Vaughan Dampens Sachin's 100th Test

Michael Vaughan's magnificent century gave a serious setback to India's dreams of an away seriesvictory and placed England in a commanding position on the opening day of the fourth and final Testat the Oval today.

Vaughan hit a near-chanceless unbeaten 182 for his third century of the series as England closed out day one at 336 fortwo after electing to bat.

India, who are angling for their first series win outside the sub-continent in 16 years, had a pretty ordinary day inthe field as the celebration of Sachin Tendulkar's 100th Test appearance turned into despair. The bowlers unable to troublethe Englishmen and the fielders put up a sloppy performance.

In contrast, England batsmen made merry throughout the day with Vaughan and comeback man Marcus Trescothick puttingup a solid 98-run stand for the opening wicket at a blistering pace. It set the momentum for the remaining day which sawVaughan and Mark Butcher being associated in a 174-run partnership for the second wicket.

The two successes coming India's way were claimed by Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh. Zaheer sent back thedangerous looking Trescothick for 57 while Harbhajan Singh dismissed Mark Butcher for 54.

But Vaughan, who had scores of 100 and 193 earlier in this series, continued to haunt the Indians and put up anotherfine partnership with John Crawley. The two have so far added 64 runs for the third wicket with Crawley unbeaten on 16.

The England captain had no hesitation on electing to bat on a surface that did not have much pace or bounce and was wellsuited to batting.

With the Indian bowlers not entirely disciplined, both Vaughan and Trescothick indulged in attacking strokeplay andwere off to a flying start.

Boundaries came almost at will and for the first hour and a half, England were scoring at nearly five runs an over.Indian captain Saurav Ganguly tried all his bowlers in short spells but not one could make much of an impression.

With not much bounce in the pitch, the short-pitched deliveries were promptly despatched to the boundaries. AjitAgarkar was especially guilty on this issue and was taken for three fours in an over by Trescothick, all off short balls.

Ironically however, it was a bouncer that got rid of Trescothick sometime later. The England opener, playing hisfirst match of the series, miscued a hook shot against Zaheer and Sanjay Bangar came up with a well-judged catch atdeep square leg.

Trescothick, who played even though his thumb injury had not healed completely, batted for 100 minutes andfaced 76 balls while hitting nine fours.

Vaughan, who was reduced to playing second fiddle by the power hitting of Trescothick, came into his own after thedismissal of his opening partner and took charge.

He slipped into the role of Trescothick and toyed with the Indian bowling attack even as Butcher took his time tosettle down.

PTI