Battered, Bruised And Brittle

In a rare collective effort, the famed Indian batting trinity of SachinTendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly fired in unison to lead a dogged resistance and force a draw in the secondTest against England on the fifth and final day at Trent Bridge today.

Dravid cracked a gritty 115 and batted for nearly a session each with Tendulkar and Ganguly - both of whom got outin the nineties - to enable India post a second innings total of 424 for eight.

Having conceded a 260-run first innings lead, India were ahead by 164 runs with two wickets standing but with only 10more overs remaining in the day, a result was not possible and both the captains agreed to call off the play.

It was an impressive recovery from the Indians who had slipped to 11 for two when both their openers had failedyesterday. Resuming at their overnight 99 for two, India lost just one wicket each in the morning and post-lunch sessionwhile adding 216 runs.

Apart from the trio, there were some important knocks from the batsmen lower down the order too, especially fromAjit Agarkar and debutant wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel who not only contributed 32 and an unbeaten 19 runs runs respectivelybut also hung in long enough to deny the Englishmen any opportunity to try and chase the Indian total.

Zaheer Khan also did well by defying the English bowlers for 40 deliveries to remain unbeaten on 14.

The contribution of Patel, Agarkar and Zaheer were vital to India's chances. When Agarkar got out at the total of395, India were only 135 runs ahead with about 24 overs remaining in the day.

Harbhajan Singh survived just six deliveries and was clean bowled by Steve Harmison for one. That leftEngland sensing their chances of victory. Another two wickets in a couple of overs would have given them a real chance tohave a go at the target.

But Patel and Zaheer Khan not only played out crucial overs, they also kept the scoreboard moving and once the leadwent past 150 runs with about 15 overs remaining, the Indians knew they were safe.

Patel, who was out for nought in the first innings, batted admirably for a 17-year-old playing his first Testmatch. With eight close-in fielders breathing down his neck and bowlers one foot taller than him hurling short pitcheddeliveries, the going was extremely difficult for the young man. But he showed remarkable resilence and good technique ashe battled for 72 minutes before play ended.

Earlier, an equally gutsy knock from Dravid saw him raising his 11th Test hundred but Tendulkar and Ganguly missedtheir centuries by eight and one run respectively.

Dravid and Tendulkar started the day on a very positive note and scored at a very fast rate, the runs coming mainlythrough boundaries.

Tendulkar, who was not out on 56 yesterday, was very aggressive as he hit six more boundaries today, three of themcoming off successive balls against Dominic Cork, to take his tally to 17 and race into the nineties.

With runs coming easily, England captain fell back on his tested policy of asking bowlers to come from round the wicketand pepper the batsmen with short-pitched deliveries.

But even that did not work and Vaughan was pressed into service to try his gentle off-spin. Tendulkar hit a gloriouscover drive to pick his 17th four and move to 92 but fell in the next over while attempting to repeat the shot.

The master batsman played away from his body and the ball spun sharply to crash into the stumps. Tendulkar missed whatcould have been his 30th Test century that would have seen him drift away from Sir Donald Bradman with whom he is currentlyjoint second in the overall list.

Tendulkar batted for 161 minutes and faced 113 balls. His third wicket stand with Dravid produced 163 runs.Tendulkar's fall brought Ganguly together with Dravid that blossomed into another fine partnership, yielding 135runs for the fourth wicket.

The arrival of Ganguly saw the introduction of Andrew Flintoff into the attack. The two have a very lively rivalrygoing on and today Ganguly emerged the winner.

The Indian skipper pulled the very first ball from Flintoff to the mid-wicket fence and then followed it up witha stylish cover-driven four to take eight runs from the over.

Ganguly punished the bowler everytime he came on to bowl later in the day and took a number of boundaries off him.

Meanwhile, Dravid also kept the scorers busy as he cut and drove with ease. Dravid, who was on 34 not out yesterday,reached his half-century with a hooked four against Flintoff.

He, however, dropped gear once Ganguly took charge and was content to play the second fiddle. As he neared hiscentury, he became a lot more cautious. But with Ganguly batting fluently, the Indian scoring never really suffered.

Dravid brought up his 11th Test hundred, the first in England, with a three off Harmison. He was out about 15minutes before tea, trapped leg before wicket by Dominc Cork. Dravid batted for a total of 340 minutes during which he faced244 balls and hit 16 boundaries.

Ganguly, who hit a solid 68 in the first innings, once again applied himself quite well and played a criticalinnings. His ninth Test hundred was just one run away when the nerves got the better of him and he was clean bowled byHarmison.

V.V.S. Laxman, who has been in fine form of late, made just 14 today before playing a careless shot into the hands ofCraig White to give Cork his second wicket.

The fall of Laxman exposed the much-vilified Indian tail but first Agarkar and then Patel and Zaheer Khan came up withdefiant knocks to deny the Englishmen the chance to go 2-0 up in the four match series.

Michael Vaughan, who hit 197 runs and took two wickets in the second innings, was declared the man of the match. The third Test starts in Headingly on August 22.

PTI