Looking at 288/2 that England managed in their allotted quota, it points to the flawed 7+4 formula. With such a combination the Indian team always run the risk, because it essentially calls for all frontline bowlers to be in prime shape and get miserly with the ball while people filling in the fifth bowler’s spot are allowed a little of leeway in the economy column. The problem that Rahul Dravid faced under lights on Tuesday was three-fold: two of his specialists — young leggie Piyush Chawla and experienced Ajit Agarkar — tripped over the very fine margin of error allowing this concept battle while being reminded, at the same time, that Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh are, no doubt, big names but they remain, very much batsmen who can bowl and not genuine all-rounders that Dravid desperately was in need of to fix the middle-over deluge of runs. And to add insult to injury, England batsmen — Alastair Cook and Ian Bell — chose to be sensible rather than sensational in their approach at the crease and were prepared to up the ante in a labourious manner by running the ones and the twos, and gave virtually nothing to the Indian bowlers who had little option but to wait for the two batters to commit mistakes. The duo learnt from the early exit of Matt Prior — who struggled without success to free his arms against a disciplined new-ball bowling, particularly Zaheer Khan, who was backed with a steady breeze and heavy cloud cover early on after Dravid won the toss and put England in. Cook and Bell, who shared a 178-run partnership, just about managed to keep the decent turnout at the Rose Bowl awake from falling into slumber with a sedate power-play display of 88 in 20 overs — they played in the ‘V’ and along the ground. The first hint of spark came when Prior had spanked Zaheer for a straight six but it remained just at that, but Chawla’s introduction that subsequently coincided with the fifth bowler pressed into service saw England innings picking up steam. Cook, who reached his 50 with the same run when the total ticked to 100, was slowly game to play along with Ian Bell taking the initiative of turning the heat on with a down-the-wicket six off Chawla. It paid off as Cook, not a regular in the shorter version and playing only in his sixth match, leapfrogged from a personal best of 41 to a solid 102 before his 124-ball knock built on eight boundaries was cleaned up by RP Singh while the batsman tried to slog towards mid-wicket. RP was effective, swung the ball around and finished with good figures but looked harmless and short of variations when a breakthrough was required when he first came on as first change. With an enterprising Kevin Peitersen walking in the 42nd over for a quick dash and Bell getting to his three-figure mark at run-a-ball rate and deciding to whack each one, the last few overs were always going to a test of character for the bowlers. Agarkar’s last four cost him 36 and ruined his earlier efforts. After he failed, India were looking down the barrel as England swelled their kitty with more runs. Luckily for India, both Bell and Cook waited too long to step up the gas. Despite a 25-ball 33 by Peitersen and an unbeaten 126 by Bell, England managed only 289, their second best effort at this ground. No doubt, India’s total of 290 at this ground in 2004 is still the highest. But then their opponent at that time was Kenya.ScoreboardEnglandA Cook b RP Singh 102 M Prior c Dravid b Khan 19I Bell not out 126K Peitersen not out 33Extras: (lb 4, w 4) 8Total: (For 2 wkts in 50 overs) 288Fall of wickets: 1-43, 2-221Bowling: Zaheer Khan 10-1-49-1, Ajit Agarkar 10-1-65-0, RP Singh 10-0-49-1, Sourav Ganguly 4-0-21-0, Piyush Chawla 7-0-42-0, Sachin Tendulkar 4-0-29-0, Yuvraj Singh 5-0-29-0.
