The declaration that wasn't
Tim de Lisle
This afternoon, Ashley Giles was spotted on the England balcony apparently
reading out something amusing from his current reading - Facing Up by Bear
Grylls, the Englishman who conquered serious injury to climb Everest at the
age of 23. The relevance to Giles was obvious. But the story may also have
had some resonance for Nasser Hussain, who was chortling next to him.
Hussain hasn’t been fully fit all year. If it’s not his brittle fingers,
it’s his groin or a bad back which needs constant attention and threatens to
assume Athertonian proportions. And at the start of this match, he
definitely had a mountain to climb.
He also has less support than he has ever had in two and a half years as
England captain. Now that Graham Thorpe is back in Surrey, Hussain has only
one player who is both senior and fully established in the side: himself.
Trescothick is established, but in his 18th Test, hardly senior. Ramprakash
is senior, after 48 Tests in 10 years, but still not established, even
though he is playing more freely than at any time in his international
career. Of the 11 England players in this match, only Hussain and
Trescothick can be sure of being selected for the first Test against Sri
Lanka next May.
For a moment before lunch, despite all this, Nasser was on top of the world.
A lead of 116 was heading inexorably towards 200, and he and Mark Butcher
had ridden their luck to establish some dominance. Tinu Yohannan gave him a
dose of his own medicine, landing the ball well outside off. Nasser saw it
coming, took a stride towards extra-cover, and drove the ball at right
angles to the midwicket boundary. For the first and probably last time in
his career, he resembled Viv Richards.
Hussain and Butcher both looked set for the sort of breezy second-innings
century that Michael Slater makes when he can get in the Australian team,
followed by a suitably confident declaration. But it all went a bit awry.
Hussain lost his timing, and eventually his patience. Butcher, feeling
groggy, played the spinners better than he ever has, sweeping all behind
him, but fell tamely, eight short of the hundred he deserved. Ramprakash
made yet another of his high-class low scores: rarely can a man have played
with such assurance for 37 and 19. And Nasser never did get round to
declaring.
You can understand his caution. His attitude all tour has been to hang in
there and hope to steal a victory. But as well as he has played his limited
cards in the field, this was disappointing. What would he have done if the
tail hadn’t conveniently collapsed? Batted on to the close? Nobody has ever
made 300 to win in the fourth innings in India, and if a captain can keep
the runs down anywhere, he can do it here. The pitch holds none of the
expected demons, and England surely needed 100 overs, maybe 120, to bowl
India out, rather than the 97 they were left with.
Hussain’s inventiveness returned when they got out there as he threw the new
ball to Giles. He will need it tomorrow if England are to come out of this
Test with more than mere respectability.
Tim de Lisle is editor of Wisden.com.
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