Headingley, August 25:
By the end
of the fourth day's play, the chanting had stopped as Nasser
Hussain and Alec Stewart went about constructing a threatening
fifth-wicket stand to raise serious doubts about India's ability
to deliver the knock-out punch.
With just a day left,
England are now only 116 runs behind and the Indians must be
worried about the aggressive manner in which both Hussain and
Stewart have blunted their spin advantage and handled with care
the uneven bounce of the seamers.
In sharp contrast to the
post-tea session, the morning began well for India. England lost
their last wicket in the first 15 minutes of play, leaving India
355 runs in the front. Sniffing at a huge victory, that too by an
innings, Sourav Ganguly had no hesitation in enforcing the
follow-on.
England began their
second essay under a heavy cloud cover and as the day wore on, the
enormity of the task on a wicket of increasingly dubious bounce,
became a burden difficult to bear for the top half of the order.
Surprisingly, spin was not the only threat for the batsmen. The
Indian medium pacers were more than a handful, especially from one
end.
The ball would jump and
stand up alarmingly on number of occasions, leaving the batsman
always in doubt about the choice of his footwork: to go forward or
to go back.
Ajit Agarkar and Zaheer
Khan had all the batsmen fending uncomfortably and even Sanjay
Bangar created problems with his gentle pace.
Once the batsman is
apprehensive about the true bounce of the wicket, mistakes follow
and they did. Michael Vaughan, the most dangerous batsman of the
series so far, fell lbw to Agarkar. Worst still for England,
Bangar, who would not fancy his chances as a fourth seamer in a
decent attack, struck twice in one spell.
Mark Butcher, who wore a
shield of aggression to counter the vagaries of the wicket, fell
to an innocuous outswinger, giving a simple catch to Rahul Dravid
in the slips. John Crawley picked up the wrong length to drive and
the extra bounce of the wicket foxed him. He failed to keep his
drive down and Virender Sehwag juggled with the ball in the covers
before completing the catch.
Though the spinners
weren't easy to play, they still could not find the right line to
bowl on the wicket. For most of the day, Ganguly used one end for
seam and the other for spin.
Kumble, who shared six
wickets with Harbhajan in the first innings, was given a long
spell in which he had Robert Key at the top of the order. But
somehow, the prodding bats of the batsmen rarely found the edge.
Harbhajan, who is making
his best effort to attack the off stump, unlike the leg stump line
he had adopted at Trent Bridge, was troublesome without being
penetrative. Despite these shortcomings, the Indians were
celebrating having reduced England to 148 for four at one stage.
That is where the
celebrations ended as Hussain --- lucky to survive a gloved chance
to keeper Parthiv Patel when on 47 --- and the solidity of Alec
Stewart changed the rosy script a fair bit.
Stewart, who remained
unbeaten on 78 in the first innings, has looked the best England
batsman in the match and has played with care, skill and
aggression in an innings that is even threatening to take the
match away from India.
Hussain, who was in all
sorts of trouble at the start of his innings, has played his part
as a responsible skipper to perfection, and if the pair bats as
well on Monday as they have done on Sunday, India's dream of
winning a Test match here after a long gap of 17 years may remain
a dream.
