Indians opt for casual leave

Playing without intent through second day,bowlers let Northants ease to victory.

Not long after the 3000-plus strong crowd walked home after Indias tour game at Northampton,Facebook pages around the county had a fresh photo update with a common caption Virat and me at the Northamptonshire Cricket Club. Had the just-flown-in batsman Virat Kohli fielded on the fence for a little while longer,he would have sprained his wrist signing autographs,adding to the tremendously long list of casualties in the Indian dressing room. But towards the end of second session,Kohlis bond with the crowd broke as an abusive fan triggered a flurry of activity in the stands before security guards escorted him out.

That lunch time ejection of a fan was the closest the Indians got to dismissing someone in the first two sessions of the second day. Both Northamptonshire openers were century makers Mal Loye (100) and Niall OBrien (117) and they treated the Indian bowling attack as if it were from a lower division of the county circuit. At stumps,the home team that plays in the second (and lowest) rung finished at 355/7,with the side winning the match on their first innings lead.

There was more rotten news in store,as Zaheer Khan went into the dressing room after bowling just three overs with the public perception being that the Indians just lost interest in the game. S Sreesanth bowled a few meaningful overs with some intensity,but as far as the rest were concerned,they just sleepwalked through the second and final day of the practice game. While most bowlers looked laggard,Munaf Patel epitomised going through the motions. It remains to be seen if Munaf was saving his best for the third Test or whether he was too bored to bring his A game to the table for a tour match. His 2/91 (at 5.35 runs/over),despite wickets in the final session,didnt really change the general impression about him.

Likely candidate

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With Harbhajan Singh out of the Test squad and Pragyan Ojha not quite joining the touring party yet (due to visa-related issues),leg-spinner Amit Mishra seems the likely candidate to play the Edgbaston Test in four days time.

Although his figures of 2/64 could help his cause,Mishra was certainly not effective despite bowling the longest spell of the day. He got his line and length right but the proverbial tweak was missing and the batsman could easily read Mishra off the wicket. Even when beaten by turn,the batsmen had enough time to adjust and keep the ball away from the stumps. He may have rattled the top-order,but never did manage to spin webs that could possibly irritate the England side.

During the final session,part-timer Suresh Raina bowled a longish spell as the fielders moved around aimlessly. Field positions were changed through internal discussions between fielders,without taking the bowler or the captain in confidence. Slip fielders chatted with the batsmen as the bowlers waited at the top of their run-up. Towards the end of play,pensive fielders stared towards the empty horizon or simply gazed at the sky. In the truly amateurish English setting of the quaint Northamptonshire cricket club,this Indian side looked perfectly at home.

If the tour game was conceptualised to help India before the third Test,it certainly didnt prove to be the case. Down 0-2 in the four-match series,India need divine intervention or a collective spurt of energy from 11 humans to claw out of the hole. But like Munaf,it remains to be seen if they are saving it for Edgbaston.

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Brief scores: Northamptonshire 355/7 (N OBrien 117,M Loye 100; A Mishra 2/64,S Sreesanth 2/74) vs India 352 all out (A Mukund 113,A Mishra 61; L Evans 4/74)