Vaughan Makes Mockery Of Indian Attack

The chinks in the Indian bowling armoury were exposed by Michael Vaughan who struck a superb near double-hundred to guide England to 341for five on the third day of the second cricket Test at Trent Bridge  today.

The England opener capitalised on a highly wayward bowling by the Indians to crack a career-best 197 as the hostsreached within 16 runs of the Indian first innings score of 357.

However, Vaughan's superlative effort ended in disappointment when he was caught by wicketkeeper ParthivPatel off Ajit Agarkar just three runs short of a well-deserved double century. He fell in the penultimate overof the day after batting for over four and a quarter hours during which he faced 258 balls and hit 23 boundaries.

It was a flawless knock from Vaughan who hit his second successive Test hundred. He had scored 100 in the secondinnings of the first match of the series at Lord's which England won by 170-runs.

Vaughan got full support from the Indian bowlers who put up a dismal show today. The three fast bowlers, particularlyAgarkar and Ashish Nehra, were extremely wayward and offered the batsmen a lot of width to play their shots.

Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who earlier in the day had hit a fiery 54 off just 37 balls with 10 fours, was the onlyIndian bowler who posed some problems to the Englishmen. But even he erred in line sometimes and was suitably punished.

Throughout the day, England scored at a very brisk pace, their 341 coming from only 83 overs. But it was particularlyaggressive when Vaughan and Mark Butcher, who compiled a neat 53, were batting.

The duo added 165 runs for the second wicket in less than 40 overs to lay a solid foundation for England after theIndian first innings had come to an end one hour into the morning session.

England had lost the debutant Robert Key for 17 when the opener tried to hook Ashish Nehra but the ball took an insideedge and crashed into the stumps.

t was hard toil for the Indian bowlers after that and they had to struggle for close to three hours for their next
wicket. Butcher was slightly circumspect against Harbhajan Singh but Vaughan played a superb knock and looked in completecommand throughout.

The only faint chance the Indians had of removing Vaughan was when he edged Harbhajan Singh on the leg-side and Patelgot a hand to the ball but couldn't hold on. Patel, the youngest wicketkeeper ever to play a Test match, was otherwisequite impressive behind the stumps. Vaughan was on 30 at that time and made the most of his escape.

Butcher too had a lucky escape when Harbhajan Singh failed to latch on to a return catch when the batsman hadscored only six runs.

Showing exquisite timing, Vaughan picked up the gaps almost at will and sent the bowlers on a leatherhunt all overthe ground. He reached his fourth Test hundred off 123 balls with 14 hits to the fence. This was also his third century ofthe summer, having hit a hundred against Sri Lanka who visited England before this series.

The only other Englishmen to have bettered the feat is Graham Gooch who had scored four hundreds
in 1990

It was Harbhajan Singh who broke the second wicket stand when he had Butcher caught by Rahul Dravid at first slip. Theoff-spinner then dismissed Nasser Hussain cheaply, the England captain top-edging the delivery while attempting a sweep shotto give Patel his first Test scalp.

John Crawley, another centurion of the first Test, provided good support to Vaughan during a quickfire 44 runstand for the fourth wicket. Crawley made 22 with three boundaries before being caught by Wasim Jaffer off ZaheerKhan.

But the wicket was claimed by Agarkar in his third spell after being highly umimpressive in his first two spells.Vaughan, who moved very swiftly from his 160s to 190s, struck a beautiful on-driven boundary and then attempted the sameshot on the next ball which brought his downfall. He produced a faint outside edge that was caught inches above the ground by Patel.

Stewart and Andrew Flintoff were batting on 30 and two respectively when the umpires offered light to the batsmennine overs behind the scheduled close and it was accepted by England.

PTI