LONDON, July 28: England strike bowler Matthew Hoggard took three wickets in 32 balls on Sunday to reduce the India batting to ruins and set the home side up for a sweeping victory in the first Test at Lord’s.
Set 568 to win on a dry pitch starting to show signs of wear, India were 232 for six in their second innings with V.V.S. Laxman unbeaten on 38.
The key wicket on Sunday was that of Sachin Tendulkar who failed for the second time in the match. Tendulkar, who fell for 16 in the first innings, was again unconvincing, lasting only 35 balls for 12 runs before Hoggard sent his stumps flying with the fourth ball of a new spell. Tendulkar was Hoggard’s 50th Test victim in his 12th Test.
Captain Saurav Ganguly went next ball, lbw to a delivery which appeared to pitch outside the leg-stump and, at 140 for four, the game was effectively over for India.
Hoggard followed up with the dismissal of wicketkeeper Ajay Ratra (1), skilfully caught by Mark Butcher diving to his left at gully after left-arm slow bowler Ashley Giles had dismissed top-scorer Rahul Dravid for a patient 63 including 10 boundaries.
The game was effectively won and lost on Saturday when Tendulkar and his team mates could not come to terms with disciplined England pace bowling from what, with the exception of Hoggard, is a second-string attack. Three first-choice pace bowlers — Darren Gough, Andy Caddick and Alex Tudor — were unavailable through injury.
Hoggard, the most successful if not necessarily the best bowler in India’s first innings of 221 in reply to England’s 487, was both this time. He kept a consistent off-stump line and exploited any variations of bounce to the full to finish with three for 45 from 14 overs.
India, who started their second innings half an hour before lunch after Nasser Hussain had declared England’s second innings at 301 for six, began at a gallop.
Hoggard was unlucky not to capture the wicket of Wasim Jaffer before the interval when Giles at gully was slow to react to a ball which lobbed off the shoulder of the bat. Then Virender Sehwag, who had not added to his lunch score of three, was dropped by Hussain at third slip off Hoggard, getting both hands to the ball but then seeing it fall to the ground.
The India openers took the total to 61, scoring at five runs an over, before Simon Jones beat Sehwag for pace and ripped his off-stump out of the ground. Sehwag had scored 27 with five boundaries.
Jaffer completed a competent half-century, his third in six Tests, before Michael Vaughan followed his third Test century with his first Test wicket. Jaffer, whose 53 contained seven boundaries, edged the part-time off-spinner to Hussain at slip.
Laxman was again left with the tail, but batted effectively with Ajit Agarkar (28 not out) to add 52 runs in an unbeaten seventh-wicket partnership.
Earlier, Vaughan took his overnight score of 81 to exactly a hundred before slicing left-arm pace bowler Ashish Nehra to Jaffer in the gully. His second test century at Lord’s this summer had taken 141 balls and contained 11 sweetly-struck boundaries.
John Crawley consolidated his position in the side by following his first innings 64 with 100 not out, after which Hussain declared. Crawley hit eight boundaries from 132 balls.
ENGLAND (1st Innings) 487 (N. Hussain 155, J.P. Crawley 64, A. Flintoff 59, C. White 53).
INDIA (1st Innings) 221 (V. Sehwag 84).
ENGLAND (2nd Innings, overnight 184-3):
M.A. Butcher lbw b Kumble 18
M.P. Vaughan c Ratra b Nehra 100
N. Hussain c Ratra b Agarkar 12
G.P. Thorpe c Ganguly b Kumble 1
J.P. Crawley not out 100
A. Flintoff c Tendulkar b Nehra 7
A.J. Stewart st Ratra b Kumble 33
C. White not out 6
EXTRAS (B-5, LB-14, NB-5) 24
TOTAL (for six dec, 64.4 overs) 301
FALL OF WKTS: 1-32, 2-65, 3-76, 4-213, 5-228, 6-287.
BOWLING: Nehra 14-1-80-2 (4nb); Zaheer Khan 11-1-41-0 (1nb); Kumble 24-1-84-3; Agarkar 11.4-1-53-1; Tendulkar 2-0-14-0; Sehwag 2-0-10-0
INDIA (2nd Innings):
W. Jaffer c Hussain b Vaughan 53
V. Sehwag b Jones 27
R.S. Dravid b Giles 63
S.R. Tendulkar b Hoggard 12
S.C. Ganguly lbw b Hoggard 0
V.V.S. Laxman not out 38
A. Ratra c Butcher b Hoggard 1
A.B. Agarkar not out 28
EXTRAS (B-4, LB-2, W-1, NB-3) 10
TOTAL (for six wkts, 68 overs) 232
FALL OF WKTS: 1-61, 2-110, 3-140, 4-140, 5-165, 6-170.
BOWLING (to-date): Hoggard 14-5-45-3; Flintoff 13-2-62-0 (2nb); White 9-1-32-0 (1nb); Jones 11-0-38-1 (1w); Giles 16-5-42-1; Vaughan 5-2-7-1.—Reuters