Matthew Hoggard: It was nice to come back on and get some swing
Santosh S - 21 December 2001

Matthew Hoggard took three wickets on Friday to destroy the Indian middle order 28k

"Never forget that it is the spirit with which you endow your work that makes it useful or futile." --- Adelaide Hasse

It was a dull day in Bangalore with dark clouds, drizzle, rain and frequent stoppages. And, that was not going to deter this highly inexperienced England side from trying hard to pull off the impossible. If it was Andrew Flintoff who picked up three wickets on day-two, it was the turn of Matthew Hoggard to hog all the limelight of day-three.

Hoggard picked up the wickets of Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Virender Sehwag to destroy the Indian middle over. The Yorkshire-man who will turn 25 on the last day of the year, was the toast of the day, getting the ball to swing a lot and having the Indian batsmEn in all kinds of trouble.

The reasonably big English contingent kept cheering 'Hoggy Hoggy' every time he raced in to bowl. Hoggy replaced Flintoff at the pavilion end and immediately started to swing the ball a great deal; a perfect outswinger was good enough to put out Dravid's (three off 63 balls) misery out, nicking it to James Foster.

The Indian skipper must have been relieved to come in when Flintoff had been given some rest. If Ganguly had expected the short pitched stuff, he was wrong, it was another beauty of an outswinger to the left-hander that induced the edge to Butcher at second slip. The Englishmen couldn't hide their joy in sending back Ganguly for a duck.

Soon after lunch, Hoggard had beaten Tendulkar with two consecutive outswingers; the master batsman had survived by the skin of the teeth, failing to find the edge of the bat. Virender Sehwag was his third victim of the day, after failing to get an edge for almost 14 times of playing and missing, Hoggard did the trick with the new ball, Foster taking a good catch to his right.

Then came the rain and played a big spoilsport leaving the umpires no choice other than call it quits for the day. CricInfo caught up with a cheerful Hoggard in the evening. Talking about his success with the ball, Hoggard said, "It is nice to see some carry in the wicket and the ball has been swinging."

About the umpteen number of times he kept beating Virender Sehwag with those outswingers he said, "It is very frustrating, you can bowl well and not get wickets and on other days you can bowl like a bag of spanners and get some wickets. It just swings in roundabouts."

The young fast bowler was given a spell of six overs on the second day and Hussain had relatively forgotten him. About which Hoggard said, "There were guys who were bowling well, we are much of a team and whoever is bowling well can bowl. It was nice to come back on and get some swing."

About the prodigious swing that he was able to produce under the overcast conditions Hoggard said with a chuckle, "It is the first time on tour. Once it starts swinging, it is hard to get the ball out of my hands." He went on to add, "It took us two Test matches and 60 overs of this Test match to get the ball swinging. We don't what we have done, so hopefully we can get it swinging tomorrow morning."

Poor young Richard Dawson has not bowled a single ball yet in the Indian first innings. Hoggard is optimistic about Dawson's chances, "Obviously we have a ploy. Richard hasn't figured in this innings so far, hopefully he might figure in the second innings and get some wickets."

Hoggard has spent a season with the Orange Free State in South Africa as their overseas professional. His stay in Bloemfontein has helped him a lot. The young man must have learnt a lot from the `white lightning' Allan Donald. Talking about the three big wickets he snared on Friday, Hoggard said, "It is nice to be in the wickets, nice to see some classic dismissals as well, things are looking good."

England would have done far better had their senior pros like Darren Gough and Andrew Caddick made the trip. Flintoff and Hoggard have made most of the bizarre situation, putting together some sterling show with the ball. "It is nice to be able to come out to India and prove that you are good enough. It will be nice to see Goughie and Caddick back, for they are class players."

Looking forward to the remaining days of the Bangalore Test, Hoggard reckoned, "Rain has played the spoilsport, but we got two days left and we can force a result." Whether the weather will stay good is a big question. No matter what, this English team has got better with the tour. They would definitely go back home as a better side and Hoggard will be one of the big positives to emerge from it.