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Having maintained a steady silence since he abruptly stepped down from his post as chief selector earlier this week, Abdul Qadir finally let loose on the reasons behind his decision, blaming primarily a lack of independence in his role. Qadir also said had it been his choice, Pakistan’s Twenty20 side would not be led by Younis Khan and that Shoaib Malik would not be in the side at all.In particular, Qadir launched an attack on Intikhab Alam, Pakistan’s coach, and Yawar Saeed, the team’s manager, blaming them for interfering in selections and rendering his selectors “a dummy” committee.”Why did I resign? If you do not get the respect, the justice or independence in your job it is better to leave,” Qadir told Cricinfo. “If the PCB does not honour its contract then what is the point? I was told I would be given independence and a free hand in selection but that has not been the case.”The spark for the differences seems to have emerged from the ambiguous parameters assigned to the chief selector. The board’s policy, for home games, is that the selection committee decides on a playing XI, in consultation with coach and captain. According to Qadir, ‘consultation’ allowed, effectively, the team management to finalise the XI without any input from selectors.”The contract says that if there is a dispute over the final XI for a home game, the selector decides in consultation with coach and captain,” Qadir said. “Here, the coach and manager and captain were deciding the XI so the selectors were not doing anything. Even the players for the central contracts – we had no say in that. If guys like Yawar Saeed and Intikhab Alam are handling these things, interfering, then why have selectors?”Several ideas of his, Qadir said, had not been considered. One was a suggestion on improving Pakistan’s bench strength by organizing matches between four teams with all the best talent in Pakistan. Other ideas were more radical. Had he been given the independence he wanted, for example, Younis would not be the captain of Pakistan’s Twenty20 side.”When I first was appointed as selector I said then we should have two captains but they didn’t listen to me. I would’ve asked Younis to step down from ODI and Twenty20 cricket and made Shahid Afridi captain in both formats. I would’ve kicked Shoaib Malik out of the side totally because I noticed in Dubai that he is conspiring and forming cliques against Younis.”Pakistan only recently made its selection committee a full-time, salaried one; Qadir was the second such head, after Salahuddin Ahmed, who stepped down last year. “I did not do this for the money. I kick the PCB’s money. I did it to bring justice to Pakistan’s real talent that goes unnoticed every day. The whole system has to change and men such as Yawar Saeed and Intikhab Alam have to be removed from it. Otherwise nothing will change. I have nothing against Ijaz Butt but the system must change.”The other two members of the committee, ex-Test cricketers Salim Jaffer and Shoaib Mohammad are still in place and no replacement has yet been sought for Qadir.

When Pakistan take on Australia at the Dubai Sports City Stadium on Wednesday in the first of five ODIs they may well be playing at their new home away from home. The decision last week by the ICC board to take away 2011 World Cup matches from Pakistan in the aftermath of the Lahore attacks on the Sri Lankan team in March effectively means that there will be no international cricket in Pakistan for some time.Dubai and Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Zayed Stadium – where the last three ODIs of the series will be played – are the most feasible options as regular neutral venues for Pakistan’s home assignments. Though Abu Dhabi has hosted ODIs before, this will be Dubai’s first international cricket match and as quasi-hosts, Pakistan are impressed with the facilities.The 25,000 capacity cricket ground was completed earlier this year, as one of four stadiums inside the Sports City. “The stadium and facilities are absolutely magnificent,” Pakistan’s captain Younis Khan told Cricinfo. “For players practicing here and just looking around, it is a very impressive ground. It’s not often that you get to play at such a ground. Usually we only come to Dubai to shop but we’re looking forward to playing here.”Pakistan’s squad will have been there for nearly a week when the series finally begins, acclimatising to the conditions, and Younis said a familiar set-up and faces had helped them settle in. “The people around here are very good to us and there are many of the same faces as there were in Sharjah when it was thriving as a venue,” he said. “That way it isn’t new, which could’ve been problematic, and the familiarity has helped. Guys like Umar Gul, Shoaib Akhtar, Shoaib Malik and I, we have experience of Sharjah so it has helped.”Though security around the ground and the team hotel is very tight, the comfort and familiarity bodes well for the future, as Younis acknowledges. “This is a very important contest for the entire country because of what has been happening over the years,” he said. “We’ve been worrying over the last two years constantly about who will come and who won’t. But now we’re playing at a neutral venue and it is a significant moment.”

