelaide 1947
G A Gooch 333 & 123, Eng v Ind, Lord's 1990
A J Stewart 118 & 143, Eng v WI, Bridgetown 1994
M P Vaughan 103 & 101*, Eng v WI, Lord's 2004
M E Trescothick 105 & 107, Eng v WI, Edgbaston 2004
A J Strauss 123 & 108, Eng v Ind, Madras 2008
* denotes not out
Scoreboard
England: First Innings 316 (A J Strauss 123, M J Prior 53 no, A
N Cook 52)
Second Innings
A J Strauss c Laxman b Harbhajan 108
A N Cook c Dhoni b Sharma 9
I R Bell c Gambhir b Mishra 7
K P Pietersen lbw b Yuvraj 1
P D Collingwood lbw b Khan 108
A Flintoff c Dhoni b Sharma 4
MJ Prior c Sehwag b Sharma 33
G P Swann b Khan 7
S J Harmison b Khan 1
J M Anderson not out 1
Extras (b 10, lb 13, w 2, nb 7) 32
Total (9 wkts dec, 105.5 overs) 311
Fall of wickets: 1-28, 2-42, 3-43, 4-257, 5-262, 6-277, 7-297, 8-301,
9-311.
Bowling: Zaheer 27-7-40-3; Sharma 22.5-1-57-3; Mishra 17-1-66-1; Yuvraj
3-1-12-1; Harbhajan 30-3-91-1; Sehwag 6-0-22-0.
India: First innings (Friday 155-6)
M S Dhoni c Pietersen b Panesar 53
Harbhajan Singh c Bell b Panesar 40
Z Khan lbw b Flintoff 1
A Mishra b Flintoff 12
I Sharma not out 8
Extras (b 4, lb 11, nb 6) 21
Total (69.4 overs) 241
Fall of wickets: 7-212, 8-217, 9-219.
Bowling: Harmison 11-1-42-1; Anderson 11-3-28-1; Flintoff 18.4-2-49-3;
Swann 10-0-42-2; Panesar 19-4-65-3.
Second Innings
G Gambhir not out 41
V Sehwag lbw b Swann 83
R Dravid not out 2
Extras (b 3, lb 2) 5
Total (1 wkt, 29 overs) 131
Fall of wicket: 1-117.
Bowling: Harmison 4-0-33-0; Anderson 2-0-15-0; Panesar 7-1-36-0;
Flintoff 8-1-15-0; Swann 8-0-27-1.
Umpires: B F Bowden (New Zealand) and D J Harper (Australia).
Series details: Second Test (starts December 19 in Mohali).
