THE script was just perfect. A famous bowler returns to his home ground, and before family, friends, and supporters, conquers a significant peak.
Yes, Anil Kumble's 300th Test wicket, the first such milestone by an Indian spinner, was easily the highlight of the Bangalore Test which was otherwise ravaged by inclement weather.
The Karnataka leg-spinner was tantalisingly perched on 299 going into the Test, yet it was an agonising wait for Kumble, as he went wicketless on a dramatic first day.
The enthusiastic home crowd would roar each time Kumble began a new spell. However, it was not until 20 minutes past lunch on the second day, when skipper Sourav Ganguly tossed the ball to him one more time, with only England's last-wicket pair at the crease, that the man called 'Jumbo' finally struck.
Even as Kumble turned back to appeal after catching last man Matthew Hoggard in front, he knew the verdict would be positive. Soon a smile of relief lit up his face and moments later, he was the toast of his jubilant teammates.
The crowd burst into a spontaneous celebration and none could grudge Kumble his moment of glory when he led the team back to the pavilion.
A committed cricketer, whose steely demeanour often masks the passion with which he pursues his craft, has reached a significant milestone in the land of great spinners. As only the fourth after Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan and Lance Gibbs to reach 300 Test wickets among all spinners, Kumble is now in a rarefied zone.
The third Test, the final one of the series, also threw up certain intriguing questions. In the eye of the storm was England's, or rather left-arm spinner Ashley Giles' mode of attack.
How far was England captain Nasser Hussain right in instructing Giles to operate to a leg-stump line with a packed on-side field? The tactics certainly frustrated the maestro, Sachin Tendulkar, driving him to take the risks that finally led to his dismissal.
On this issue, The Sportstar caught up with two former Indian left-arm spinners, Ravi Shastri and Maninder Singh. And their views on the subject were very interesting indeed.
Shastri, never the one to hold back his thoughts, was forthright. "It worked didn't it? It's all a part of a well-planned strategy, denying the opposition from playing cricket their way. I remember I got Viv (Vivian Richards) out thrice bowling the same line. Nothing wrong at all."
And Maninder's opinion went along similar lines. "He got the results. Got the world's best batsman out in the 90s. As a bowler what would you do? Bowl over the wicket and contain him, or bowl round the stumps and get smashed? I think England got its tactics right."
Well, Tendulkar, on 90, was stumped for the first time in his glittering Test career, during the post-lunch session of the third day. A sight that will not be forgotten in a hurry.
The great player had kept his attacking instincts under check till lunch, even as Giles and England, with a negative line, provoked him to take the risks. In other words, force him to play non-percentage strokes.
After the break, Tendulkar did cut loose with some audacious strokes, striking Giles between mid-wicket and square-leg, and then sweeping him. It was thrilling cricket, but was also dangerous, and the great player finally walked back, when within striking distance of his 28th Test hundred.
But his fine run in the series, that included an excellent hundred in Ahmedabad, was enough to fetch him the Man of the Series award.
India, on the strength of its 10-wicket victory in the first Test in Mohali, clinched the series 1-0, though England was the moral victor in both Ahmedabad and Bangalore, in the second and the third Tests, after talks of a clean sweep or a 3-0 verdict for the home team.
That just did not happen as England regrouped, re-worked its strategy with its canny coach Duncan Fletcher playing no small role. And in Bangalore, England might have had a fine chance to level the series had rain and bad light not robbed the Test of more than a 1000 minutes of play.
However, England's ploy of denying runs did ruffle a few feathers in the Indian camp, and was the root cause of the bad blood on the second day when there was an exchange of words between Tendulkar, Hussain, Giles, and opener Shiv Sundar Das.
The umpires, Messrs. A. V. Jayaprakash and Asoka de Silva, had to speak to the players and not surprisingly Match Referee Denis Lindsay got into the picture as well exhorting the cricketers to calm things down.
The 'handled the ball' dismissal of Michael Vaughan on the first day, when the batsman picked the ball up in front of his stumps after missing a sweep against off spinner Sarandeep Singh, generated a fair amount of heat as well.
The technically sound England player, going strong on 64 then, gave vent to his feelings later when he said there was no way the ball would have hit the stumps and that he had only tried to throw it back to the short-leg fielder to speed up the game.
"If you look at the laws of the game he was out. That's all I have to say," shot back Ganguly when asked whether the Indians were right in appealing. Hussain's reaction was, "In the heat of the moment a lot can happen. Probably I would have appealed too."
Controversies apart, there was some engaging cricket on view under lights! - yes, lights were on for most part of the rain-marred Test since dark clouds ruled the sky.
In the England innings, Javagal Srinath's bowling was quite brilliant, with the senior paceman probing the batsmen in the corridor outside the off-stump, hustling them with well-directed short balls, and leaving them baffled with some well-disguised slower ones.
And when this genial cricketer from Mysore consumed Craig White in the first innings with a beast of a short-pitched delivery from round the wicket, it was Srinath's 100th scalp at home, only the second Indian paceman after Kapil Dev to achieve the feat
It's a significant landmark and it goes without saying that Srinath has been a pillar of strength in the Indian pace attack, often shouldering the burden alone, like in Bangalore, where he shared the new ball with the non-threatening Ganguly.
