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All Queen's men in place, but climb for them is steep

Monday August 13, 03:44 AM

testing dirtying

England fans cannot be blamed for switching their loyalties from cricket to soccer. It is ironical that the English Premier League has begun at a time when the country is about to lose a precious cricketing jewel from its crown - losing a Test series at home after six years.

Expectation was rife on the penultimate day that the crowd at the Brit Oval tomorrow will have more Indian fans than English, some returning to work on the first day of the week, while the rest - those who wish to take a break from the debacle here-will look forward to another great soccer season.

The bit of hope that England managed to acquire when they brought the Indian top order briefly to its knees turned into despair once the visitors managed to set the hosts a 500-run target in the fourth innings.

As if the debate of India not enforcing the follow-on was not enough, their batting in the second innings began disastrously. The team was tottering at 11/3 with England seamers bowling at full blast. James Anderson, after four successive maidens, made inroads clean bowling Tendulkar through the gate. Captain Rahul Dravid had taken 60 balls to score his first four runs and by the time Sourav Ganguly joined him in the middle, England were looking expectedly at the ray of hope the wicket had provided to show them the way.

However, Ganguly stuck around and while Dravid struggled to get his feet moving, the southpaw impressed with his immaculate timing. He has been in top form on this tour, and if not for disastrous decisions against him, he would have been the most comfortable of the Indian lot.

With the top-order back in the pavilion, none of them able to negotiate the swing, Ganguly marshalled his resources with a touch of class. England could've been forgiven for not knowing where his strengths lay - they either gave him that little width outside the off-stump or bowled on to his legs - and the Kolkatan made most of the opportunities. Ganguly reached his 50 off 51 balls, laced with nine boundaries that remained the most pleasing sight at The Oval. The southpaw enjoyed the ball coming on to his bat, and with no exceptional footwork he helped his cause with sheer timing of the ball.

Earlier, Wasim Jaffer became the victim of another dubious umpiring decision, an issue that has wrecked an otherwise magnificent encounter between the two teams. If Howell's decisions in the first innings were plain bad, the one that Jaffer got on Sunday morning was worse. The right-hander wasn't offering a shot, and that could've been his biggest mistake, but Howell blundered again even as the ball travelled way over the stumps.

Later, riding on contributions from MS Dhoni and VVS Laxman, India reached a total of 180/6 when Dravid declared the innings closed. England, left with 500 runs to score, opened with Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss, who saw off the 20 overs on the day without trouble.

The two resume on Monday with pressure on them to stick around in the first hour. England have already posted 56 runs on the board but tomorrow, the runs will matter less. For England, it will be a race against hope to play 90 overs. The wicket has bounce and Anil Kumble will be looking forward to it.

India also have Zaheer and RP Singh who have made exceptional use of the conditions. These are among the dangers that England will have to counter apart from the pressure factor.

Scoreboard

•: 664

England 1st innings

(overnight: 326/9)

C Tremlett not out 25

M Panesar lbw Kumble 9

Extras (b16, lb12, w10, nb11): 49

Total (all out, 103.1 overs): 345

Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-78, 3-119, 4-124, 5-202, 6-288, 7-303, 8-305, 9-305

Bowling: Khan 22-13-32-3, Sreesanth 21-2-80-2, Kumble 29.1-7-94-3, RP Singh 18-3-72-1, Ganguly 5-1-8-0, Tendulkar 7-0-26-1, VVS Laxman 1-0-5-0

India 2nd innings

Kaarthick c Collingwood b Tremlett 8