3rd Test: India v England at Bangalore, 19-23 Dec 2001 Ralph Dellor |
India 1st innings:
England 2nd innings: |
There were chances to wrap it up even quicker than they did. In the first over of the session, Matthew Hoggard found the outside edge of Anil Kumble's bat, only to see substitute fielder Martyn Ball, on for Mark Butcher, fail to grasp a low chance at slip.
Hoggard himself was guilty of spurning another chance, this time off Andrew Flintoff. An involuntary top edge by Harbhajan Singh flew to long leg where Hoggard appeared to have got it, but let the ball slip from his grasp.
It was Flintoff who claimed Kumble's wicket. Another outside edge, but this time Marcus Trescothick made no mistake at second slip. Flintoff could have picked up another wicket when Sarandeep Singh was struck on the pad right in front. The bowler, however, had overstepped and the umpire was quite right to call the no ball.
Harbhajan was ninth out, sending a leading edge from Hoggard into the covers where Nasser Hussain dived forward to get both hands to a good catch. The end was not long in coming. Sarandeep pushed the ball into the covers, went for a single, but Michael Vaughan swooped, picked up and threw down the wicket at the bowler's end in one flowing movement.
Providing the light holds, England then had 34 overs to extend their lead of 98 to a level to cause India problems on the last day.
Tea will be taken after an hour, and then it is a question of how many overs are possible before the light intervenes. On previous days, despite the use of floodlights, the umpires have offered the light to the batsmen before the scheduled close of play.
The rain, and a forecast of more rain, was exactly what the England team did not want. The bad weather that has dogged the match so far had already made a significant reduction in the time available. Now, by losing more sessions to the elements, it will be the Indian players who will be considering that their task in securing the series, thanks to the comprehensive victory at Mohali in the first Test, has been made so much easier.
Having said that, India were by no means out of this match. It is possible to imagine the lead being reduced to something in the region of 80, England would go for quick runs and get bowled out for, say 170, and India reaching the target on the last day.
That was not the most likely scenario. Going into the last two days, the draw would have been favourite with an England win not far behind as an outcome. Now, with rain falling steadily on an already sodden outfield and the forecast for more rain, the draw appears to be almost the only result possible.
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Date-stamped : 22 Dec2001 - 15:56