Close India 584 for 4 (Tendulkar 185*)
Scorecard

Maybe this pitch isn't so bad after all. On the second day at Headingley, India's Holy Trinity of Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly all made outstanding hundreds as England endured a day of sheer, undiluted pain.

Tendulkar led the way with a glorious unbeaten 185, his highest score against England and one that has given India complete control of the match. It was his 30th Test hundred, which took him past Don Bradman and leaves him behind only Sunil Gavaskar (34) on the alltime list.

He added 150 with Dravid, whose marathon innings ended at 148, and a record 249 with Ganguly, who cudgelled a brilliant 128. Thanks to a stunning finale, in which 90 came off the last 8.1 overs as the second new ball went everywhere, India hared to 584 for 4 at the close, their highest score at Headingley and one that gives them a big chance of squaring the series.

England began the day as they meant to go on, by bowling dismally in a truncated morning session, with Andy Caddick cutting a particularly miserable figure. There was more of the same after lunch, as Dravid drove three classical boundaries off one Alex Tudor over. At the other end Tendulkar treated Matthew Hoggard with a delicious contempt, ramming him through the off side off the back foot time and time again.

Then, from nowhere, a wicket came. Dravid danced slightly wearily down the track to Ashley Giles, but the ball dipped onto his pads then spat away past the outside edge. Alec Stewart completed a smart stumping, and an England spinner had taken a wicket at Headingley for the first time since Mike Atherton in 1996 (335 for 3). And up on the balcony, Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble were probably licking their lips. The pitch mellowed as the day went on, but nobody knows quite what India's spinners will get from it. They are the key to this match.

After Dravid's dismissal, India flitted between gears, with England waiting for a declaration and Ganguly in no mood to put them out of their misery. He joyously put boot to windpipe, smacking 14 fours and three sixes. The first of them, straight down the ground off Giles, maimed a pensioner in the crowd as he attempted to take a catch above his head. Ganguly was later dropped again, criminally by Robert Key at first slip when he had made 79, but otherwise he played splendidly, and with an almost malignant intent.

Giles and Andrew Flintoff bottled things up for a while with a bit of leg-theory, but then the mood changed again, and how. India were offered the light, declined, and opened their shoulders like it was the closing overs of a one-day international. Tendulkar picked Caddick up for six, and then smeared him miles over midwicket for another.

Then Ganguly went to his ninth Test century, and celebrated by thrashing the next two balls from Ashley Giles high over midwicket for six. Twenty-three came off the over, and England were powerless to stop them. Finally Ganguly fell, bowled leg stump by Tudor as he stepped away. It was the last act of the day, with the umpires, like a boxing referee protecting a bloody fighter, finally deciding the light was unplayable after a bit of prompting from Nasser Hussain. For England's bowlers, it was an act of mercy.

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