Indeed, the Indians read the pitch wrong, by omitting young paceman Tinu Yohannan, who had done his reputation no harm in the first two Tests. The match was being played on a newly-laid surface and the cloud cover too was in favour of the seamers. Coach John Wright admitted the lapse in the post-match press conference.
Srinath bowled with fire and passion and had there been adequate pace support for him on Day One, England might well have been rocked early. Srinath eventually ended up with four for 73 and deserved a couple more.
For England, Hussain made an attacking 43 that included a stunning pulled six off Srinath, and then Vaughan and Mark Ramprakash (58), who overcame a hesitant start to essay some pleasing strokes by using his feet against the spinners, came up with valuable half-centuries in the middle-order, adding 138 runs for the fourth wicket.
There was a mini-collapse (206 for three to 219 for six) after Vaughan's freak dismissal. however, a fighting White (39) and the ever-improving wicket-keeper batsman James Foster (48), along with a handy contribution from No. 9 Ashley Giles (28), carried England to a respectable score. Sarandeep Singh picked up three wickets in his comeback Test, but on the whole the Indian spinners disappointed in this match.
And when the Indians batted, the young, inexperienced English pace combination of Andrew Flintoff and Matthew Hoggard relished bowling in the cool and cloudy Bangalore, extracting bounce, making the ball seam around, concentrating on the right-hander's off-stump.
Eventually, they ended up with four wickets each as India was bowled out for 238, late on the fourth day, after several interruptions for rain. Apart from a brief spell when he, under instructions, bowled a negative line outside the leg-stump to Tendulkar, Flintoff was impressive.
And Hoggard, who skipper Hussain says can 'run through a brick wall,' seldom let the pressure ease on the batsmen, taking the ball away sharply from the right-hander on occasions. Both Flintoff and Hoggard have responded well to the challenge in the absence of the incisive pace duo of Darren Gough and Andrew Caddick.
Apart from Tendulkar's effort, Virender Sehwag's aggressive 66 studded with 13 boundaries stood out in the Indian innings. The young Delhi batsman was in a spot of bother against Hoggard early on, as the seamer pegged away on or just outside the off-stump. However, he also launched into a series of blistering strokes, not allowing the close calls to work on his mind.
Putting mind over matter, Sehwag took on Giles, stepping out and striking him over mid-wicket and once even audaciously reverse sweeping the left-arm spinner. Hoggard finally consumed him with the second new ball, but 'Veeru' had given yet another glimpse of his talent. He has to work on his technique against the moving ball though.
Sourav Ganguly has to work on a lot of things as well. The Indian captain hasn't made a worthwhile contribution for quite a while and it certainly didn't help his cause when he nicked Hoggard into the slip cordon. Ganguly has to get his act together soon.
The scores: England 336 (M. Butcher 27, N. Hussain 43, M. Vaughan 64, M. Ramprakash 58, C. White 39, J. Foster 48, A. Giles 28, Srinath 4-73, Sarandeep 3-54) and 33 for no loss drew with India 238 (S.S. Das 28, S. Tendulkar 90, V. Sehwag 66, Hoggard 4-80, Flintoff 4-50).
TALES of sporting success are often woven on slender threads. Andrew Flintoff ought to thank Craig White for his emergence as a frontline England paceman.
It was White's honest admission to coach Duncan Fletcher at the beginning of the Indian tour that prompted the team-management to summon Flintoff, honing his skills at the Australian Cricket Academy, to a challenging assignment in India.
White informed Fletcher that he would be unable to perform one-half of his role as an all-rounder, with injuries preventing him from bowling at impressive speeds he was able to generate last year.
England, already hurt by the absence of key pacemen Darren Gough and Andrew Caddick, could ill-afford a less than hundred per cent fit White and Flintoff made an unexpected entry into the side. The big lad has grabbed the opportunity with both hands, at least as a bowler.
In a truncated game, lacking in outstanding individual performances, Flintoff's four for 50 in the only Indian innings of the final Test at Bangalore, was enough to fetch him the Man of the Match award.
Indeed, his opening burst, after England reached a respectable 336 in the first essay, was clearly one of the highlights in the match. There was some assistance for Flintoff on a newly-laid pitch, and the cloud cover helped too.
Getting the ball to seam around at a sharp pace, Flintoff snared wicket-keeper batsman Deep Dasgupta outside the off-stump, and then consumed V.V.S. Laxman, promoted to one-drop, with a mean delivery that cut in sharply from outside the off-stump to rearrange the wickets.
England had made the right kind of beginning and the Lancashire cricketer's spell read 7-1-17-2. Once again he had justified the think-tank's decision to enable him have a fling with the new ball along with the big-hearted Matthew Hoggard.
Coming back, Flintoff got rid of a well-set Shiv Sundar Das too, with the little opener dragging the ball on to his stumps, and India was in a spot of bother at 88 for three. And on the fourth day he dismissed Anil Kumble, taken in the slip cordon, after opening up the batsman with an away seamer.
Flintoff, known to be an effortless striker of the ball, was a huge let down as a batsman though, appearing clueless against the spinners, and resorting to crude tactics.
In India, Flintoff, the pace bowler, moved to the centrestage. Flintoff, the all-rounder, may have to wait a little longer.
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