Close India 469 and 5 for 0 beat England 238 and 235 (Thorpe 62, Kumble 6-81) by 10 wickets
scorecard

Anil Kumble cut through England's middle order like a samurai sword through butter to set up a crushing ten-wicket win and give India the lead in this three-Test series. It was the second time in the match that England had slumped against spin, and - with the exception of Graham Thorpe, and, briefly, Mark Ramprakash - they were as clueless as they had been first time round. It could be a long tour.

But for a while after lunch England looked as if they had worked out a method of tackling the slow bowlers. Thorpe and Ramprakash used their brains - and their feet - and kept the scoreboard ticking over with busy ones and twos. India even looked frustrated. Ramprakash opened the face and worked Kumble to third man for four to bring up the 150, and Thorpe swept, nudged and nurdled like the run-thief he is.

Just as England began to look at home, Kumble reminded them who the real hosts were with an innings-destroying - and for England soul-destroying - two wickets in three balls. Ramprakash forgot the golden rule of batting against Kumble's top-spinners and stayed back to a ball of good length: a leg-before decision has rarely been so inevitable and Ramprakash was out for 28 (159 for 4).

Andy Flintoff, 24 today, celebrated by timing his first ball through midwicket for four, but thrust at the second like a man with a hangover and gave a simple pad-bat catch to Sourav Ganguly at silly point.

From there it was only a matter of time, but at least Craig White briefly rekindled glowing memories of his fancy footwork on the subcontinent a year ago, caressing Kumble through the covers, then lifting Harbhajan over mid-off. Thorpe moved to his first 50 for six months, and White drove Harbhajan to the cover fence.

It surely couldn't last, and it didn't. White dangled woodenly at Harbhajan's arm ball and was caught behind by Deep Dasgupta for 22 (196 for 6), and James Foster swept across the line to fall lbw to Harbhajan for 5 (206 for 7). It was a carbon copy of his first-innings dismissal and put the seal on a poor Test debut: 0 and 5, plus a dropped catch and a missed stumping.

Two balls later Jimmy Ormond, who was presumably on the toilet when Ramprakash was trapped on the back foot, stayed marooned to his crease against Kumble too, and seemed surprised when the ball hurried onto this stumps via his pads (207 for 8).

Thorpe was left to fight the not-very-good fight by himself, but Kumble picked up his 17th five-for in Tests when Thorpe's attempted work to leg resulted in a leading edge and a simple caught and bowled. He was out for 62, and the end was nigh.

Richard Dawson and Matthew Hoggard took England past the innings defeat, but not much further. It was all over when Dawson made a hash of a straight one from Kumble and was bowled for 11 to give Kumble figures of 6 for 81 - his best since October 1999, and a reminder that he could still cut the mustard after recent shoulder surgery. England had lost their last seven wickets for 76, while India's spinners returned combined match figures of 91.1-25-243-15. It made you wonder whether last winter's taming of Saqlain Mushtaq and Muttiah Muralitharan had really happened at all.

In the morning session England's desire to be positive had got the better of them. After a solid beginning, in which Marcus Trescothick took five off-side fours off Tinu Yohannan, Mark Butcher tried to pull a Yohannan delivery that hurried on to him. A loopy top-edge plopped miserably into the hands of Jacob Martin, on as substitute fielder at midwicket. Butcher was out for a patient 18 and England were 68 for 1.

To lose one opener to a mistimed pull was bad enough. But England have repeated their errors in this match, so it shouldn't have come as too great a surprise when Trescothick, on 46, miscued Yohannan to long leg where Iqbal Siddiqui took a breathtaking tumbling catch (82 for 2).

Worse was to come for England. Nasser Hussain had started brightly with successive fours off Kumble (through the covers and mid-on), but when he tried to cut a ball that was too close to him, it merely came off the bottom edge on to the stumps. Hussain had made 10 - his first score on tour of less than 38 - and England were 87 for 3.

Thorpe and Ramprakash counterattacked with gusto, and Ramprakash even swept Harbhajan for two fours in the last over before lunch. England had a glimmer of hope. But that was before the spinners got going.

Lawrence Booth is assistant editor of Wisden.com.

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