England win in Mumbai

England triumph in Tendulkar’s backyard
By: Akshay A. Kalbag
England has just won the third Test against India (and levelled the series at 1-1) at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, which makes it the visitors’ first win in 21 years in India. The last time the Englishmen won a Test in India was in 1985, under the captaincy of David Gower. They came to India after losing a series in Pakistan, but that did not seem to affect their performance in the third Test against the Indians in Sachin Tendulkar’s hometown. In fact, the Englishmen ruthlessly outplayed the hosts in every department of the game with the same confidence that saw them emerge victorious in five series prior to their tour of the Indian sub–continent, including the Ashes triumph.
The tourists looked a depleted lot when they arrived in India minus the services of three of their key players–captain Michael Vaughan, left–arm spinner Ashley Giles and fast bowler Simon Jones. They faced two further blows when left–handed opening batsman Marcus Trescothick pulled out of the tour citing personal reasons and paceman Stephen Harmison was ruled out of the third Test with an injury. This forced England’s selectors to pick a younger, fitter side, led by all–rounder Andrew Flintoff. Flintoff, who is fast emerging as the successor to the legendary Ian Botham as a match–winner in his own right, with consistent performances with both the bat and the ball, had at his disposal the talents of a couple of players who were making their comebacks and a bunch of young lads who were wearing England colours for the first time in their careers. The selectors were justified in giving the careers of batsman Paul Collingwood and seamer James Anderson a new lease of life as they were back in the squad after a long gap. As for the fresh faces in the team, opener Alastair Cook, middle–order batsman Owais Shah and left–arm spinner Monty Panesar (the first Sikh to play Test cricket for England) also gave a good account of themselves by adjusting well to the tough Indian conditions and performing consistently.
The Mumbai Test commenced with Indian captain Rahul Dravid, playing in his hundredth Test match (thus becoming only the sixth Indian to play a hundred Tests) winning the toss and putting the visitors in to bat (a move which he would go on to rue later). Cashing on the opportunity, Flintoff’s side piled up a mammoth total of 400, before restricting the hosts to 279. A healthy first innings lead of 121, coupled with England’s second innings score of 191 meant that India had a day to spare and a huge target of 313 to chase. Resming on the fifth day of the Test at 18 for 1, India slumped to one of their most pathetic totals ever-100 all out. England won the match by a comfortable margin of 212 runs. As far as appearances are concerned, there were personal milestones for Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar (who was playing in his 132nd Test match on his home ground, making him the highest–capped Indian cricketer), but the two senior cricketers in the Indian side had nothing memorable to take back from this match. Sachin Tendulkar was, in fact, booed off the pitch by the noisy Mumbai crowd because of his prolonged bad patch. He was also bogged down by injuries in the last couple of years and has, since then, been woefully short of confidence. The ‘Master Blaster’, as Tendulkar is known, will take no part in the one–day internationals that follow this three–Test series. While his team–mates battle it out in a series of seven one–dayers against England, Tendulkar will spend the next couple of months recuperating from the injuries that have been plaguing him off–late. The ace batsman, who incidentally top–scored with 34 out of India’s paltry total of 100 in the second innings, will now proceed to London, where he will undergo surgery.
The question in the minds of his countless fans, and indeed the entire nation, is: will Sachin Tendulkar make a comeback and overcome his poor run of form, or is it the end of yet another glorious era in Indian cricket? Hopefully, the champion batsman will be able to answer that with consistent scores in his forthcoming innings, rather than signalling the abrupt end of his international career.