Date-stamped : 29 Dec93 - 00:05 The Guardian 30 January 1993 - Azharuddin puts England to the sword - David Hopps in Calcutta. India v England: first Test, first day No Mazaa for Azza, predicted Calcutta's midday sports paper with understandable pessimism as the Test series opened at Eden Gar- dens with India's captain pilloried from all quarters. His trial period officially ends at the end of this match, but there was hardly a man alive who was not already prepared to pronounce him guilty. It was a headline that turned out to possess far more rhyme than reason. Mazaa is the Bengali word for fun and, if there was one overriding feature of Mohammad Azharuddin's century against Eng- land yesterday, it was the sheer enjoyment which it generated. Rarely can a captain under such pressure have responded on the field with such delightful innocence. Azharuddin's unbeaten 114, conjured up from only 124 deliveries, possessed a lightness of touch and spirit which almost defied belief. Hundreds of tightly rolled newspapers were set aflame among the 50,000 crowd in raucous celebration of his 12th Test century, and sixth against England. Azharuddin has probably had an urge to set fire to every newspaper he has read since returning from South Africa with a bowed and beaten side earlier this month; instead, he had moved an adoring crowd to do it for him. England, who had bowled until mid-afternoon with considerable purpose, were swept along with the tide. India's first-day close of 263 for four in 83 overs puts them firmly in control on a new- ly laid pitch which, in all likelihood, will turn sharply on the last two days - and India have chosen three spinners. England, true to Gooch's inbred suspicion of slow bowling, can just about muster 1 1/2 . Exactly a year had elapsed since Azharuddin's previous Test cen- tury, made against the Australians at Adelaide. His last 10 Tests had brought only two fifties, his appetite for fast bowling had been brought into question and on myriad occa- sions he had been dismissed flicking idly across the line. An ad- vance publicity release by a cigarette company sponsoring the series had even named Kapil Dev as his replacement as captain. One letter in The Times of India, examining the reasons for the communal violence across the country, had damned him as the final indictment of Muslim favouritism. Another failure by Azharuddin would have pointed England towards a highly profitable day. Having demoted himself to No. 5, he ap- peared at 93 for three, bedded in carefully and then took scin- tillating charge of a stand of 123, scored at a run a minute, with Sachin Tendulkar. Tendulkar played with absolute composure for his half-century but Azharuddin's hundred was reached from two fewer deliveries, an enriching procession of wristy flicks and square drives. Once he developed a taste for it, whenever England's line was awry the quality of the length was immaterial. England's reluctance to field two specialist spinners had a log- ic, even more so after they had lost the toss, but it was still questionable. Emburey, who had asked not to be considered, and Tufnell are out of form, but if anything was likely to bring the snap back into Tufnell's left-arm spin it was surely the highly charged atmosphere of a Calcutta Test. It is inconceivable that Gooch would have lost faith in a match-winning seam bowler quite so quickly. But swing bowling often prospers amid the fume-ridden haze of Calcutta, which made out a persuasive case for Taylor's Test de- but. There was inswing to be had, but Taylor's line was so un- tamed that he was never likely to prosper. Several offside wides, which left Stewart scrambling between first and second slip, just about landed on the old section of the square. The start of the series brought an abrupt change in the charac- ter of Sidhu, who switched abruptly from his six-hitting es- capades to blocking mode as if he intended to mark the first six-hour Test day in India by batting throughout it. He had scraped four in 15 overs when he was dropped off Lewis at slip. Gatting, the culprit, was in his vulnerable time of day, unsure whether to think of what he had had for breakfast or what he was about to have for lunch. In all the confusion, he lunged after a knee-high catch like a falling napkin. By lunch Sidhu had become Taylor's first Test wicket, one of three catches at second slip by the ultra-reliable Hick and achieved by a delivery which seamed across the batsman. Kambli survived long enough to convince England of his vulnera- bility outside off stump. Already, slips and gullies are posi- tioned against the left-hander with revealing precision and the presence in the first two sessions of a little extra pace and bounce than is usual in an Indian pitch served England's purpose. Jarvis, until he was collared by Azharuddin with the second new ball, looked the likeliest to be rewarded, as he has throughout the tour. There is a brightness to his cricket which illustrates his intention to enjoy his return to the Test arena and another broad smile was encouraged when Kambli flashed well away from his body to give Hick another catch. In view of the pre-match punditry along ''minefield for spinners'' lines, Gooch's reluctance to allow Salisbury an early recce was unimaginative. When he finally appeared in mid- afternoon, not having been given so much as a token over before lunch, his fifth ball turned enough to break Prabhakar's stubborn resistance, courtesy of a brilliant catch by Lewis, whose view of a rapid chest-high chance must have been obscured by Stewart's gloves. Azharuddin and Tendulkar met Salisbury from then on with hardly a blemish. Tendulkar's durability bodes ill for England. Nothing matched the precision of one square drive against Malcolm, but his concentration wavered upon reaching his half-century, when he immediately poked at a wide ball from Malcolm and left seething at his sole imperfection. By now, nothing could halt Azharuddin, not even a blow on the helmet from Lewis. The square drive off Jarvis, which took him to 97, was a princely moment from a man who may no longer be dethroned. His acceptance of bad light with seven of the statuto- ry 90 overs remaining was a blessed relief for England. Gooch, a captain who has had far greater success but who bears his responsibilities more heavily, could not have been more overshadowed at the start of his 100th Test. To add to his memen- toes of the occasion, the Mayor of Calcutta presented him with an emblem of the city council and a book on Rabindranath Tagore. A century from Azharuddin was equally to his tastes. - Clem Driver, the England and Essex scorer, was detained in a Calcutta clinic as a precaution last night after collapsing dur- ing the first day's play. Driver, 72, who suffers from angina, was thought to have fainted with dehydration. The Guardian 1 February 1993 - England suffer with their cap- tain - David Hopps in Calcutta. India v England: first Test, third day It is a safe bet that in his present sickly state, Graham Gooch has not had the inclination to flick through the collected works of Rabindranath Tagore, which was one of the more unusual gifts lavished upon him to mark his 100th Test. If India's greatest modern poet ever does capture his attention, he might care to be- gin at Invocation To Sorrow: ''Come sorrow come, I've spread a seat to you.'' Things could hardly have turned out worse. Gooch has felt groggy from the virus which has swept through the squad ever since he arrived here, and England's insipid perfor- mance has done nothing to alleviate the symptoms. Following on against India for only the third time, they ended the day at 128 for two, still 80 runs behind. It did not quite look a foregone conclusion, but about their best hope was an extended case of Smog Stops Play. Just about everything that could have gone wrong for Gooch has done. He mistakenly omitted a second slow bowler, lost the toss on a pitch that has become increasingly receptive to spin, and failed twice with the bat as India's trio of spinners pressured England into a succession of elementary errors. The pitch has turned appreciably, but slowly enough for batsmen to have ample time to adjust. Gooch's dismissal yesterday, stumped for 18, was symptomatic of a dazed mind. Beaten by a turning delivery from the leg-spinner Kumble (which is virtually a collector's item), he abstractedly allowed his back foot to drift on to the line. The wicketkeeper More, who was on the verge of releasing the ball, removed the bails almost as an afterthought, Piloo Reporter's decision was in keeping with the general excellence of the umpiring, and Sorrow, so invited, spread herself willingly all over Gooch's counte- nance. Another 75,000 spectators lapped up the Indian revival yester- day, brandishing home-made placards, setting off firecrackers and swelling the total attendance so far towards 200,000. England could at least console themselves that they have contributed to the sub-continent's renewed appreciation of Test cricket: it has been an engrossing match. Such is the sudden rise in the stock of the Indian team that they felt obliged yesterday to issue a statesmanlike appeal for an end to communal violence. Only a week ago about the only sub- ject Indians were united upon was how hopeless their cricket team were. How quickly things change. England always faced an onerous task after the self-inflicted horrors of the second day. They began at 88 for five, needing 172 to avoid the follow-on, immediately subsided to 90 for six when they lost Fairbrother, the last of the recognised batsmen, but then played with admirable spirit to fall only nine runs short of safety. Salisbury pluckily resisted for three hours to score 28, a re- markable feat of composure and concentration considering that this was his first innings of the tour. If he was rendered strokeless for most of the time, he at least developed a method of combating the spinners, being heavily reli- ant on pad play, especially against the off-spin of Chauhan, and trying to carry the fight when only the tail remained. More senior batsmen, who have so far not even devised a plan which would interest Baldrick, should take note. Kumble took both wickets to fall in England's second innings, striking a crucial blow half an hour before the close when he dismissed Stewart, caught off pad and