Cricket/ Third Test: India, truly abject when they needed inspiration, surrendered the third Test in 74 madcap minutes after lunch yesterday as England's bowlers rose magnificently to the occasion.
Shaun Udal took four of the last six wickets at a cost of 14 runs, thereby showing that even the oldest dog can have his day. He may never play another Test but what a memory to take with him.
The team had been lifted, said the victorious England captain Andy Flintoff afterwards, by listening to Ring of Fire during the interval just as they have done all winter in times of need, a real Cash bonus if ever there was one. Imagine what they could do on something really subversive. Never before in a completed fourth innings of a home match have India made fewer than the 100 they reached yesterday and only six times in any completed innings.
Only Sachin Tendulkar (34) and Yuvraj Singh (12) reached double figures in yesterday's play.
The win, by 212 runs - a remarkable margin given the cut-and-thrust nature of the first four days - was, in terms of runs, India's heaviest defeat at home by England and levelled a series that had seemed beyond England's reach after the defeat in Mohali last week. For two young sides, both in transition, some of it planned, much of it forced, it represents a fair result but it is Flintoff's side that will be remembered for the strength of their finishing and it was they who went on a lap of honour which kept the ceremonials waiting. Given the low level of expectation after the gradual fragmenting of the Ashes winning side, Mumbai 2006 will rank alongside the performances of last summer as one of the finest achievements of the Duncan Fletcher era.
Once again Flintoff was a gigantic influential figure. To bowl as he has done might have been expected from someone who has to be the world's premier fast bowler. But to make such a marked improvement in his batting, against the sort of high-class spin that barely nine months ago had him flummoxed, is remarkable.
Above all he has coaxed performances from those given the opportunity through the absence of others: Alastair Cook, with his composed century on debut; Monty Panesar's nerveless performances; Paul Collingwood's tenacity; James Anderson's vibrant return; Owais Shah's debut; and Udal's finest hour.
Others, too, found inspiration in Flintoff's presence. Andrew Strauss, for example, finally threw off the winter blues and made the only hundred of the final match, while Geraint Jones conjured a scintillating performance behind the stumps that made some of his more blundering days seem incongruous. Then there was Matthew Hoggard, who has elevated his skills to a new plane.
The win in the Wankhede Stadium has wiped clean the slate after the disappointment in Pakistan. Two wickets in the space of six balls immediately after lunch broke the back of any Indian resistance. Flintoff and Hoggard had taken a wicket apiece early in the morning session but were now being thwarted by Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, the one inevitably, the other less so given his form this series.
Whereas Dravid was at his most obdurate, spending almost two hours over nine runs, Tendulkar, cheered to the wicket, was starting to unload some vintage strokes.
To Flintoff, three balls after lunch, went the first blow, as Dravid's bat flickered out like a snake's tongue and Jones took the catch. Only Joshua and the citizens of Berlin can have been more delighted than Flintoff at the fall of The Wall.
His celebratory leaps would have been registered by seismologists throughout Asia.
Six balls later, at the other end, Udal produced the clincher, a ball that Tendulkar could only flick via bat and pad to the diving Ian Bell at short-leg, a classical dismissal of a classical batsman. It sparked a shameful procession of batsmen each guilty of the sort of indiscretion in the circumstances that might have the Indian coach Greg Chappell querying their stomach for a scrap.
None was more guilty than the pin-up boy Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who had batted with creditable restraint in the first innings but whose ambition yesterday to hit Udal's off-spin into the next state would have been inappropriate in a Twenty20 slogfest.
That he survived one steepling chance to poor Panesar, circling helplessly and hopelessly at mid-off before ending up in a different postcode to the ball, was his good fortune. To repeat the shot two balls later and give the fielder an opportunity at redemption, which to his immense credit, not to say relief, he took, demonstrated the brains of a poppadum.
- Guardian Service
THIRD TEST (Fifth Day)
England beat India by 212 runs
Overnight: England 400 (A J Strauss 128, O A Shah 88, A Flintoff 50; S Sreesanth 4-70) and 191 (A Flintoff 50; A Kumble 4-49). India 279 (M S Dhoni 64, R Dravid 52; J M Anderson 4-40) and 18-1.
INDIA SECOND INNINGS
W Jaffer lbw b Flintoff 10
A Kumble lbw b Hoggard 8
R Dravid c G O Jones b Flintoff 9
S R Tendulkar c Bell b Udal 34
Yuvraj Singh c Collingwood b Flintoff 12
V Sehwag lbw b Anderson 0
M S Dhoni c Panesar b Udal ..................5
Harbhajan Singh c Hoggard b Udal 6
S Sreesanth not out 0
M M Patel c Hoggard b Udal 1
Extras b1 lb4 w1 nb3 pens 0 9
Total (48.2 overs) 100
Fall: 1-6 2-21 3-33 4-75 5-76 6-77 7-92 8-99 9-99. Bowling: Hoggard 12 6 13 1 Anderson 12 2 39 2 Panesar 4 1 15 0 Flintoff 11 4 14 3 Udal 9.2 3 14 4.
