The Hindu : Sport : India makes bright start on a batting wicket scoreboard

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Friday, Aug 10, 2007
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Sport

India makes bright start on a batting wicket scoreboard

S. Ram Mahesh

Dinesh Karthik misses hundred; Rahul Dravid scores half-century

— PHOTO: AFP

SO NEAR…: Dinesh Karthik looks forlorn as he walks back to the pavilion at The Oval on Thursday.

London: Looking to close out its first series win in England since 1986, India couldn’t have asked for a better start. Rahul Dravid called right on Thursday morning — a day that grew progressively warmer, bringing out banded panama hats and strengthening queues at beer counters.

The strip at The Oval, a shade of mottled white, hadn’t the screaming pace some expected. It’s a matter of degree: ball came on well, but rarely, if ever, hurried bat. The strip had bounce; only the 6ft 7in Chris Tremlett, however, reared unstinting, alarming bounce.

So good were the conditions for batting and so exquisite much of the strokeplay that by tea on day one, India had reached 211 for three in 56 overs.

Dinesh Karthik fell nine short of a hundred, wafting at a ball from Ryan Sidebottom that started wide and went with the angle. His partnership of 127 with Dravid supplied India’s batting spine. Dravid was earlier bowled by an out-swinging yorker from James Anderson for 55.

Mini fightback

England followed this mini fightback — two wickets for ten runs — by attacking Sachin Tendulkar’s ribs, but neither he nor Sourav Ganguly were to be shifted. They hung on — Tendulkar wearing the odd ball on his body, but keeping his bat out of harm’s reach — to ensure the openers’ work wasn’t in vain.

Interest on the morning of the third Test centred on how much the new ball would swing. Both Sidebottom and Anderson found movement in the air, but it was more ghostly shape than corporeal curl.

Anderson used his action and the width of the crease for illusion: he directed the ball into India’s openers, making it hold its line in the last one-third of its flight.

Sidebottom, though accurate within reason, wasn’t the persistent menace he was at Trent Bridge. Yet, India took 21 balls for its first run.

Upping the ante

Slowly, like a kettle spluttering on the stove, the innings warmed up.

Wasim Jaffer cut Anderson behind point, forcing Kevin Pietersen to move squarer at gully. Next, Jaffer off-drove Anderson — a stroke of high orthodoxy.

The passage of play that followed was almost base in comparison. Anderson bounced Jaffer — the ball cut back, and the opener dropped his gloves. The next bouncer wasn’t as constricting.

It offered to move away. Jaffer leapt unhurriedly at it, upper-cutting it over third-man for six. Silence reigned.

Karthik, meanwhile, was utilitarian, working at keeping his front pad inside Sidebottom’s line, pushing to off and playing down to third-man. Tremlett had a shout for leg-before off a slightly fuller delivery that jagged in, but the 22-year-old pushed a two past the giant to bring up India’s 50.

Jaffer, having watched Sidebottom’s lefty swing onto his bat to clip to square leg, was beginning to look distinctly aristocratic.

But, a change of plan after the first drinks break accounted for him. Michael Vaughan dispersed gully to third-man, and third slip to square leg, as Anderson dug it in.

Jaffer treated the first with disdain, pulling it from under his chin. In looking to repeat his upper-cut six, however, Jaffer fell. He turned around to find Pietersen — inspiring the same kind of terror the dorsal fin spotted off the Cornish coast did — sharking around to complete the catch. Thus ended a 62-run opening stand, following stands of 147 and 47 at Trent Bridge.

Determined knock

Dravid’s determination was apparent. He punched Anderson through cover for his first runs — almost a backfoot flat-bat four — and cut savagely the same bowler over the slips. Sidebottom’s angle was harnessed for the work to leg.

Monty Panesar’s half-hour spell before lunch was negotiated with little trouble. But, the left-arm spinner almost had Karthik at the start of the second session — beaten in the flight, Karthik couldn’t keep a drive to ground. But, it travelled quickly to short extra cover where Andrew Strauss dropped it.

On 58 then, Karthik decided to reveal his classical side. He had done admirably in the morning not to hang back to Tremlett: every full ball was countered with a firm forward stride. He continued to do so, but pushes had now evolved to flowing drives. Both Anderson and Tremlett were subjected to the high-elbow-led drive. Panesar was persuaded inside-out over cover for six. This was Karthik’s sixth Test half-century in as many Tests; a pity he couldn’t go on.

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