Gusty England pulls the mat from India’s feet by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Scorecard:	India v England
Player:	MJ Prior, G Gambhir, SR Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, A Mishra, Harbhajan Singh, G Gambhir, V Sehwag, SR Tendulkar, MS Dhoni
Event:	England in India 2008/09

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DateLine: 12th December 2008

 

England won the second day’s play comfortably and at the end of day’s play India would be looking at the huge mountain that they are facing. If the first session belonged to Dhoni and his men, the second session belonged to Kevin Pietersen and his troops. The way the day’s play progressed it showed why Test cricket produces some of the best performances. It is the best place to separate bull headed men from lily-livered boys. England had started the day at 229/5 and when everyone were writing their obituary, they proved everyone wrong.

 

India applies breaks and squeezes the life out

 

A hallmark of Mahendra Singh Dhoni's captaincy is his willingness to think slightly out of the box. Instead of taking the new ball at the start of play he persisted with the old one throughout the rest of the innings. There was turn and more importantly bounce for the spinners. Despite there being reverse swing in the morning, Dhoni gave Sharma only one over before introducing Mishra, and the move paid off straight away when Andrew Flintoff got an inside edge to short leg. It had been an out-of-character innings from Flintoff, who largely prodded his way to 18 off 75.

 

James Anderson played the role that he was asked to play, that of night watchman. He did not score much but he blocked around and even had fortune going his way. He was dropped by Dravid at first slip when on 6 and India’s frustration just grew. With England in such a defensive mindset, the first boundary came out of the blue when Anderson reverse-swept Mishra, a smart piece of batting for the leg-side field was packed with six men. Dhoni persisted with a combination of reverse swing and leg spin for the first hour before Harbhajan was given his first bowl of the day. He was quickly greeted by a strong slog-sweep by Prior.

 

The seventh-wicket stand was worth 42 when Anderson found Yuvraj Singh at deep midwicket when he lost his patience and tried to sweep Mishra, but the dismissal that woke everyone up was the ball from Harbhajan that leapt off a length and took Graeme Swann's glove to slip where Dravid made amends for his earlier lapse. It was a tough ball to get for Swann on debut but it highlighted that this surface is unlikely to hold up throughout the five days.

 

Swann on swansong

 

The two wickets fell quickly in the second session and India was seen to be the happier of both the teams. Pietersen was seen frowning in the dressing room thinking about the problems that he would be facing soon. Indian reply began in the form of Sehwag and Gambhir, but they were denied room to free their arms as the English bowlers kept a tight leash on the India openers. James Anderson brought the first cheers to the English camp when he got Sehwag via an inside edge. But then Gambhir and Dravid were slowly finding their groove. Flintoff bowled a testing spell to Dravid but Dravid held on strongly.

 

Just at the stroke of tea, Pietersen showed that even he could think out of the box by introducing Swann ahead of Monty Panesar. However he started rather inauspiciously with a long-hop that Gautam Gambhir cut for four. His second ball, however, nearly earned him a bat-pad decision, before Gambhir offered no shot to the third and was adjudged lbw. Then, before the over was done, Swann came over the wicket to Rahul Dravid, and sneaked into the back pad for a massive pre-tea breakthrough. Graeme Swann transformed England's fortunes on the second day in Chennai with an historic first over in Test cricket that earned him two big wickets and being only the second bowler after Richard Johnson to do so. India were staggering at 37/3

 

England tightens their hold.

 

After sipping the hot tea, the Indian hopes rested on the shoulders of the maestro Tendulkar and elegant Laxman. They responded with bold shots all around the wickets and with even Sachin hoisting Swann over the midwicket boundary for the first maximum of the match. As the pair was consolidating Panesar struck by removing Laxman and in the next over Flintoff accounted for Tendulkar. Then a very good battle started between Yuvraj and Flintoff as Flintoff bowled a really testing spell. Flintoff ran in hard tried all sorts of trick he had to unsettle Yuvraj, in the process beating him several times and Dhoni realising that Yuvraj was about to explode went up to him and calmed him down several times.

 

When it was thought that Yuvraj has passed the test, Harmison was brought back and had him edging to second slip to lose his wicket. Yuvraj might be a gifted batsman but he must learn to keep his emotions under check and channel it to right direction. Tendulkar and Dhoni will be better persons to emulate in this regard. Just when England thought that they had a chance to sneak in another wicket, Harbhajan strode out into the middle and essayed some bold strokes that has come of to identify with him. They closed down the day’s play at 155/6 with Dhoni batting well on the other end. It will be a severe Test for Dhoni and it would be interesting to see how Dhoni will come out and play tomorrow morning. The question will be whether he will counter attack or play the waiting game.