Only in the infant stages of his international career, South African left-arm fast bowler Yusuf Abdulla has praised the IPL as a great launch pad. Abdulla, who made his Twenty 20 debut against Australia earlier this year, was rewarded for his outstanding performances in the domestic tournament and for Kings XI Punjab in the IPL with a call-up for the World Twenty20 beginning on June 5 in England.”I believe in learning wherever I go and the IPL is a good learning curve,” he told . “It would have been hard to make a squad of 15 otherwise; the IPL has helped, it has shown I’m capable of performing at a higher level.”I was very excited when I heard I had been chosen for the Twenty20 World Cup and it’s definitely still sinking in. It’s a big achievement for me and I can only think the selectors were looking at me in the IPL because I have not played much international cricket, basically just my debut.”Abdulla, 26, is currently the IPL’s joint second highest wicket-taker with 14 wickets in nine matches. He was called up after West Indies fast bowler Jerome Taylor was ruled out with injury. Punjab owner Ness Wadia cited Abdulla’s knowledge of his home ground Kingsmead – where the team play six games – as “critical” to success in the IPL’s second season.After two average games, Abdulla notched up figures of 4 for 31 against Royal Challengers Bangalore, among them the wickets of Kevin Pietersen and Jacques Kallis. His return of 3 for 21 against the Rajasthan Royals made him one of the top five leading wicket-takers in the tournament.Abdulla said support from his seniors helped him ease into a team of superstars. “The IPL is a big world event and there are a lot of international stars playing, so the level is very high. There were a bit of nerves before my first game,” he said. “I’ve learnt to back myself and the team has really backed me as well. Yuvraj [Singh] is a heck of a good guy and all the stars have been very welcoming. It’s great to have players like that around because it has made it much easier for me. I can rely on their advice and experience.”It’s been a big step and it hasn’t been easy because the margin for error at this level is very small.”

The Kolkata Knight Riders have tried to put a lid on the controversy generated by John Buchanan’s theory of multiple captains by releasing a statement that during a game the team would resort to a group of “strategists” who would report to one on-field captain while making decisions.This move could be seen as a climbdown from coach Buchanan’s plan for more than one captain on the field but arguably the only difference now is that the term “captain” has been replaced by “strategist”.Despite this latest decision, team sources have told Cricinfo that a compromise formula could lead to Sourav Ganguly captaining the team in the first five games after which, based on the team’s position, the role will be open to others.After Buchanan’s radical theory stirred a controversy on the eve of the team’s departure to South Africa, Ganguly and Buchanan met at the residence of their franchise owner Shah Rukh Khan. Jai Mehta, who owns a stake in the team, was also present at the nearly four-hour long meeting.”Needless to say the term ‘multi-captains’ has raised a few eyebrows and questions. The idea is to have a set of strategists as is always the case classically in cricket, who will form a team of 4 to 5 core experts in the field of fielding, bowling, batting and data, etc,” the statement read. “These coaches or strategists will assist the one captain on field with their viewpoints on the game-plan set earlier or shoot from the hip as the case maybe.”The statement stressed that there would be only one captain, who would be fed with suggestions from this core group of strategists. “The captain for the team is one and only one as in the case of most sports. Just the roles which are there in the regular format of the game as the fielding expert, batting coaches, are being better defined to be able to give quick suggestions … All internal decisions are taken collectively by the core cricketing team which comprises John, Sourav, Matthew Mott (assistant coach) and a few others.””In Twenty20 there is so much happening that if you can ease the burden on one person, then that might be a good idea,” Mott said. “There are some great leaders in this franchise, and there is going to be a bit of a turnover of players during the tournament, so if you can share some of the responsibility around that might help. It happened unofficially last season to a certain extent.”The management has also made it clear that a final decision on the captain will only be taken after the team’s camp in South Africa. “As the team is not decided because of overseas venue changes, etc … we will take the call on the issue of captain, vice-captain, the team, post the sessions in South Africa, prior to the first game. Reason for doing so is not to shirk the issue of who is the captain but to announce all that together to make that a cohesive decision from the team management to avoid confusion like it has resulted right now,” the statement said.Kolkata will be training at Bloemfontein from April 5 and players will leave in various batches starting today.

