Sehwag assault leaves Test wide open

R Eswar

Chennai, Dec 14 (PTI) Virender Sehwag's explosive
counter-attack Sunday threw the first cricket Test between
India and England wide open with the hosts needing 256 more
runs on a tricky last day track to pull off a dramatic win.

Set a stiff target of 387 for victory, the dashing Sehwag
launched a blistering assault to score a quickfire 83 off just
68 balls and steer India to a comfortable 131 for one at close
on a pulsating fourth day's play.

Sehwag set the M A Chidambaram stadium ablaze with a
display of stunning strokeplay to suddenly raise hopes of an
Indian victory which looked unlikely when England declared
their second innings at 311 for nine shortly after the tea
break.

Gautam Gambhir (41) and Rahul Dravid (2) were at the
crease at stumps on a day which saw fortune fluctuating from
one team to the other till the very end.

With a rollicking 117-run start provided by Sehwag and
Gambhir, the other top order batsmen need to play positively
to get the remaining 256 runs to win the Test which seemed
headed for a nail-biting finish.

Earlier, Andrew Strauss became only the second Englishman
to score a century in each innings against India as he crafted
a patient 108 and was involved in a record 214-run fourth
wicket partnership with Paul Collingwood (108).

Collingwood notched up his seventh Test century and his
second against India but after his departure, none of the
other batsmen could hang around for long as wickets kept
tumbling at regular intervals in the post-lunch session.

Only three teams have successfully chased a target of
over 387 in the fourth innings in Test history.

While West Indies have the record of the highest run
chase of 418/7 against Australia at St. Johns in 2003, India
is second in the list for successfully chasing 406 against the
West Indies at Port of Spain in 1976.

The only other team to have scored more than 400 runs in
the fourth innings is Australia who scored 404/3 against
England at Leeds in 1948.

Resuming at the overnight score of 172 for three, Strauss
and Collingwood continued the good work as the duo frustrated
the Indians to take the score to 244 without being separated.
In the pre-lunch session, England added 72 runs in 26
overs stretching the lead from an achievable to a difficult
task for the Indians.

Strauss, who scored 123 in the first innings, not only
became the tenth batsman to score a century in each innings
but also brought about the highest-ever partnership for the
fourth wicket in Test matches held in Chennai by a visiting
team in the company of Collingwood.

The duo bettered the earlier best of Dean Jones and Allan
Border who had a partnership of 178 in the famous tied Test
(second in the history of cricket) here in 1987.
The post lunch session turned out to be more productive
for the Indians as five wickets fell in the session with
strike bowler Zaheer Khan doing the bulk of the damage.

The visitors lost some of the momentum as they not only
lost a few quick wickets but could manage to add just 57 runs
in 22.5 overs in the session.

Indian bowlers, who could not take a single wicket in the
morning session, had to toil for 72 overs before Harbhajan
Singh started the England collapse by removing the milestone
man Strauss for 108.

Zaheer then removed another England centurion Paul
Collingwood (108), Steve Harmison (1) and Graeme Swann (7)
while Ishant scalped the wicket of dangerous Andrew Flintoff
(4).

After the hard grind without success till lunch, Indian
bowlers bowled in the right areas and the England batsmen too
started going for shots.

Strauss, Flintoff and Collingwood paid the penalty for
their poor shot selection, and three England wickets fell in
just 8.5 overs adding only 20 runs.

Harbhajan started tossing the ball luring the batsmen to
play forward and in one such occasion, Strauss came out to
drive but seemed to have checked himself and offered a
straight forward catch to VVS Laxman at short cover.

Strauss, who witnessed Collingwood glance for a single to
reach his deserving century only in the previous delivery,
failed to restrain himself going for a loose shot and shook
his head in disappointment.

But before that he became the second England batsman to
score a century in each innings against India after Graham
Gooch (333+123) at Lord's in 1990 and tenth overall England
player to achieve the feat against any team.

Collingwood showed his tenacity of achieving his second
hundred in his six matches against India and seventh overall
since debut in 2003 against Sri Lanka in Galle. His hundred
came in 324 minutes, from 227 balls and had nine fours.

Ishant intimidated a temperamental Flintoff with two
bouncers and then bowled a short pitched delivery on the off
stump and the batsman, without any foot movement, stretched
his bat and edged to Dhoni behind the wicket.

A tired-looking Collingwood was then trapped plumb in
front of the wicket to Zaheer missing the line of an incoming
ball. He had stayed for 374 minutes at the crease facing 250
balls and had reached the fence on nine occasions.

Graeme Swann, who came in at the fall of Collingwood, was
dropped by Gautam Gambhir of the bowling of Harbhajan but the
batsman did not survive long as he was clean bowled by Zaheer
in the very next over.

England declared their second innings at 311 for nine
about 15 minutes after the tea break. The declaration came
after Zaheer castled Steve Harmison. PTI RE
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