Close India 218 for 7 (Tendulkar 90, Sehwag 66) trail England (336) by 118 runs
scorecard

Rain saves India is the sort of gallows-humour headline that English subs have dreamed up over the years, but this time it wouldn't quite be so tongue-in-cheek. On a day in which just 43 overs were possible because of the on-off showers India lost four big wickets while adding 119 runs, and when play was finally abandoned at 5pm local time, England led by 118 runs. A share of the series was still a possibility, but time was running out.

Sachin Tendulkar and his battle with Ashley Giles's leg theory again took centre stage, especially after lunch when Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag decided that enough was enough and started to play their strokes. For a while it paid off, and when Sehwag twinkled down the wicket to mow Giles over wide mid-on for four, Tendulkar took up the challenge. He replicated Sehwag's shot ("Anything you can do…"), then swept the next ball fine for four more with the irritation of a horse's tail swatting a fly. In the same over Tendulkar became the fifth man to reach 1000 Test runs in 2001 with two to midwicket, and he made it 12 off the over with a lofted two over extra-cover after giving himself some breathing space outside leg stump.

Tendulkar had moved into the nineties in a flurry, and nothing seemed more inevitable than the century that his patience deserved. Then, disaster. In Giles's next over, Tendulkar, still keen to teach him a lesson for all that tedious leg-stump stuff, charged again, missed and barely had time to reflect on his error before James Foster completed a simple stumping - the first time in 143 Test innings that Tendulkar had fallen that way. He was out for 90 and India were 173 for 6. Giles whooped and hollered, and Nasser Hussain somehow resisted the temptation to give him a kiss.

That wicket swung the balance of the match England's way, but Sehwag lit up a gloomy day with some glowing strokeplay. He defiantly bashed Giles over long-on for four and swept the next ball with forearms bulging to the boundary. A classy lofted off-drive for four off Giles was even better, and, after a break for rain, Sehwag moved to a 72-ball 50 with a nudge to long leg off Craig White. It was easy to see why India desperately hoped he had served his ban at Centurion.

Sehwag then thrilled the crowd with an audacious reverse-pull-cum-sweep for four off Giles, which was as good a way as any of sticking two fingers up at England's tactics, and hammered the next ball to the long-on boundary.

But the second new ball changed things, and in the fourth over with it Matthew Hoggard got one to hold its line and find Sehwag's outside edge. Foster did the rest and Sehwag was out for a 66 that promised more (218 for 7). Tea came two overs later, but so did the rain. India were relieved.

England won the morning session on points as well. Tendulkar played all the shots early on, pulling Giles for four, and working Andy Flintoff through square leg from outside off stump. But Rahul Dravid was like a stagnant pool to Tendulkar's flowing stream, and he was finally put out of his misery when Hoggard found the outside edge with another immaculate seaming off-stump delivery. With Dravid out for a 61-ball 3, India were 121 for 4.

The crowd had barely woken up when Sourav Ganguly was on his way for 0, nicking a flat-footed push off Hoggard to Mark Butcher at second slip (121 for 5). That made it one half-century in 25 Test innings. If England win this game, Ganguly's future will be in serious doubt.

Sehwag edged Hoggard just out of Flintoff's reach at third slip but was soon playing his naturally attractive game, flicking Hoggard behind square for four, and square-driving him for another boundary. He seemed to be the partner Tendulkar needed. And for a while he was. But by the close, and for the second Test in a row, England had India on the run.

Lawrence Booth is assistant editor of Wisden.com.

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