Will history repeat itself?
Shivaji Sengupta - 25 Aug 2002

Michael Vaughan, at the end of the third day’s play, optimistically recalled how England had scored more than 500 runs in their first Test this summer against Sri Lanka and avoided defeat. He, though, was careful enough to point out that this had occurred at Lord's where the wicket “was a bit flatter”.

Vaughan's own home ground, Headingley, where the present Test match is being played, is, in comparison, a very different proposition. As we have all seen, this pitch has been friendly to the bowlers throughout the first three days. England’s former captain, Mike Atherton, said without hesitation that the pitch will be a good one to bat on - on the second and third day. Well, tomorrow and the day after are the fourth and the fifth. England will need to bat out almost all the 180 overs to be bowled on these days if they are to stave off defeat. Do you now understand why I have a smirk on my face?

Vaughan says England must be positive, and take the battle to the Indians. I agree - it was indeed this that Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly had done in the second innings of the second Test. I shall be wishing, however, that England won’t be as successful as the Indians were then. The pitch is still treacherous and we, the supporters of Indian cricket, are fervently hoping that for once India’s four principal bowlers will get the job done. To win, India will have to make the best of Sunday, for the weather forecast predicts intermittent rain on Monday.

It has been a memorable Test as far as India are concerned until now. I thought that Nottingham was a rarity with Dravid, Tendulkar and Ganguly all making huge contributions to India’s second innings. There, Dravid had made 115, Tendulkar 92 and Ganguly, a heart-breaking 99. (I know! I know! You all know the scores! But it is a cricket lover’s delight to recall such memorable cricketing feats. For example, I never get tired of reminding people of the scores that Sunil Gavaskar made in his first eight Test innings.) At Headingley, the famous Indian Troika must have said, 'You ain’t seen nothin’ yet, baby!', before setting out to plunder the English attack. And how! In their very next Test innings their respective scores were 148, 193 and 128.

Would it stand comparison with the famous Kolkata Test against the Australians? May be not, for the simple reason that that match witnessed India notch what at one time had seemed a most improbable victory over the best team in the world. But for sheer batting delight, who can forget those 90 runs in the last ten overs on Saturday. Also, although Dravid, Tendulkar and Ganguly have been playing together for the best part of six years now, this is the first time all three of them have hit centuries in the same innings of a Test match.

Amidst their mighty exploits, please let us not forget Sanjay Bangar’s doughty 68 and his 170-run stand with Dravid at a time that India critically needed such a contribution. As Atherton has pointed out several times on Sunday, Tendulkar and Ganguly did what they did “on the back of Dravid and Bangar”.

Now, it is up to the bowlers to seal a match they have now placed within their team's grasp. An Indian team getting the opposition out twice in a Test match might be a rarity these days. But now that they have a helpful pitch, and with the match and the playing conditions overwhelmingly in their favour, let us hope that they propel their side to a series-leveling win this time.

They can also draw inspiration from the fact that the last time an Indian team had played at Headingley, Kapil Dev's men had thumped England by over 200 runs, in a low-scoring Test. In that match, it was another classical batsman in the mould of Rahul Dravid, Dilip Vengsarkar, who had laid the foundation with a century under extremely difficult batting conditions. Roger Binny, then, had brought the English batsmen to their collective knees with his gentle but extremely guileful swingers. And a Sikh named Maninder Singh took four second-innings wickets.

Will history repeat itself? I am keeping my fingers crossed.

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