West Indies 544 (Chanderpaul 147*, Nash 109, Gayle 102) and 114 for 8 (Swann 3-13) drew with England 546 for 6 dec (Collingwood 161, Strauss 142, Prior 131) and 237 for 6 dec (Pietersen 102)
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsThe hero of the hour: Fidel Edwards blocked out the final over to deliver the Wisden Trophy to his side•Getty Images

West Indies regained the Wisden Trophy for the first time since 2000 in a thrilling finale to the series in Trinidad. Left with 66 overs in which to bat in their second innings after England’s lunchtime declaration, West Indies shipped wickets at regular intervals but clung on tenaciously to reach the close on 114 for 8. The heroes of the closing overs were Denesh Ramdin, who produced the rearguard of his life to finish unbeaten on 17 from 87 deliveries, and Fidel Edwards, their man for a cliffhanger, who reprised his nerveless role in Antigua last month by facing up to Monty Panesar with nine men round the bat, and blocking out the final five deliveries of the series.For West Indies it was a sensational escape, their second in three Tests either side of last week’s bore-draw in Barbados, and one which sealed their first series victory since 2004. In the process, the result vindicated Chris Gayle’s controversial tactics at the start of the game, not to mention their selection of an extra batsman. Having set their sights on a draw from the first morning, the tactic came excruciatingly close to backfiring as England produced some of their finest batting and bowling of the series to take the match to the wire, but in the end, the momentum West Indies gained from their incredible 51-all-out victory in Jamaica at the start of the series proved sufficient to inch them over the line.After four days of ennui, the finale to the series was a grandstand affair. It began with England resuming on 80 for 3, with quick runs the priority if they were to have any hope of forcing their way back into the series. Kevin Pietersen and Matt Prior responded superbly by hustling along in a fifth-wicket partnership of 106 from only 88 balls, but England’s lunch-time declaration was arguably too cautious, given how much was at stake in the day. Had they declared at the moment of Prior’s dismissal for 61 from 49 balls, with a lead of 209 and half-an-hour of the session remaining, it might ultimately have made the difference. But with Pietersen unbeaten on 86 at the time and closing in on his 16th Test hundred, Strauss was unable to make the bold call. Pietersen eventually reached his landmark from a brisk 88 balls, but in the final analysis, those lost five overs might have made the difference.Nevertheless, in their previous five innings of the series, West Indies had batted for 157.4 overs, 89.2 overs, 128 overs, 194.4 overs and 178.4 overs. To expect them to roll over inside 66 was optimistic in the extreme, but optimism is exactly what England carried with them into the field. Led magnificently by James Anderson, who produced a brilliant spell of fast and aggressive swing bowling, and kept in the hunt by the spin pairing of Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann, they hustled West Indies at every opportunity, claiming three wickets in the first 19 overs to rule out any prospect of a successful run-chase, before chipping away unrelentingly at the middle and lower order.The first to go was Lendl Simmons, who opened the innings in place of the injured Chris Gayle, but was turned inside-out by an Anderson legcutter that zipped off a leading edge and screamed low into the slip cordon, where Paul Collingwood scooped an inspirational catch with his right hand, inches from the turf. Three overs later, and Devon Smith – never comfortable against the spin of Swann – slogged wildly across the line and was trapped plumb lbw for 17.Swann, whose final figures were a mesmeric 21-13-13-3, then claimed the big one, as Ramnaresh Sarwan propped forward outside off, and nicked a catch low to Collingwood’s left at slip. One delivery later, and Collingwood was so nearly back in the action again, but Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s first-ball edge dropped tantalisingly short at slip. Swann, however, was not to be denied. Having resumed after tea on 78 for 3, West Indies lost the crucial wicket of Chanderpaul three overs into the final session, as he played back to a delivery which held its line on off stump and rapped him just inside the line.With some justification, Chanderpaul called upon his team’s final referral to try to engineer a reprieve, but that decision came back to haunt his partner, Ryan Hinds, later on in the session, when he was adjudged caught at slip off Panesar for a diligent 20 from 93 balls, even though replays suggested his pad, and not his bat, had been responsible for the deflection. No referral could