bat by Tendulkar one short of his half-century. It was Kumble's fifth wicket of the match. He was India's most successful bowler in South Africa, with 18 wickets in the series, but he should not carry any terrors on such a slow pitch, having little to commend him other than uner- ring accuracy and a hurrying top-spinner. He is a leg-spinner by definition only, and so frequently angles the ball into the right-hander that England might be best advised to play him as an off-break bowler, just as they did in the Seventies against Chandrasekhar who, like the others of his gen- eration, Bedi and Prasanna, was a bowler of infinitely higher class. Chauhan, the 26-year-old debutant from Madhya Pradesh, has looked the most dangerous of the spinners. He found the most turn, operating from an angular run and with the high action and proud toss of the mane of a dressage horse. Raju, a small, shut- tling left-arm spinner, turned the ball more infrequently. Calcutta dawned to a foul and choking smog which would have done justice to Victorian melodrama, and the major worry when the um- pires inspected the middle was that they would never return. After a brief delay, Fairbrother fell in the second over of the morning; a faint edge, as he drove at a wide half-volley from Kumble, lodged in More's midriff. Lewis produced a few assertive straight blows before he was bowled by Raju, an excellent delivery which deceived him in the flight, pitched leg and struck off. Jarvis was so bemused against the spinners, they might have been men from Mars. At 119 for eight England's position looked hopeless, but Salis- bury and the left-handed Taylor, both dropped twice, with Chauhan the main bowler to suffer, manufactured a spirited recovery Azharuddin had relied exclusively upon spin until half an hour into the afternoon session, but England's growing confidence caused earnest discussions and Prabhakar was introduced with only 24 needed. Chauhan rolled down his sleeves and then rolled them up again at the end of the over as Azharuddin asked him to switch ends. An element of confusion was creeping in. But Taylor, as tail-enders do, self-destructed and was stumped as he launched himself at Chauhan. Malcolm's presence was enough to disturb Salisbury, who was caught at the wicket, driving at a long hop. Chauhan had not bowled a worse ball. England have followed on twice before against India and have saved the match on each occasion. In Kanpur in 1961-62 they fin- ished on 493 for five as Pullar, Dexter and Barrington all made centuries; at The Oval three years ago, Gower's 157 guided them to 477 for four. Stewart's willingness to use his feet when England batted again set an example, although he was reprieved when the luckless Chauhan dropped a firm return catch. Gatting also played securely to move within range of his half- century by the close. He is also under the weather, although his appetite remains unaffected. In spite of his protestations that the pounds are dropping off him, he is the only England player not to have lost weight since his arrival in India. - Clem Driver, the England scorer, will return home this week on the advice of doctors. Driver, 72, who suffers from angina, fainted during the first day of the Test from suspected dehydra- tion and spent the night in hospital. The Guardian 2 February 1993 - England choke on certain defeat - David Hopps in Calcutta. India v England: first Test, fourth day According to yesterday's Statesman newspaper, 200 years of fami- liarity with the British character has taught the Indian never to take anything for granted. Waterloo, El Alamein and the Battle of Britain were all wheeled out as examples of the ''bulldog tenaci- ty''. Then along came Ted Dexter, chairman of the England committee, sounding more like the lapdog tendency as he proved that, whatev- er ''musty history'' might tell us, there is no one quite like the British sportsman for facing impending disaster by taking re- fuge in the most monstrous irrelevance. With England on the brink of heavy defeat after four days of the first Test here - India, 36 for nought at the close, began today only 43 short of victory - Dexter has commissioned a report into the relative pollution levels in Indian cities. However bad the results are, they cannot make worse reading than the England averages. Dexter will deservedly face widespread accusations today that he is hiding behind a smog-screen, that the only air about last night was hot air, and that anybody seen choking was most likely choking with laughter. ''The players have quite reasonably talked about levels of pol- lution and how it has affected health and performance,'' said Dexter, who at least had the decency not to hold a hanky to his nose. A local doctor has been asked to supply the facts and fig- ures. In the meantime, Dexter said, ''The players have been told there are no worries, no long-term effects and no reason not to perform flat out. They have said it is not much fun when you can taste the fog.'' Well, it is heartening to know that the TCCB is concerned for the players' welfare, but there is just a teeny-weeny suspicion that a board rebuked in some quarters for not employing a