The Wisden Verdict on England
by Tim de Lisle
Wednesday, December 19, 2001

The clouds were thick, the lights were on, but figuratively speaking, at 3.40pm today, England were batting under the clearest of blue skies. They had recovered from an early wobble to 206 for 3, Michael Vaughan was at his classical best, Mark Ramprakash was playing with bare-headed serenity, the relaid pitch was more sporting than expected, Anil Kumble was in the throes of the nervous 290s, and India's four spinners had taken none for about 120 between them. Then Vaughan, who had solemnly kept his helmet on, lost his head. The man who usually handles the pressure with ease suddenly handled the ball. And handed the initiative straight back to India.

It was a stupid thing to do, and the ball was unmistakably still live when he grabbed it. But the point of the law is to stop batsmen using their hands to protect their stumps, and Vaughan - unlike Graham Gooch in 1993 or Steve Waugh this year - was not guilty of that.

In a perfect world, the Indians wouldn't have appealed. Deep Dasgupta, getting something right for once behind the stumps, didn't appeal, even though he had scrambled round in the hope of a catch. Sarandeep Singh didn't really ask the question either, until someone else did. If you go by the letter of the law, Vaughan was out. If you go by the spirit, he should now be 90 not out.

Most teams these days go by the letter, and England probably wouldn't have done any different. But you wonder if Sourav Ganguly realises what a great opportunity passed him by here. He could have withdrawn the appeal, and lost his reputation for rudeness at a stroke. Mind you, Jagmohan Dalmiya might have throttled him.

Once Vaughan had given them a sniff, India snapped out of their defensiveness and went for the kill. But it wasn't just Vaughan who lent a hand. All you have to do to get Andy Flintoff out at the moment is bowl him a half-volley and have men at mid-off and mid-on. In his first taste of Test cricket, against South Africa in 1998, Flintoff distinguished himself by having a Daily Star page-three girl pinned up by his peg in the dressing-room. From the way he has batted in India, it seems he is not so brainy these days. Mark Butcher, too, threw his wicket away. With only five batsmen, England just can't afford to do that. Nasser Hussain said after Ahmedabad that his makeshift team couldn't play any better than that, yet the batsmen, who should be the team's strong suit, have still to fulfil themselves. All five of them, bar Butcher, owe the team a hundred. And Flintoff owes them 200.

Tim de Lisle is editor of Wisden.com.

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