have saved Brendan Nash, however. A maiden Test centurion in the first innings, he made just 1 from 12 balls before Anderson, swinging the ball both ways at will in a brilliant six-over spell, zipped one back into his knee-roll from round the wicket.As Nash departed, so the saviour of the innings, Ramdin, arrived. His maiden Test century in Barbados last week gave him the sheen of confidence that the situation required, even though for the early part of his innings, he looked like an lbw waiting to happen as he was persecuted by Anderson’s late inswingers. But with massive tenacity he endured, as the captain, Gayle, eventually appeared at No. 8 in the order after suffering a torn hamstring in the first innings.Gayle’s immobility meant that Panesar became his personal tormentor – of the 42 balls he faced in his innings, 36 were from the left-arm spinner, whom he clubbed down the ground for his solitary scoring stroke, but against whom he ultimately had no response. Panesar, who lost 25% of his match fee for excessive appealing in the first innings, was utterly unfazed by the hole in his pocket, and roughly one in three of his deliveries to Gayle resulted in a raucous appeal. Of these, one led to a wasted referral, another looked to be stone-dead in front of middle stump, and a third finally got the desired result, as Gayle propped uncomfortably forward and umpire Tiffin finally raised his finger.At 107 for 7 with nine overs remaining, England had the opening they needed, but with Ramdin in the zone and refusing to yield, there was only one end on which they could work. Anderson capped his day by shattering Daren Powell’s stumps with a perfect inswinging yorker, but with eight deliveries of his series remaining, he simply could not blast his way past Ramdin’s ever-broadening bat. Eventually, it was left to Panesar to produce the miracle that England needed, but Edwards, for the fourth time in his career, after Test-saving efforts against Zimbabwe, India and England at Antigua, held firm.Having patted the fifth ball of Panesar’s over back down the pitch, Edwards raised his arms in triumph, knowing that his team could not now be beaten. Moments later a crestfallen Strauss wandered across to shake hands and finally extinguish a contest that had barely fizzled for 11 sessions before bursting into full Technicolor in the final day-and-a-third. England arrived in the Caribbean believing victory was theirs for the taking, but they’ve been thwarted by a team with greater depths of resolve than perhaps even the men themselves had realised.

How much did England know they needed to win this Test? The grimace on Andrew Flintoff’s face as he put his body on the line gave the answer. Only when the extent of his hip injury is revealed will we know whether it was a heroic or foolhardy effort, but the desire to help his team to success was worthy of a victory that was missed by a whisker.Flintoff hurled himself to the crease during a six-over spell after tea where he found reverse swing and almost dispatched Denesh Ramdin. Each time he took his cap from Rudi Koertzen the feeling was surely that’s it. However, back he came, at one point hitting 90mph which went against the medical advice to bowl within himself. But a Test match was on the line and Flintoff only knows one way to play. Should Andrew Strauss have said no more, Fred? Maybe, but it would require a strong captain to take the ball away from him.”Clearly he’s not at full fettle at the moment,” a dejected Strauss said. “He’s got worries with his hip, but we aren’t going to know the full extent until the scan is done in Barbados.”We’ve seen it so many times with Fred that he does what the match situation dictates and sometimes they aren’t for his best interest,” he added. “It was incredible to see him bowling at that pace with that injury. Hopefully it’s not as serious as first thought.”The doctors’ theories were that if he bowled within himself he’d be okay, probably in that spell he wasn’t quite within himself. In those situations you have to trust the player and all credit to him for trying as hard as he could.”He even came back for one final effort in the fading light. That the spell was ended after one over was down to the light, not Flintoff giving in. Watching him wince in pain brought back memories of two other occasions when Flintoff bowled through injuries. Against India, at Headingley in 2002, he played despite a double hernia because England were so desperate to win the series, and during the World Twenty20, in South Africa, he laboured with his bad ankle because he thought “he might never play for England again.”This was a match England were also desperate to win to answer the critics after their 51 all-out debacle in Kingston. It so nearly went to plan. They scored over 500, had West Indies in a position to follow on and, even though they batted again, still set them 503 in more than four sessions. Strauss said that the follow-on couldn’t be a realistic option because of Flintoff’s injury, Steve Harmison’s illness and also a sore elbow suffered by Graeme Swann.As time began to run out everyone was called into service. The support staff lined the boundary to throw the ball back – even Reg Dickason, the security officer, was involved. In the dying moments Kevin Pietersen was struck a nasty blow on his hand and Ian Bell barely had time to put his helmet on to field at silly point.The game ended with all nine fielders catching around the bat. Just as it had been a race against the clock to ready the ground, England were now in their own time challenge. This could be the most galling draw since Australia defied them nine-down at Old Trafford in 2005 and certainly as frustrating as when rain denied them against India, at Lord’s, in 2007. The Ashes disappointment was followed by victory, the India one by defeat. The latter can’t be an option now if they want to win this series.”Clearly when you get so close in a Test and you don’t make it over that final hurdle it is very hard to take,” Strauss said. “In some ways it does feel like a defeat, but once the emotion subsides we’ll realise there’s a lot of positives to come out of the Test. The way we batted after Jamaica was the way to respond, the way Graeme Swann bowled was exceptional and Stuart Broad as well bowled very well. Hopefully we have shifted the momentum away from West Indies and if we can get better as the tour goes on there’s no reason why we can’t win the series.”Strauss’s early days in full charge of this side have brought such a range of emotions – except the one he dearly wants. “Test wins don’t come easily, especially on a wicket like this, even against Nos 10 and 11 it’s hard to force the issue,” he said. “I can’t fault the bowlers, they did as well as they could in those conditions. It’s just one of those things, it wasn’t meant to be.”We hoped it would deteriorate on day five but it didn’t really, if anything it died a little and got flatter. The efforts of the bowlers were exceptional. We did everything we could do. Sometimes a ball goes to hand and sometimes it doesn’t, it’s those small margins.”Picking the side up after this result is a different challenge from the one that followed Kingston. Strauss said there will be a feeling they were denied “what we deserved” but that sentiment can’t be allowed to linger. Given the strains of the last two weeks, it’s a blessing that England have a short break now with a two-day game to play.”It’s going to be tough, for the next day or two there will be some weary bodies. Once the emotion clears and you see things rationally we’ll see we played some excellent cricket.”From the state they were in after Sabina Park, the hunger to turn it around was evident to see. For some it almost pushed them to breaking point, and that will make the near-miss even more painful.

Rajasthan Royals, the reigning IPL champions, have sold a 11.7% stake in their franchise for approximately US$15.4 million to Shilpa Shetty, the Bollywood actress, and her partner Raj Kundra, a UK-based businessman. That puts the valuation of the franchise at around $140 million, more than double the $67 million the owners, Emerging Media, paid for it a little over a year ago.Shetty, winner of the UK TV show in 2006, is the fourth Bollywood personality to be associated with the IPL, after Preity Zinta (Kings XI Punjab), Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla (Kolkata Knight Riders).Manoj Badale, representing Emerging Media, described the new deal – the first known instance of a franchise selling part of its stake – as “a strategic alliance”.The focus last year, he said, was to make Rajasthan Royals a well-known brand in India; this year the strategy is to globalise it.”We want to make Rajasthan Royals into more than a cricket franchise, want to make it into a global brand. It was the second-most popular team in all of India last year,” he said.Coming as it does in the middle of a global economic recession, the news will further hearten the game’s administrators. On Monday, the IPL released the base prices for Friday’s auction, with two players – Kevin Pietersen and Michael Clarke – valued at a million dollars or more and Andrew Flintoff at $950,000.Rajasthan – the franchise with the lowest value when the rights were sold before the inaugural season – had bucked the trend in the first player auction too, opting for a unit of low-profile players in sharp contrast to other franchises who spent millions on cricketers with heavyweight reputations. The strategy paid off under the astute leadership of Shane Warne, who later said that winning the inaugural IPL title was one of the proudest moments of his life.

