By Tanya Aldred in Hyderabad
Friday, November 23, 2001

It's not often that the sight of a hobbling spinner doing a bit of fielding raises the spirits. But on a demoralising day for England, Ashley Giles did just that.

And after three and a half months without even a bowl, Giles enjoyed it. "My legs felt a bit heavy – I've been doing a bit of running today and some gym work yesterday so cumulatively it's made them a bit tired - but it is just nice to get out with the lads and get stuck in again.

"It is very heavy ground, with bits of new turf everywhere, which makes it pretty uneven to run on at times. It was a good test, put it that way, and the Achilles seems to be fine. I'm pretty pleased with how it's gone."

But, if optimistic about his Achilles, and now bowling up to 45 minutes in the nets, he was realistic about his chances of playing at Mohali - they depend on him being fit for the last warm-up match at Jaipur on Tuesday.

"I wouldn't expect myself just to go into a match and hit my straps from ball one, I would need some match overs under my belt. I want to get into it now and give myself a chance of playing in the Tests."

Giles could only watch from the outfield as Richard Dawson and Martyn Ball struggled against the rubbery wrists of the Board XI, and he sympathised: "It's difficult for the guys, we're still learning. It's very hard work on these pitches against blokes who play very well on turning, slow wickets.

"We're going have to come up with some game plan for both the spin department and the seam department. It is going to be tough to get 20 wickets out here, it is going to be a real battle."

The man who made a hundred today, Sridharan Sriram, seemed to agree. "I think England would have been a little demoralised," he said with a smile, "because they've got to bowl to the likes of Sachin, Sourav and Rahul and the score here is an ominous 256 for 2 and we're only a second-string."

This produced many a guttural belly-laugh from the local reporters, but Sriram, unbeaten on 120 at the close, wasn't entirely negative about England.

"Initially I thought that even the spinners bowled really well, but as the ball got softer the bite was not there off the wicket and that's when they struggled a little bit. Ball, I think, bowled reasonably well."

Sriram pinpointed the dismissal of Dinesh Mongia as the key moment because it brought in Jacob Martin, a right-hander, and the left-right combination gave England's bowlers the run-around. "That's where I capitalised because they started bowling a little bit on both sides of the wicket."

Tanya Aldred, our assistant editor, is covering the whole tour for Wisden.com.

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