India 218/7 despite Sachin-Sehwag heroics

Bangalore, December 21: Forty-seven overs were lost on Friday as India limped to 218 for seven, still 118 runs behind England’s first innings total of 336.

Things were pretty bleak even overnight, but Sachin Tendulkar was at the crease. With that man around, anything is possible. But things were never going to be easy, especially with England’s tactics very clear. That, along with an incisive spell from Matthew Hoggard, made life miserable for India.

Nasser Hussain ha always tried his best to make run-scoring difficult for the Indians, but sadly, most off the time, the home team batsmen do it on their own, with precious little pressure on them.

Rahul Dravid pottered around for 73 minutes and faced 61 deliveries to get three runs on the board, before Hoggard move one away, just a shade, and that was the end.

Sourav Ganguly came, and went. He has made it a habit to give catching practice to the English slip fielders, and on Friday too he gently patted one into the hands of Mark Butcher at second slip, Hoggard being the beneficiary.

It is hard to believe that this team is leading in this series. They looked so desperately out of sorts.

Tendulkar’s battle against Ashley Giles continued from Thursday. So much song and dance about negative tactics and why the umpires did not call wides, did not make any difference on Friday, as Giles kept up that line and umpire Asoka de Silva did nothing.

It was so frustrating for Tendulkar. Almost always, he played with his pads or body, hardly ever managing to get Giles away, at least in the morning session.

However, after lunch, he decided to take on the left-arm spinner and tried to improvise, with some success. One pull, a lofted on-drive over mid-wicket and a paddle sweep to fine leg got him four boundaries, but it was still never easy.

While the English tactics were not attractive, no one can deny their effectiveness. They intended to choke Tendulkar’s runs and force a mistake from him.

The mistake did come. Ten runs away from his hundred, Tendulkar lost it completely. He charged down the track, trying an inside-out shot, missed the ball by a mile to be stumped by a couple more.

This was the first time that Tendulkar has been stumped in a Test match.

Virender Sehwag received a torrid reception from Hoggard and with just one run to his credit, edged to Andrew Flintoff at second slip, who spilled the chance. The number of times Sehwag played and missed outside the off-stump off Hoggard are too many to count.

But at least Sehwag took care of Giles. He handled him better than Tendulkar, and played some audacious shots. Six of his boundaries came off Giles, with the Delhi batsman going over mid-wicket frequently. He also played a cross-batted slog to the square-leg fence and a superb reverse pull to point.

His half-century came in double quick time, off 72 balls with nine boundaries.

Strangely enough, Sehwag’s other seven boundaries came off Hoggard, though they both the outside and inside edge of the bat. Ultimately, it was Hoggard who won this battle as well, as one of these edges finally went into Foster’s gloves.

Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh were holding India’s rather pathetic fort when tea was called, and the rain came down. The weather turned chilly and light faded quickly, as quickly as India surrendered during the day. This is not a Test match they are likely to win, while losing it would not be such a surprise. But who knows, the rain may continue for two more days.