BANGALORE
You can have floodlights to pierce the gloom, acres of covering and aflotilla of super-soppers but, if it rains as it did for most of the fourth dayin Bangalore, there is little that can be done to overcome the elements.
When play did begin in mid afternoon, England did their best to make up forlost time. Andrew Flintoff and Matthew Hoggard took just eight and a half oversto polish off the Indian tail for both to finish with their best Test figures.Then the opening batsmen, Mark Butcher and Marcus Trescothick, set about theIndian attack to extend the first innings lead of 98 by a further 33 runs beforethe rain returned.
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There were chances to wrap up the Indian innings even quicker than was thecase. In the first over of the session, Hoggard found the outside edge of AnilKumble's bat, only to see substitute fielder Martyn Ball, on for Mark Butcher,fail to grasp a low chance at slip.
Hoggard himself was guilty of spurning another chance, this time off Flintoff.An involuntary top edge by Harbhajan Singh, who has his own idiosyncratic styleof batting, flew to long leg where Hoggard appeared to have got it, but let theball slip from his grasp.
It was Flintoff who claimed Kumble's wicket. Another outside edge, but thistime Marcus Trescothick made no mistake at second slip. Flintoff could havepicked up another wicket when Sarandeep Singh was struck on the pad right infront. The bowler, however, had overstepped and the umpire was quite right tocall the no ball.
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Harbhajan was ninth out, sending a leading edge from Hoggard into the coverswhere Nasser Hussain dived forward to get both hands to a good catch. The endwas not long in coming. Sarandeep pushed the ball into the covers, went for asingle, but Michael Vaughan swooped, picked up and threw down the wicket at thebowler's end in one flowing movement.
Officially, there were 34 overs for England to bat, during which time theywould need to score at a frenetic rate in order to extend their lead toproportions that would allow a declaration and time to bowl India out a secondtime. However, only seven overs and a single ball were possible before the rainreturned and the umpires were forced to take the players off.
Butcher and Trescothick made the most of the time available. JavagalSrinath's opening over went for 11 runs as Butcher in particular went afteranything that was there to be hit. He reached 23 from 25 balls, Trescothick 9from 18 as they approached the innings in one-day mode. Butcher put away acouple of boundaries, but both were happy to drop the ball straight down off thebat and run.
The rain was getting heavier all the time, and no sooner had Harbhajan Singhbeen brought into the attack to replace Sourav Ganguly than that was it for theday.
Even allowing for the fact that the fifth day has been extended by 15 overs,it looks as if a draw is the only conceivable result for this match leavingIndia as winners of the series. It will be scant consolation to England thatthey will be denied the chance of levelling mainly thanks to weather that hasbeen more typical of Birmingham than Bangalore.
