Sport - Cricket   

Sehwag, Dravid lead spirited reply

By G. Viswanath

India's Virender Sehwag being bowled by England's left-arm spinner Ashley Giles, watched by wicket-keeper Alec Stewart.

London July 26. On a day when the Marleybone Cricket Club's management announced that parts of the Lord's outfield would be on sale after the conclusion of the season to its 18,000 registered members and thereafter would be offered for the public, the batsmen of the home team and the visiting side played handsome shots all over the place and kept the run rate at three plus an over.

It was a near perfect day at Lord's on the second day of the npower first Test for the batsmen and it was in warm sunshine that Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid offset the loss of Wasim Jaffer in the fourth ball with a partnership of 126 that looked solid and sound and put their team in a firm footing to advance without fuss before England picked up two wickets, including that off tailender Ashish Nehra.

Promoted to open the innings for the first time in six Tests, Sehwag, who made a scintillating century at Bloemfontien on his debut against South Africa, did not show any nerves while facing England's front line bowlers, including debutant Simon Jones.

Jones was wayward, but at times made Sehwag hurry through with his defensive shot.

With nearly 500 runs on the scoreboard, one would have appreciated if Hussain had tossed the new ball to Jones, set a menacing field and asked the rookie from Glamorgan to bowl at full throttle. But Hussain delayed his introduction, bringing him after Matthew Hoggard, Andrew Flintoff and Ashley Giles had bowled 14 overs and when India had staged a recovery.

The Lord's pitch looked a featherbed, but stroke making was still a difficult proposition, because the ball came so slowly off the pitch.

It was when the bowlers pitched short that Sehwag, swung into action. Sehwag crossed his half century off 57 balls with one 6 and six 4s. But the dashing right-hander also felt obliged to be more responsible after he lost Jaffer to Hoggard, the ball finding its way to the stumps off the batsman's pad.

Sehwag was terribly unlucky to be bowled by a delivery from left-arm spinner Giles that made contact with the bat and pad before finding its way towards the stumps.

Sehwag missed a century at Lord's. He struck one 6 and ten 4s before he met with an unfortunate dismissal.

The debutant Jones played a string of unorthodox strokes on a bright afternoon.

Generally it is as a result of exemplary show of spirit and character that often sees top class batsmen coming up with monumental effort.

Hussain was in this category as he applied his mind to a specific task and prolonged his hard work for another one and a half hours before an away seamer from Ajit Agarkar saw his departure from the middle to receive a standing ovation from the crowd.

The England captain laid the foundation for a daunting first innings total of 487. Flintoff turned the tide in a little over one hour after India made its first breakthrough with left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan winning a second leg before appeal from Zimbabwean umpire Russel Tiffin, this time against Alec Stewart.

If Flintoff's remarkable array of shots played off the backfoot got the purist's nod, Simon Jones' first hour in Test cricket was fit to fill the pages of a fiction book.

Jones, who has already been given plenty of space in the tabloids, has been regarded as fast bowler in the making of a `Typhoon' Tyson, who rocked the mighty Australian boat in the 1950s.

But on Friday afternoon, he straightaway conveyed a message to the England selectors that he liked to bat and score runs for England apart from his ability to bowl fast.

Flintoff, Jones and Craig White were responsible for taking England to a very good total. England played to a plan in the first session.

There was an early setback when Khan caused that indecision in the mind of Stewart. Alec Stewart perished in the same way as Michael Vaughan on the first morning and on a fresh pitch.

The only difference was that Stewart's bat was far too behind as the ball that straightened up and hit right-hander low on his front pad. Flintoff was not the batsman the Indian bowlers expected to trouble.

Flintoff, began scoring runs against all Indian bowlers. Strangely the only onside and short boundary he played was the first of his ten 4s. Nehra who attacked Flintoff's pads, was flicked to the backward square leg fence. But thereafter, it was all power packed shots between cover point and midoff that flowed from the bat of Flintoff. Kumble who replaced Nehra was hit for 11 runs in his first over of the morning. But after an entertaining partnership of 93 off 113 balls for the sixth wicket, Flintoff became Agarkar's first of the two dismissals that put him on a hat-trick.

Hussain fell in the same manner as Flintoff 13 minutes before lunch.

At 357 for seven India had a chance to restrict England, but the last three wickets produced 130 runs, with Jones and Craig White involved in stand of 62 off 63 balls for the ninth wicket. Jones made a 43-ball 44 and White justified his recall after six months with a half century.

SCOREBOARD

Stories in this Section

Athletics

• Extravaganza marks opening ceremony
  
  Badminton
  
• Rohan clinches under-19 title
  
  Chess
  
• Wipro to sponsor players
• Four share lead
• Ganguly in hot pursuit of final GM norm
  
  Cricket
  
• Sehwag, Dravid lead spirited reply
  
  Hockey
  
• S. Africa thrashes Malaysia
  
  Sports : General
  
• Sport Digest
• First Games golds to Canada, Australia
• Despatie poised to capture second gold
  
  Squash
  
• Ritwik has it easy
  
  Tennis
  
• Savolt stuns top-seeded Novak
• Venus in quarterfinals
• Agassi advances
  
  Boxing
  
• Dingko loses in first round to Letuka
  
  Shooting
  
• Time for Indians to deliver
  
  

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu