Andrew Flintoff was as hostile as ever, but England may already need a miracle to win this Test
Andrew Miller20-Dec-2008
The smiling assassin: Andrew Flintoff smiles through another hostile spell © Getty Images
As India demonstrated in Chennai last week, and as South Africa may alsoprove in Perth tomorrow, nothing in cricket is impossible any longer. Notarget is unobtainable, no position impregnable, although such is England’scurrent plight that even their best bowling effort of the series may not beenough to make up the ground they lost to Gautam Gambhir and Rahul Dravidover the first four sessions at Mohali.To claim nine wickets for 123 would be a triumph in any form of the game,but unfortunately the small matter of that second-wicket stand of 314 putsEngland’s fightback into its full context. With three days of the tourremaining and nothing less than victory sufficient to rescue the series,England’s only remaining hope is to bat forcefully and fast, to put runs onthe board and inject time into the contest, to give themselves an outsidechance of bowling India out twice.Unfortunately for England, today’s success points to tomorrow’s failure,precisely because it was India’s urgency in the face of tight (and at timesdownright hostile) bowling that ultimately led to their downfall. Often thegreatest efforts are only appreciated in hindsight, and so it is with thesix-hour stand that Gambhir and Dravid compiled. To Johnny-come-lately fansof Twenty20 cricket, their caution was anathema, and Cricinfo’s feedbackservers buzzed with indignant fury. But, the moment they tried to up thetempo, the innings came tumbling down.For Gambhir and Dravid here, read Andrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood atChennai. Then, as now, the loss of the established centurions ruptured theremainder of the innings, as a succession of batsmen (most of them mightierthan anything England had left to offer last week) found themselves unableto hit the ground running in the manner that comes to them so naturally inthe 20-over game. VVS Laxman’s 24-ball duck was a collector’s item, whileYuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni – neither of whom would ordinarily bedescribed as boring – scratched around for scores in the mid-20s, atstrike-rates lower than either Gambhir or the serially-abused Dravid.That India were stretched to such an extent was ultimately down to two men,both of whom have been immense for England this series. Andrew Flintoff’smagnificent bowling was once again under-rewarded, though his analysis of30.2-10-54-3 does, for once, stand out from the crowd thanks to hisperfunctory docking of the tail. However, the man he most deserved todismiss once again eluded him. Yuvraj Singh had the last laugh at Chennaiwhen he treated the final day like a one-day run-chase, but when snappedback into a Test-match environment, Flintoff tormented him with his fastestspell since last summer’s Edgbaston duel with Jacques Kallis.Flintoff was straight, he found swing, he followed up his deliveries withwry grins and subtle remarks, and the threat of unlimited short ballsreduced Yuvraj to a latter-day Michael Bevan, shackled to the crease andsuspectible to wafts outside off stump. Alas for England, when the trap wasfinally sprung, Alastair Cook in the gully managed to shell one of theeasiest chances that can ever be offered in that position though Flintoff’sunfeasibly cheery grin made clear this was not exactly a rare occurrence.Aside from a single astonishing Test at Hamilton in March, Cook has perhapsthe worst pair of hands in the world game. How he is preferred toCollingwood in such a key catching position is a mystery.All the while that Flintoff was pummelling India’s middle order, hisspinning sidekick was wheeling through a tireless, probing and unbrokenafternoon spell. He found flight, variety and sharp turn, and drew hisbatsmen far enough forward to get them reaching for each delivery, but notso far that they were able to rock back and slap him past point. For thesecond match in a row, however, that man was not the familiar figure ofMonty Panesar, but instead Graeme Swann, whose stock is rising so rapidlythat, at this rate, it will be he and Jason Krejza who will go head to headat Cardiff in the Ashes next summer.Panesar has too much class to be written off as a force just yet, and withthe West Indies tour looming in February, he has plenty of opportunities tomake amends and find his elusive form. But the correlation he makes betweenwickets and morale is scary for a bowler of his experience. Swann bowled asif he expected to break through, and sure enough, did. Panesar, addicted tothe thrill of success, bowled as if he needed a breakthrough before he couldrelax, and didn’t.Not until late in the day, at any rate, and his relief was palpable as hecollapsed gratefully into the arms of Kevin Pietersen. Up until that point,he had been handed a solitary over before the new ball, in which twolong-hops were thumped for four. Then he was ignored until three oversbefore lunch – when he once again offered length and width, and easy runs -before being left to ruminate in the outfield for the entire afternoonsession.Swann too went for boundaries – five in 12 balls at one point as Gambhir andDravid looked to up their tempo – but he provoked risks in doing so,particularly from Gambhir, who late on in his innings developed a penchantfor staying leg-side of the ball and flailing through the off. It was anapproach that helped him past 150 for the second time in three Tests, butultimately it caused his downfall and triggered India’s collapse.England will need similar risks if they are to get back into this match, butno-one should blame them if their first instinct is survival. At Test level,you cannot reap until you have sown – unless of course you are VirenderSehwag, and even then you run the risk of the occasional third-ball duck. Ifthey are still batting by the close tomorrow night, with wickets in hand andminds clear of clutter, they have a chance to turn the game around. Butdon’t bet on it. Three miraculous matches in a week would be too much towish for.
