India bring home the bacon before lunch

But rarely, if ever, have they coalesced into one powerful snapshot as they did over five days at Headingley. So dominant were India, it can be fairly said that only one of the 13 sessions didn’t go its way.

It was left to Nasser Hussain to sum it up: ‘‘They almost had the perfect Test match. We have been outplayed in all departments.’’
Saurav Ganguly was, of course, quick to agree. ‘‘We dominated all five days. Today, we just had to be patient. We knew if we got one wicket we could get two or three more. It’s very satisfying but it will be more satisfying if we can do as well in the next match.’’

For India, the day began with uncertainty and doubt. England’s two safest batsmen Hussain and Stewart were at the crease, having blunted India’s attack the previous evening. That raised the old conspiracy theory of this attack not being able to take 20 wickets.

The doubts remained for all of 20 minutes, when Kumble removed the centurion skipper. An hour and 15 minutes later, England were all out. Kumble struck the second killer blow, too, removing Alec Stewart.

In between, without any addition to the score, Flintoff had been dismissed by Zaheer. Ashley Giles was then run out for 10 after a mix-up with Alex Tudor, who followed shortly after for 21 before Andrew Caddick was the last man out, appropriately caught by Ganguly in the gully off Kumble.