Sewnarine Chattergoon has been called into the West Indies A side to play England in their warm-up match at Warner Park after Darren Bravo was ruled out.Bravo, the younger brother of West Indies allrounder Dwayne, picked up an injury during the last round of four-day matches. He had been in strong early-season form with a maiden first-class century last week.For Chattergoon it is an opportunity to show the selectors he deserves another chance in the Test side after he was dropped following a poor tour of New Zealand and replaced by the uncapped Dale Richards.It is the second change to the West Indies A team after Kemar Roach, the fast bowler, was also withdrawn with an injury and replaced by Kevin McClean. Darren Sammy, the allrounder who took 7 for 66 on his Test debut against England, will captain the side.West Indies A Darren Sammy (capt), Adrian Barath, Sewnarine Chattergoon, Keiran Powell, Leon Johnson, Lendl Simmons, Devon Thomas (wk), Kevin McClean, Brandon Bess, Amit Jaggernauth, Gavin Wallace.

Mr Cricket’s moment of joy
Michael Hussey is such a cricket nut that he works hard on his bowlingeven though it is rarely seen in matches. The decision to bowl Husseyin Nagpur was one of the key reasons Ricky Ponting was criticisedafter the match and when he turned to Hussey at the MCG when Australiawere trying to wrap up South Africa’s tail it was more in hope thananything. But this time Hussey’s 120kph medium-pace delivered. PaulHarris tried to belt Hussey out of the park but mistimed his shot andMitchell Johnson ran back from mid-on to take the chance. It wasHussey’s first Test wicket and he celebrated as if he had made ahundred.Mr Cricket’s moment of shame
Hussey was happy to be the centre of attention after his wicket, notso after an embarrassing failure in the field later in the day. DaleSteyn skied Nathan Hauritz and Hussey at mid-on would have hardly hadto move to accept the chance. But the ball went so high that Husseylost it in the sun, putting up his left hand, then his right, to tryand shield his eyes. Panicking as it became clear he couldn’t see theball, Hussey jigged from left to right as if his feet were on fire. Inthe end the ball thudded to the turf a couple of metres behind hisleft shoulder. There was nowhere to hide and he spent much of the nextdrinks break trying to explain to his colleagues what went wrong.Ponting slips up
Last month in Adelaide Ricky Ponting pulled off one of the all-timegreat slips catches when he flung himself to his right and somehowclasped a one-hander that removed Jamie How. The catch wasexponentially more difficult than one he put down today, when Steynedged off Mitchell Johnson. Ponting moved to his right but onlyslightly and grassed what by his standards was a basic chance. Steynwas on 32 at the time; it proved a costly mistake.An unexpected advantage
When JP Duminy and Paul Harris strode to the crease in the morningwith a 196-run deficit and three wickets in hand, gaining a lead wasnot on the agenda. But things went so perfectly that they pulled infront of Australia with only one more wicket down and the moment camewith a Duminy boundary off Hussey. Duminy and Dale Steyn walked downthe pitch and with a brief handshake celebrated their remarkableachievement.Pain pen strikes again
The pain-gone pen that the South African physio Shane Jabaar used onGraeme Smith’s elbow in Perth made another appearance today, this timeto deal with Dale Steyn’s hand. Steyn copped two nasty blows, one oneach hand, and after the first Jabaar pumped the now familiar deviceon the uncomfortable spot. It obviously worked – Steyn went on torecord his first Test half-century.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

For four days this Test has bubbled up and it finally burst into life on the fourth evening as Virender Sehwag pummelled an exhilarating 83, giving India an audacious start to chasing a daunting 387 for victory. Most of this match has been spent marvelling at the concentration of Andrew Strauss, who earlier in the day became the tenth England batsman to score twin hundreds but his innings, as well as Paul Collingwood’s resolute 108, were quickly forgotten amid Sehwag’s 68-ball onslaught. Rattled, the visitors were only calmed by a late Graeme Swann strike who trapped, crucially, Sehwag.England didn’t quite know what had hit them after Kevin Pietersen confidently declared on 311 for 9 – following a curiously