A deadly duo: Kumble and Robinson

There are textile and chemical factories in Ahmedabad, and there was Anil Kumble today, an industry all by himself. He winds himself up, hops-skips-jumps in, and then keeps doing it all day. Today he came on after 21 overs, before the sun had climbed to full-mast, and didn't stop till past four in the evening, with five of England's top six in his kitty. In terms of sheer effort, he was remarkable - and vintage Kumble. But really, it was a good performance that became almost great because of Ian Robinson and Andy Flintoff.

England could have batted themselves right back into the series today. A monkey had danced around the top of the east stand just before play began but neither Marcus Trescothick nor Mark Butcher monkeyed about. Butcher squeezed two early fours between third slip and gully but hardly anything went off the edge thereafter. Until the first ball he faced after bringing up his fifty, when Kumble's topspinner caught the edge on the way.

But then, umpire Robinson, as if to prove that there exists such a thing as an umpiring slump, adjudged Nasser Hussain lbw to one that pitched almost on leg and was going further down. Michael Vaughan entered to chants of "Kumble, Kumble", and his nervy 40-minute innings ended when Robinson detected an inside-edge that never was. Those two decisions turned the innings around.

Trescothick remained, unflappable, decisive and upright. But not so unflappable that Kumble couldn't frustrate him out . And then Flintoff thrust his bat forward with rock-hard hands, the very worst way to play Kumble, especially when he's letting it rip like a man who has just taken four wickets.

Mark Ramprakash, on the front pages here because of his wife's Gujarati connections, and Craig White threatened to steal it away from India. But Tendulkar, who has almost attained perfection with bat, has a touch of the genie with the ball. Ramprakash couldn't see the googly coming amid Tendulkar's allsorts.

A score of 277 for six is not bad, but things look very good for India. After bowling intelligently and fielding refreshingly well, they should get 150 more than whatever England end up with tomorrow. By then the pitch might actually start posing a few problems. And Kumble might not have to bowl all day to do his damage.

Rahul Bhattacharya is a staff writer with Wisden.com India.

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