The Hindu : Sport : Third Test drawn, India clinches series

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Tuesday, Aug 14, 2007
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Sport

Third Test drawn, India clinches series

S. Ram Mahesh

Kevin Pietersen displays his class yet again with an attacking hundred

Rahul Dravid emulates Ajit Wadekar’s feat
Kumble declared Man of the Match

— Photo: AFP

TIMELY KNOCK: Kevin Pietersen’s superb century thwarted India on the final day.

London: The third Test here at The Oval faded into the evening light. But, for India, the moment glittered like the Bird of Light Supreme. Kevin Pietersen’s 101 allowed England to draw the Test — the side batted through the fifth day, scoring 369 for six in 110 overs, chasing 500 — but it couldn’t prevent the Pataudi Trophy being shipped to India.

Rahul Dravid, with the 1-0 win, joins Ajit Wadekar as the only other Indian captain to have won Test series in both the West Indies and England; it’s India’s third series victory in England, and the first since 1986.

Monday’s first session contained everything that has made this series such a pleasure to watch. The low clouds compressed the spectacle, defining its visual boundary, and making the setting intimate. They added swing — such a large part of the series on both aesthetic and strategic fronts.

The final day came about — and, importantly, was seen to have come about — as a consequence of how the series has progressed: the resolution of a hundred battles, informed by back-story, pregnant with context.

S. Sreesanth and Zaheer Khan started exactly as their captain Dravid would have wanted. They didn’t break through in their first spells (five overs each), but it wasn’t for want of skill or control.

Sreesanth’s run-up was at its most relaxed. He has looked high-strung through the series, but, on Monday, he strove neither for pace nor swing; they came as a consequence of his rhythm through the crease.

One delivery to the left-handed Alastair Cook, curved in to his pads and left him off the wicket, missing, by a hairline, the off-stump. Another, an in-swinger (to the left-hander), dogged Cook’s front pad, pinning it in front of middle and off. Umpire Ian Howell deemed it a shade high.

Zaheer himself had a close shout for leg-before with a ball that nibbled in; Andrew Strauss, however, had thrust his pad sufficiently outside the line. For forty minutes, India’s opening bowlers tried this and that.

Cook and Strauss survived, however, adding to Sunday’s work. Dravid brought about a double change, and R.P. Singh, replacing Zaheer, struck in his first over. An out-swinger to Strauss whorled away off a length, drawing the drive on the up. The opener didn’t adjust his hands for the swing. In shaping to play straight, he denied the stroke the bat’s full width. A thin line separates playing the ball’s original line to miss the swing and edging it to second slip: Strauss found himself on its wrong side. Anil Kumble then baited and hooked Cook. The leg-spinner enmeshed the batsman in a leg-side dragnet of leg-slip, leg-gully, and forward short-leg.

Kumble’s line was leg-stump, preying on Cook’s tendency to play around a stiffened front leg, while his head falls to the off-side. Cook worked one to square leg for four. But, Kumble had him caught low at leg-gully.

Contrasting efforts

V.V.S. Laxman’s catch was a study in positioning and anticipation: areas Dravid surprisingly fell short in at first slip to Kumble against Michael Vaughan. Cook’s departure had brought together England’s best batsmen in Vaughan and Pietersen. Both relished the challenge, batting with a great deal of craft while finding time to smile.

But, Kumble, as he so often has in the past, raised his game in response and defeated Vaughan. Dravid, however, failed to consolidate his bowler’s victory.

Kumble set Vaughan up with the googly. Then, with a mite more work with his body in delivery, he got a brisk leg-spinner to drift to middle and leg, and break away.

Dravid, such a high-class slip catcher, had his position awry. The leg-spinner merits first slip at nearly 45 degrees to the batsman. Kumble, being quicker than convention, requires him finer. But, Dravid, his left leg within the line of the return crease, was too fine — perfect, in fact, for an off-spinner. M.S. Dhoni’s gloves and pads were in Dravid’s eye-line, evident in how late he moved to his right.

On 18 then, Vaughan glided to 42 with typically classic, upright drives before Sreesanth took a leaf from Kumble’s book. He cut the England captain in half with one that swung in, and had him edging to Dhoni with a ball that started wide and went wider.

Pietersen continued to play his strokes when he could. Some looked outrageous — the slap to cover off the wide, swinging ball, in particular — but Pietersen’s great strength is his ability to trust his method under pressure.

In between, Dhoni dropped Paul Collingwood off a Tendulkar off-break in the afternoon gloom.

The Test meandered until Dravid took the second new ball. Sreesanth trammelled Collingwood in front, and followed it by provoking Pietersen into edging to first slip. Three for 266 became five for 289, with 21 overs to go.

But, Ian Bell, with fetching strokes around the wicket, and Matt Prior, with a show of silent strength, kept the bowlers out long enough on a track that played well for its age.

Man of the Match Kumble, who struggled at times with his line, had Bell leg-before on the sweep with 4.4 overs remaining; Tendulkar had a close shout against Ryan Sidebottom, but England hung on. Soon, a rash of embraces broke out.

SCOREBOARD

India - 1st innings: 664.

England - 1st innings: 345.

India - 2nd innings: 180 for six wickets decl.

England - 2nd innings: A. Strauss c Laxman b R.P. Singh 32, A. Cook c Laxman b Kumble 43, M. Vaughan c Dhoni b Sreesanth 42, K. Pietersen c Karthik b Sreesanth 101, P. Collingwood lbw b Sreesanth 40, I. Bell lbw b Kumble 67, M. Prior (not out) 12, R. Sidebottom (not out) 3; Extras (b-2, lb-4, nb-14, w-9) 29; Total (for six wkts. in 110 overs) 369.

Fall of wickets: 1-79 (Strauss), 2-86 (Cook), 3-152 (Vaughan), 4-266 (Collingwood), 5-289 (Pietersen), 6-363 (Bell).

India bowling: Zaheer 20-3-59-0, Sreesanth 21-7-53-3, Kumble 37-9-123-2, R.P. Singh 13-2-50-1, Tendulkar 19-0-78-0.