It’s never easy to get one’s focus to the level required after weather has interrupted the previous day’s play and with play being curtailed on both the days, it was apparent that there was an air of lethargy all round. Fortunately for India it had in Anil Kumble who bowls every ball as if he expects to take a wicket and so is extremely competitive. What he thus brings to the team is to get them focused far quicker than otherwise. So as soon as he came on to bowl there was much more of a business like approach from the Indians. Kumble is not one to promote himself so he will not make any tall claims like having developed a mystery delivery just to get some headlines. The only headlines he wants is when he rips through the batting as he did here to stop England in its tracks. England may well have expected to score another 50 runs at least but it wasn’t to be with the leg spinner almost getting a hat trick as he polished off the England innings. In the process he got to the mark of 500 wickets in Test cricket and with Muttiah Muralitharan having got to 600 the previous day, Kumble now has another target to aim for. He has already taken a step toward it and with his hunger for wickets he should be there sooner rather than later. It’s a fantastic achievement and many congratulations to him on doing so. Munaf Patel also had a good debut as he picked up three wickets including that of danger man Andrew Flintoff to open the door for Kumble to rush in and hustle the tail-enders out. Munaf looks to have the goods and if continues to stay away from injuries, then India will be well served with Pathan and Munaf opening with the new ball because both use it very well.
That there was something in the pitch was quickly apparent as Virender Sehwag got a snorter from Harmison to leave the crowd disappointed and then later in the day the England skipper produced another peach of a ball to send Tendulkar back. The skipper was still there doing a lone job that his main batsmen are back in the pavilion. He has shown enormous patience and has got solidly behind every ball. Wasim Jaffer’s was soft dismissal as he lost his wicket after doing all the hard work. He has a tendency to play the drive without leaning into it and while it can work on good flat pitches it can come unstuck on a pitch like this one where the occasional ball stops and rises. He thus wasted a great chance to make up for all the Tests he has missed. As the old saying goes make hay while the sun shines and though there hasn’t been too much of the sun in this game once he had seen the quicks off he never should have got out to spin. Panesar is accurate and is persevering but he is by no means a bowler who should tie a batsman up over after over. The lack of footwork means that he is able to exercise more restraint from the batsmen. Harmison bowled a quick spell as did Flintoff and these are the bowlers that India need to watch out for, for the first session as there will be something in it for them. There’s a slim chance of a result but both teams will be looking to get the psychological advantage for the final Test in Bombay and so there could still be lots of interesting cricket ahead of us.
