The Strauss factor in Chepauk

If one thinks of the English batsmen of past who have dominated a Test against India the first name that comes to the mind happens to be another great opener. Way back in 1990 Graham Gooch scored 333 and 123 in the opening Test of the series at Lord’s as England won the Test and series. The then England captain Gooch went on to score a hundred in the first innings of the second Test too. If one stretches things a bit, Strauss too happens to be in the same boat. In the last three Tests he has played in India, Strauss has scored 3 centuries.

There is another fact, though not the kind Indian fans like to recall, that is common to the two knocks. Those who watched Gooch’s 333 vividly recall the solidity of his knock but they also add with a shake of head ‘if only wicket-keeper Kiran More had caught the catch Gooch offered early in the innings’. When on 36, More couldn’t hold on to a straight forward edge that pacer Sanjeev Sharma induced from Gooch’s bat. Those extra 297 runs scored after drop saw India lose the game by 247 runs. With next two games ending a draw, many said that it was that one dropped catch that decided the series. Interesting the unlucky Delhi bowler Sharma never played a Test again.

Yesterday, Dhoni dropped Strauss when he was 15 and after that the England opener went on to score 93 extra runs. The Gooch-More story at Lord’s happens to be on much bigger scale but it shares the same plot as the Strauss-Dhoni story. Looking at the ups and downs of this contest it is becoming clear that this happens to be a closely-fought series where a one small flaw can have disastrous consequences.

Call it coincidence or something more but the unlucky bowler in Chennai, like at Lord’s, also happens to be a Delhi resident. But it doesn’t seem that like Sharma, Mishra is playing his last Test.