England exemplary as India shoot themselves in the foot

It would be fair to say that cricketers of no country understand the value of a good line more than England. In more ways than one. From Derek Pringle to Angus Fraser, several practitioners of the seemingly dying art of bowling line-and-length medium pace have exchanged their bowling spikes for laptop computers and bylines in leading newspapers. You know they'll be beaming when they sit down with a good bottle of red at the end of the day and knock out their pieces. With what is the oldest established principal in the game - bowling with discipline, England's seamers sent India reeling.

When the Indians left the Crown Plaza Hotel on the morning of the third day, they would have been worried that the sun that shone down so hard on the second day seemed to be taking a breather, nestling behind a thick fluff of cumulo nimbus. And as you know, some Indian cricketers don't believe in saving anything for a rainy day. When the sun shone, it was the England batsmen who made merry, piling on the agony, and the runs, in a day that saw them reach 487. When they had a chance to respond in kind, India faltered.

After losing Wasim Jaffer early, one would have thought there would be an extended period of consolidation. There was after all, plenty of time left in the game. Virender Sehwag, batting as only he can, slapped the ball to the fence with ease, and again, as only he can, threw it all away just three overs before stumps for 84. In a masterclass programme for Channel 4 in Hampshire, Sachin Tendulkar stressed the importance of playing your natural game. Sehwag's adulation for Tendulkar is well documented, but one wishes he could have put aside notions of playing his `natural game' for a few overs as the day wound to a close. He did not, and lost his wicket.

Then came that stroke of genius, sending Ashish Nehra in as nightwatchman. With Anil Kumble and supposed all-rounder Ajit Agarkar as possible options, the Indian team in its infinite wisdom sent out a man who does not inspire the slightest bit of confidence. After shouldering arms to a straight one from Andrew Flintoff and being palpably lbw, only for the umpire to deny the appeal, Nehra was on his way after facing just 8 balls. From a fairly handy 128/1 India were 130/3 in the space of a short spell of play that would have infuriated coach John Wright.

The first session of the third day, however, would have made the coach proud. The England coach, that is. Duncan Fletcher and Nasser Hussain make the best of whatever team is available to them at the moment - often without the services of Darren Gough and Andy Caddick. The third day of the first Test saw probably the finest display of controlled bowling the cricket world has seen in recent times. Keeping the ball in the right spot with the regularity and accuracy that would have made Glenn McGrath proud, the English seamers made run-scoring difficult. In the course of the first hour of play, just two loose balls were on offer, and both resulted in boundaries, one each to Dravid and Tendulkar. But that was it.

And the moment Flintoff got a ball to jump off a length to send Dravid back, the England team were onto something. Then came the worst shot of the day, prompted again by the tactics. After several overs with the leg trap in place, Hussain threw the ball to Craig White at the Nursery End. Bowling a heavy ball, there or thereabouts, just outside off, White pushed one across a bit further. Tendulkar slashed hard, but not hard enough. Alec Stewart snapped up the resultant nick and the man they call the best batsman in the world was gone for 16.

Ganguly, not the best player to have coming in when the seamers have established a good rhythm and the ball is doing a bit, played well away from his body to present Michael Vaughan at gully with a catch. When Ganguly, who did not make it to double figures, made his way back to the pavilion, India were 177/6. The Indian batting line-up has again shown how it can crumble in the face of decent bowling.

As Neville Cardus once said as a boy in England many years ago, that the perfect scenario was for Victor Trumper to get a hundred in an Australian total of 120 all out. Trumper apart, the tone for the day was set by Tendulkar, who is yet to stand tall at the home of cricket. In this, his, third Test at Lord's Tendulkar boasts a highest score of just 31.

"What Tendulkar can do, we can do worse," proved the Indian batsmen that followed the little man, perishing to some truly forgettable shots. Indians have always been good at shooting themselves in the foot, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Today was a big day for Indian shooting, with a pair winning the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in a suburb of Manchester. All congratulations to that pair, but it would be better if Indian cricket did not imitate their counterparts with the rifles.