December 22, 2001	Saturday	Shawwal 6, 1422

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

BANGALORE, Dec 21: Pace bowler Matthew Hoggard ripped through India’s middle-order as England, seeking to level the series, took control of the third and final Test on the rain-hit third day on Friday.

Sachin Tendulkar (90) and Virender Sehwag (66) struck fighting knocks but India slumped to 218 for seven, still 118 runs behind England’s first innings 336, when play was called off due to rain with only 43 overs bowled in the day.

Anil Kumble was batting on 10 with Harbhajan Singh yet to score.

Hoggard swung the ball cleverly in overcast conditions to capture three wickets for 65 as India, overnight 99 for three, lost wickets as regular intervals.

But it was left-arm spinner Ashley Giles who got the prized scalp of Tendulkar, just 10 short of what would have been his 28th Test hundred. The wicket capped a see-saw war of nerves that began on Thursday due to Giles’s constant attack around Tendulkar’s legs.

Match referee Denis Lindsay issued a warning to both teams on Friday, asking them to play the game in its spirit, after Giles’s bowling led England skipper Nasser Hussain to have a heated exchange with Tendulkar.

Tendulkar played with his characteristic timing and precision. Aided by Sehwag, he put on 52 runs off 105 balls for the sixth wicket.

Both batsmen went after Giles in the post-lunch session spoiling the spinner’s economical morning figures of 11-8-9-0.

In a single over, Tendulkar lifted him on the onside and swept him for two successive boundaries.

But in the very next over, Giles got his revenge as Tendulkar charged down the track to heave him over the on-side, and James Foster behind the stumps took the bails off in a flash.

It was the first time in Tendulkar’s 12-year-old Test career that he was out stumped. He struck 13 fours in 198 balls. Giles ended the day with one wicket for 74 off 34 overs.

Sehwag took over the innings after Tendulkar’s departure, living dangerously in an entertaining innings studded with both flamboyant shots and careless lapses.

He had an early chance on one when Andrew Flintoff dropped him off the bowling of Hoggard at third slip as the ball flew just short of the fielder.

Not looking back, Sehwag got two fours later off successive deliveries from the bowler, steering him stylishly to third man and then executing a perfect square cut.

The batsman then twice punished Giles for two boundaries in an over. But the bull charge stopped at 218, when Hoggard used the second new ball to fox him with a late swinger.

Foster delightfully took the catch to end a 45-run partnership with Kumble.

Earlier in the day, Hoggard picked up from fellow speedster Flintoff’s top three wickets to have Rahul Dravid caught behind the stumps for a tiresome three off 61 balls.

Left-hander Saurav Ganguly (0) then hung his bat to an outswinger which flew to Mark Butcher at second slip, leaving India reeling at 121 for five.

Rain was a consistent spoilsport, taking off 107 minutes of play until tea in three separate interruptions which followed a delayed start in the morning.

India are one up in the series after winning the first Test at Mohali by 10 wickets. The second match at Ahmedabad was drawn.