negative afternoon session – as Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir added 117 in 22 overs. Even that marked a notable deceleration from the race-away start that saw the run-rate nudging double figures for the first few overs. The law of averages suggested India’s top-order wouldn’t suffer two consecutive collective failures and clear intent was shown to make up for their first innings failure. The target remains a long way off, but the final two hours have changed the feeling of the match.The best crowd of the game found their voices and cheered each Sehwag boundary as if it was the winning stroke. Within the first five overs he crashed seven fours and a six, upper-cut over third man to send Pietersen scurrying for bowling changes: he had used his main five by the 15th over. To put Sehwag’s barrage in context, England managed just eight fours in the 54 overs they faced on the fourth day.Sehwag batted like a man possessed, refusing to let any bowler settle. He picked up two boundaries off James Anderson’s first over, and was soon using Steve Harmison’s natural pace and bounce to his advantage, although one flashing cut was palmed away by Alastair Cook when he was on 26. The problem is they come so quickly.Monty Panesar was introduced in the sixth over and his third ball, a low full toss, Sehwag swung over deep square-leg. He was making a mockery of all talk of a crumbling pitch and he later followed that with a thumping straight six to leave Panesar flapping. He switched to over the wicket, a tactic that irked Sehwag and led to some discussion with Pietersen (presumably about negativity, a trait Sehwag clearly doesn’t believe in) but at least it brought some relief for Panesar.

Once again, though, he was outbowled by the man playing his first Test. Swann ripped his first ball past Gambhir’s outside edge and could have had the left-hander, but Daryl Harper failed to spot a small touch of the glove as the ball ballooned off pad. Sehwag too, was less comfortable – although everything is relative – against Swann’s turn and was eventually undone by one that didn’t bounce as much as expected. Sehwag walked off looking like a man cut off in his prime, but the effect he’d had on England was worth more than purely runs.Not for the first time, Sehwag managed to bat like no one else – previously scoring had been all about careful accumulation. This is where Strauss excelled as he became the tenth England batsman, and first since Marcus Trescothick in 2004, to hit twin centuries in a Test. Sportsmen talk about being in the zone, and Strauss has been transfixed from the moment this match started. His second hundred came from 213 balls and was never anything other than perfectly controlled and composed.Collingwood’s seventh Test hundred was equally vital on a team and personal level. He was horribly scratchy in the one-day series, and received a rough decision in the first innings. But he put all those problems behind him with a 227-ball ton. Despite the chatter about Collingwood’s form it is worth remembering this was his second hundred in three Tests, albeit five months apart, following a career-saving effort against South Africa at Edgbaston.One of England’s triumphs in this game has been the manner in which they neutralised Harbhajan Singh and he was again picked off as he bowled too short. Eventually though, he lured Strauss onto the front foot who drove a simple catch to extra cover to break a stand of 214. It is a mental picture Harbhajan would do well to carry north to Mohali – pitch the ball full to Strauss.With a lead of 332, the situation was set for Andrew Flintoff, but he fell to the impressive Ishant Sharma. Two bouncers were followed by a good length ball outside off that shaped away and Flintoff pushed at it. Sharma enjoyed his mini-duel and Flintoff’s departure meant the best chance of an onslaught disappeared. Zaheer Khan then collected three deserved wickets with late reverse swing.England’s innings didn’t go very far at all during the afternoon session, with 57 runs coming in 22.5 overs. India tried every trick in the book to slow the over-rate, although by the end of the day England were probably the most grateful for nine overs that remained unbowled, allowing them to escape and take stock. Whatever the outcome of this Test, it has been an outstanding advert for the longer form of the game at a time when it was needed most.