team doctor in India is pointlessly trying to save face. Several England players have a virus which causes fatigue, sweating, headaches and a clogged-up chest and is difficult to shake off in Calcutta's polluted atmosphere; the city, with its inescapable grime and poverty, has long had the makings of an ecological disaster. But one of the players worst affected has been Mike Gatting, top scorer in England's second innings with 81 out of 286, precisely because he is by far their best player of spin bowling. Pushing Calcutta's pollution aside, there can be no more agree- able place to lose a Test match, and lose it badly, than India. To be English in Calcutta last night was to be besieged by a thousand smiles. Australians cannot let an approaching triumph pass without an occasional jibe; West Indians regard their su- periority as a matter of pride. But here the prospect of victory prompted feelings of warmth and generosity. India are a difficult proposition at home, especially as all their players are rumoured to be fitted with carbon monoxide filters. It is just that they do not play at home that often. England's visit is India's first home series for five years. In the interim they have played a one-off home Test against the Sri Lankans in Chandigarh, which they won, and 24 Tests outside their own country, of which they have lost 10 and drawn 14. If anybody should feel hard done by, they should: even the Australian women's cricket team postponed their tour yesterday. England, 128 for two overnight, were dismissed an hour after tea, all prospects of recovery on a slow turner ending when Gat- ting and Hick fell in successive overs shortly before lunch. Smith was the first to go, his frenetic shouldering of arms and hasty pad-play transmitting an uncertainty which spread to the manner of his dismissal. He had managed only eight from 74 deliveries when the off-spinner Chauhan won a debatable appeal for a catch at the wicket. Smith is much happier on the fast, bouncy wickets he experienced in his formative years in South Africa, but a Test batting average of 50 insists that he be given the opportunity to learn. Gatting, more adventurous than in the first innings, was the greybeard of wisdom, producing a series of brawny cuts and sweeps and imposing himself in a manner that began to undermine Chauhan's confidence. The Indian crowd was silent, pensive, but, while it was being brought to life by the first Mexican wave of the day, Gatting overstretched for another sweep from outside off stump and dragged Chauhan on to his stumps via the bottom edge. With Gatting alongside him, Hick had made one of his most im- pressive starts to a Test innings. His strokeplay was clean and confident, his hesitancy departed, and one straight six against Raju (which was to be repeated in more jaw-jutting style by Gat- ting) possessed untapped reserves of power. But Gatting's dismissal loaded responsibility upon him and the following over, on 25, he fell lbw, tentatively pushing at a delivery from Raju which kept low and straightened around off stump. England never again suggested permanence. Lewis flipped Raju to short leg, and the left-arm spinner also upset Fairbrother, his prodding and pushing for 2 3/4 hours ended by an excellent low catch by the substitute Raman at silly point. Jarvis's appearance at No. 8, ahead of Salisbury, who had resisted for three hours in the first innings, was inexplicable even before he was lbw, sweeping at Raju. It was left to Salisbury and Taylor, once again, to provide a doughty commentary on England's failings. Between them they bat- ted for 7 1/2 hours in this match, Salisbury's further resistance for more than two hours yesterday being ended only by the spinners' removal, Kapil's outswinger and the second new ball. Malcolm's departure first ball left Kapil 18 wickets short of beating Hadlee's Test record of 431 wickets and sent the crowd into bedlam. A wicket turning only slowly, and playing more reliably than its deepening cracks suggested it might, held no perils for India. As if to emphasise the point, when Salisbury appeared for the penul- timate over of the day, Sidhu launched him high over long-on. Pollution or no pollution, Sidhu's six-hitting exploits (14 on the tour) have taken the breath away. The Guardian 3 February 1993 - Tufnell's task to turn form and tide - David Hopps in Calcutta. Cricket:India v England: first Test, final day After about a week in India, Phil Tufnell accepted an invitation to slip playfully into the role of Jack-the-lad. ''Done the elephant, done the poverty,'' he said. ''Now I might as well go home.'' It was Tufnell in joshing mood, a dyed-in-the-wool Londoner rel- ishing an opportunity to be provocative, ready to have a bit of a laugh and never mind the consequences. Only a fool would have taken him at face value. But life has suddenly become more serious. Tufnell, undoubtedly out of form and widely perceived as out of sorts, is now regarded as the man, above all, who can inspire an England recovery from 1-0 down in a three-Test series. The question is whether he is mentally equipped for the task. Before England's eight-wicket defeat in the first Test here, Ge- off