India’s opening pair appeared to have luck on their side but their fighting performance suggests they made their luck
Sambit Bal at Trent Bridge28-Jul-2007
Throughout the first two sessions, India had the fractions running for them, as all the marginal lbw decisions went in favour of batsmen © Getty Images
From the evidence available so far in this series, it would seem God has taken up residence in India. The escape at Lord’s was nothing if not providential and, at Trent Bridge, the breaks have all gone in their way so far proving – not the for the first time – cricket is as much a game of luckas it is of skill and pluck. And, above all, it is a game of fractions.Throughout the first two sessions, India had the fractions running for them. Balls kept evading the edge by the thinnest of margins, catches fell short marginally and all the marginal lbw decisions went in favour of batsmen.India were 149 for 1 at tea, which, if you were not watching, wouldhave pointed to utter dominance by the batsmen or complete ineffectivenessof bowlers, or both. The truth is that it was none. The ball seamed andswung all day and James Anderson, Chris Tremlett and Ryan Sidebottom beat thebat repeatedly, sometimes off successive balls. They would have bowled muchworse for far more but today was the kind of day when nothing would stick.Nothing should be taken away from Wasim Jaffer and Dinesh Karthik. On paperthe weakest links in the Indian batting line-up, they have managed fourfifties between them in three innings so far on this tour. When journalists in the pressbox wondered about when an Indian opening pair had last put on ahundred outside the subcontinent, it was easy to point them in the direction of Cape Town , where these two ran up 153.And crediting luck doesn’t do justice to their fighting performance here. In conditions such as today’s, even Geoffrey Boycott would haveplayed and missed. Under the circumstances Jaffer and Karthik were gutsy,skilful, and nothing short of heroic. Not only did they survive, they madeuse of every scoring opportunity. You could say that they made their luck. Under the circumstances Jaffer and Karthik were gutsy,skilful, and nothing short of heroic. Not only did they survive, they madeuse of every scoring opportunity. You could say that they made their luck England nevertheless will rue their lack of fortune. Nothing would illustrateit better than two overs after the lunch break that fetched India 18 runs.Karthik hit two gorgeous fours off Paul Collingwood’s first over, the first aninventive cover drive that was played off a horizontal bat after taking acouple of paces down the wicket; a couple of balls later, he drove downthe wicket. In between, though, an uppish drive landed narrowly short of JamesAnderson at cover and the next ball looped off the leading edge but landed wellshort of mid-on.The next over, two fours were taken off Tremlett. Jaffer drove the first onethrough the covers but the next one was squeezed between gully and second slip.Tremlett induced another edge the following ball but Ian Bell, diving to his leftat gully, couldn’t hold on to it. On another day, England could have had twowickets in those two overs; today they leaked 18 runs.And on another day, Monty Panesar could have had two wickets in his firsttwo overs. With his first ball, he caught Karthik sweeping plumb in frontand, given how progressive umpires have been about lbws in the series so far,the decision seemed only a formality. But Ian Howell, the South Africanumpire who had handed out two leg-befores yesterday, though against pace bowlers,negated it. Jaffer escaped when equally plumb the next over.Not that a lot should be read into this because India have worked hard totake command of this Test. If, however, they don’t go on to win this Test afterhaving all the luck in the match so far, they will know just whom to blame.