India 103 for 5 (Dravid 57*, Dhoni
5*) trail England 591 for 6 dec
(Bell 235, Pietersen 175) by 488
runs The whitewash is well and truly
on. Despite another session being
lost to rain, and the best efforts
of Rahul Dravid, England surged
at The Oval as India were left in
tatters on 103 for 5 in reply to the hosts' massive 591 for 6. Ian
Bell carried his serene maiden
Test double to 235 then, after a
three-hour delay, Virender
Sehwag was removed in the first
over of India's reply and a succession of team-mates,
including Sachin Tendulkar,
followed him with Graeme Swann
making a major impression with
three wickets. England would probably have
carried on their run-glut
towards 650 - or even
consecutive scores of 700,
something that has never been
done - had the weather not closed in at lunch and, despite a
damp outfield, it was a fairly
straightforward decision for
Andrew Strauss to let his
bowlers loose during a long final
session. After a quiet time this is looking like Swann's match with
substantial turn already on offer
out of the footmarks. If he is the
matchwinner it really will be the
complete series for England. Having seen Swann's first ball
turn from RP Singh's
followthrough Tendulkar tried to
counter the threat by sweeping.
It took Swann a little time to
settle, but the sweep proved Tendulkar's downfall when he
gloved a chance over the
wicketkeeper's head and James
Anderson jogged round to hold
the catch. Suresh Raina was given a torrid
time by pace and spin and
couldn't open his account before
being brilliantly stumped by Matt
Prior for a 29-ball duck - the
joint longest by an India batsman - as Swann spun one sharply
past a lunging prod. The foot
was probably on the line, but it
was a brave decision from the
third umpire Steve Davis. To cap
Swann's best day of the series he had nightwatchman Ishant
Sharma caught at short leg two
overs before the close. India's problems were
compounded by Gautam Gambhir
suffering concussion following the
blow he took to the head while
dropping Kevin Pietersen on
Friday which meant India had to shuffle their line-up again.
However, even if Dravid had
remained at No. 3 he wouldn't
have had a long wait. There he
was at the close, defiant on 57,
with another mountain to climb. Sehwag at least avoided a third
golden duck after his king pair
at Edgbaston but didn't go much
further. After two sighters
outside off stump he played a
pair of trademark back-foot drives off Anderson who
responded with a delivery that
nipped back to trap Sehwag lbw
in front of middle and leg. It
meant the sum total of his series
was eight balls, eight runs and three dismissals while, for the
fourth time in the series, India
had lost a wicket in the opening
over. When it comes to changing India's
batting line-up Tendulkar never
shifts so it was VVS Laxman at
No. 3 where he hasn't been
comfortable during this series. He
received an excellent delivery from Stuart Broad that seamed
away to take the outside edge
as England's quicks extracted far
more life from the surface than
India's bowlers managed. And so,
for the seventh innings in a row, there was a standing ovation as
a batsman walked to the middle. Tendulkar didn't settle during his
innings, seemingly always
distracted by problems with the
sightscreen and troubled by the
pace bowlers. He ducked into a
bouncer from Broad (although responded with a flowing on-
drive), offered a return chance
to Tim Bresnan who couldn't hold
on with his left hand and was
very late on another delivery
from Bresnan that wasn't far from being lbw. For once, though,
it was spin not pace that ended
the latest attempt at 100
hundreds. Amid all this Dravid held firm. If
anything, he started his innings
with more positive intent than is
often the case. That meant
positive in defence, too, which
sends an equally important message to bowlers, not that
boundaries were in short supply
as he hit nine in a fifty that
came from 93 deliveries. Dravid apart, none of India's
batsmen have shined whereas
each of the opposition have
played their part and here it
was Bell's turn to join the
double-hundred club, the first time England had made three in
a series since 1938. His 20th
boundary took him to his
milestone and celebrated with a
dismissive pull through midwicket.
He continued to have few problems as he eased along
against defensive fields until
missing an aggressive sweep
against Raina. Although the game had already
been taken well away from India,
Sreesanth at least bowled with a
bit more verve during the
morning session and showed the
passion that has been lacking from India's performances. When
Anderson jabbed to second slip
he was given a long stare by
Sreesanth and he also accounted
for Eoin Morgan who edged
behind for 1, playing away from his body which is still an area of
concern with Morgan's game at
Test level. At least Morgan's failure meant
Ravi Bopara didn't have to spend
another day watching his team-
mates pile on the runs even if
487 for 5 didn't exactly
represent a pressure situation. As at Edgbaston he looked
jittery, but the nerves were
settled a little as he clipped a
boundary to fine leg and cut the
medium-pace of RP Singh
through point. However, he should have been
run out on 38 when there was
confusion with Prior over a single
to backward point but the
throw from Sehwag to Amit
Mishra was poor. Mishra, meanwhile, continued to struggle
with figures of none for 170. A
poor piece of fielding and a set
of horror bowling figures were
two apt ways to sum up India's
series. It will take a huge effort to avoid 4-0 from here.
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