All according to plan for England

Leading by 247 runs with seven wickets still in hand, courtesy an unbeaten 129-run stand between opener Andrew Strauss (73) and Paul Collingwood (60), England dominated the proceedings for the second straight day. But taking stock of the last two days from India’s perspective, it was tough to decide in which direction the fingers should be pointed. Was it Friday’s batting collapse, or Saturday’s off-the-boil bowling that was responsible for the sinking feeling in Chepauk?

Small revival

There seemed to be a revival of sorts in the morning, when overnight batsmen Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh dug trenches for a late-order fightback that India have managed to pull off so often lately. As the pair took the score from 137/6 to 212, India were now neck-and-neck with the English, who had been at 229/6 at one stage in their first innings.

But the hosts folded up in a hurry, for 241, with numbers nine, 10 and 11 unable to put up much resistance. Soon after Zaheer Khan’s dismissal, Dhoni lost patience and wanted to clear the ropes on the first ball off Monty Panesar. It’s a time-tested method specialist batsmen adopt when they’re in the company of less competent batsmen. But as Dhoni holed out to Pietersen at long-off, his lofted drive turned from being a brave stroke to a questionable decision.

It was that kind of day for Dhoni right through. In front of stumps or behind them, things didn’t change much. The Indian skipper’s recent success has come with his pacemen Ishant Sharma and Zaheer in the zone. But the English pace battery — James Anderson, Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff — has easily outshone the home bowlers in this match with the cushion of having an extra pace option making them fresher and more effective throughout the innings.

Off the mark

Surprisingly, India’s spin department, too, has been overshadowed by the two slow bowlers in the visiting team. Harbhajan, expected to do most of the damage on a wearing track, didn’t take the lead in attacking the England batsmen on Saturday. Leggie Amit Mishra was good, but Strauss and Collingwood were better.

Dhoni changed bowlers, ends and field settings, but somehow the magic touch was missing. The only trick that worked for him was bringing on Yuvraj Singh ahead of Harbhajan Singh, and the left-armer got the wicket of Kevin Pietersen. Other than that, catches fell short of fielders or sailed over their heads.

Coach Gary Kirsten insisted later that there had been no flaws in Dhoni’s captaincy on Saturday. But there was one mistake that Dhoni must be regretting. On 15, Strauss edged a Mishra ball behind the stumps but Dhoni couldn’t hold on to it. If he had taken that catch, things might have been a little different, and who knows, some of his swagger might have been back.