Arnold suggested that Tufnell's problems were more to do with his difficulties in coming to terms with India than with any shortcomings in technique, a conclusion which England's bowling coach reached only 48 hours after arriving in the country. Asked yesterday if he concurred with such a view, England's team manager Keith Fletcher responded: ''Cricket is 60 per cent a men- tal game. When you are on tour in a country you've got to make the most of it. If not you might as well go home.'' In essence it was nothing more than a Gnomish philosophical ram- ble, a vague reflection that, without the ability to adapt, a player's form will suffer. By the end of the sentence Fletcher had probably forgotten who he was talking about. Nevertheless homesickness, or creeping boredom, has an insidious effect on a player's state of mind, and Tufnell's form is paramount to England's chances. ''Getting our spinners right is the priority,'' Fletcher said. positive in the second innings, but the spinners haven't bowled well. Their indifferent form definitely influenced our decision to play four seamers.'' It is difficult to envisage Emburey playing a central role in the Tests ahead, especially as Sidhu's punishing six-hitting as- saults disturbed his confidence so much that he requested not to be considered here. Hick, too, fulfilled the off-spinner's role with what by the end was an embarrassing level of success. To his three late-order wickets in the first innings he added the two Indian wickets to fall in 67 minutes of play yesterday - Sidhu and Prabhakar, both to headstrong slogs - and finished with five for 28 in the match. His figures were somewhat freakish - he had bowled tidily, but with little venom - but it was all grist to the sawdust mill that has been churning away ever since the England selectors opted for Salisbury as their only specialist spinner. Tufnell's commitment has been exemplary, but India has unsettled him just as it does many older hands, who retreat behind a pro- tective Walkman. If he is also hankering after a good night out back home, he is not alone in that. What will always be debatable is whether his passions would have been roused here in Calcutta, whether the bedlam produced by 85,000 Indian spectators would have sharpened the skills of a bowler described by Emburey, his Middlesex team-mate, as having more natural talent than any English spinner over the past 25 years. We must surely find out in Madras. Tufnell does have some technical problems to surmount, some of which may have developed before the end of last season. He has occasionally been undercutting the ball, causing it to rotate differently in the air and fail to hit the seam. He is also discouraged by his inability to skid the ball as he does in Eng- land. That invited the selectors to conclude, in Fletcher's words yes- terday, that Indians'', but Tufnell's absence became more galling with every over bowled. India bowled 87 per cent of their overs with spin, collecting 17 of their 20 wickets; England bowled only 27 per cent, but still took six of their 12 wickets with slow bowling. At least Graham Gooch had the professional decency not to fall back on ill-health as an excuse for defeat. He does not need any Indian pollution league tables, as requested by Ted Dexter, to prove how rotten he feels. ''I'm fine, I'm okay, we're all fine, we're all okay,'' he in- sisted between a round of coughs and splutters. All he had done was walk up three flights of stairs. If he had failed the medical it would not have been because of flat feet. Gooch can now predict with utter certainty the two questions favoured by Indian journalists. ''Will you pick four medium-pacers again?'' (Slightly stung) ''I think they're a bit faster than medium- pacers.'' ''Did you miss the batting of David Gower?'' (Air of resignation) ''I'm quite happy with the batsmen we've got.'' Happy with the batsmen but not with the way they are batting. Azharuddin's 182, a magical innings laced with occasional mis- takes, could not have been more divorced from England's suspi- cious collapse on the second afternoon to 40 for four. From that point, as Gooch recognised, it was an uphill struggle which any number of spinners would not have influenced. Atherton's return as an opening batsman in Madras can provide a stabilising influence; Stewart, who has a wider range of shots, would be better suited to No. 3. Blakey, yet to play in an official tour match, will be relieved merely to be selected this weekend against the Rest of India in Vishakhapatnam; a three-hour double century might just about alert Gooch to his presence. England's intention is to field all six players who did not play in Calcutta - Tufnell and Emburey included. Of those batsmen who were selected for the Test, no one will be feeling the strain more than Robin Smith. With England determined to play more positively in the second innings, Smith's response - eight in 74 balls - illustrated his unease on a slow, turning surface. It is dubious whether a former South African schoolboy shot-put champion can learn to play with soft hands, but he would be best advised to try. Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)