Broad reduces India's advantage

India 24 for 1 trail England 221 (Broad 64, Praveen 3-45, Ishant 3-66, Sreesanth 3-77) by 197 runs

For the first two sessions of an overcast day in Nottingham, India's fast bowlers dominated England's batsmen with swing and seam movement to have them on 124 for 8. The end of England's innings, however, came later than India wanted it to. Stuart Broad led a stirring counterattack after tea, and confronted by his aggression, India went to pieces. Their bowlers lost their successful lines and lengths, MS Dhoni deployed defensive fields, and the lethargic fielders were exploited. Broad and Graeme Swann had a 73-run partnership for the ninth wicket at 6.25 per over, which propped England up to 221.

The injection of adrenaline Broad had given England was continued by James Anderson, who struck with the first delivery of the Indian innings. Abhinav Mukund, having seen the ball jag around for nearly 69 overs, played a push-drive to one that swung away and watched Kevin Pietersen catch the outside edge at gully. It was left to Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, opening and batting at No. 3 because of Gautam Gambhir's absence, to show how it's done. They played late and with soft hands. Their bats were beaten and their bodies hit. They survived appeals and a review but, with a little luck, ensured India's advantage was not entirely lost. Broad bowled a menacing spell - 7-3-5-0 - but India ended the day with nine wickets intact, trailing by 197 runs.

On the day, India did not suffer from Zaheer Khan's unavailability as much as many thought they would. Zaheer's replacement, Sreesanth, bowled spells of perfectly pitched outswing, and he forged a formidable alliance with Praveen Kumar and Ishant Sharma, reducing England from 73 for 2 to 124 for 8.

England had been satisfactorily placed at lunch after MS Dhoni put them in. They had lost their marathon men - Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott - early but Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pietersen, batting together in a Test for the first time since Perth in December, survived a testing second hour. Cook was lbw to Ishant an over after he survived a close shout against Praveen. Replays of the not-out decision indicated the ball would have hit the stumps, though a fraction of it pitched outside leg, while those of the out decision indicated it would have bounced over.

There was more lbw drama. Praveen hit Pietersen below the knee roll and appealed vociferously. Despite Pietersen's giant stride forward, replays indicated the bails would have fallen. Praveen argued with umpire Marais Erasmus and had to be ushered away by Harbhajan Singh.

It was between Cook's dismissal and the Pietersen appeal that Sreesanth made his entrance. Sreesanth doesn't enjoy bowling to left-handers - Strauss clipped his first ball for four - as much as he does to right-handers, and as soon as he had Jonathan Trott on strike, he found the edge to slip with an outswinger. England were 23 for 2 and Strauss and Pietersen performed a steadying act until lunch.

They couldn't continue after lunch, though. In the first over after the break, Sreesanth shortened his length to counter Pietersen's forward stride. Pietersen poked before trying to pull the bat away from the seaming ball and Raina, standing close at third slip, took the catch. Sreesanth's spell after lunch was 7-1-14-2.

While all the wickets so far had fallen to testing deliveries, Strauss went to one he should have left from Praveen. He drove away from his body and was caught at third slip for 32. Strauss's departure exposed England's weakest link, Eoin Morgan, who failed once again by falling lbw to Praveen for a duck. And when Matt Prior, India's tormentor at Lord's, edged the perfect outswinger to be caught at slip for 1, England were 88 for 6.

Ian Bell and Tim Bresnan, who replaced the injured Chris Tremlett, put on 29 for the seventh wicket. Dravid dropped Bell on 22 but he eventually went for 31, under-edging a cut off Ishant to Dhoni, after Bresnan had fallen for 11.

Resuming on 124 for 8 after tea, India's bowlers inexplicably abandoned the plans they used to dismiss England's top order. Instead of pitching full and seaming it away, they bowled a shorter length with wider lines, giving Broad and Swann space to play shots. Broad swung hard and connected cleanly. Some shots fell tantalisingly over fielders' heads. Others landed short. Swann too used a fearless approach to ambush India.

Abhinav had the opportunity to catch Swann at mid-off but he was slow in moving forward, perhaps because he was wearing shin pads in the outfield. The Indians scattered, leaving vast expanses unmanned, allowing runs if the ball touched bat or body. Suddenly, the old men were exposed. There was a single taken just wide of slip because Laxman was moving like a snail. It was an astounding turnaround.

The 50 partnership came in seven overs and the resistance had reached 73 in the 12th over when Praveen got a length ball to kick sharply at Swann, who gloved it to gully and was later taken for an x-ray. There was only angry relief in the Indian camp. Their outstanding work in two sessions had unraveled spectacularly in an hour.

Broad steered England past 200 and reached his half-century off 56 balls. He was eventually caught on the deep midwicket boundary but his 64 had given England a fighting total in difficult batting conditions.

Dhoni bullish on 2000 more Tests

The world is changing but there's no reason Test cricket won't survive another 2000 matches, India's captain MS Dhoni has said. Dhoni was speaking on the eve of the Lord's Test between England and India, which has the distinction of being the 2000th Test, as well as the 100th between the countries and the first of what is expected to be a closely fought series.

The milestone comes at a time when Test cricket is under threat from the shorter forms of the game - Twenty20, the newest format, and the revival in popularity of the ODI following the World Cup earlier this year. Asked whether he thought Test cricket would survive another 2000 matches, Dhoni offered a nuanced response. "What's important is to see where it's going and there's no reason why we should doubt it because wherever I've gone I've seen a good response on the field. Of course you'll have games where there won't be a full house compared to some of the ODIs or the T20 format but yes, people are still following Test cricket."

The challenge, as he pointed out, also comes from the changes in contemporary lifestyles. "The world has changed. It means you have to go to your job, with the privatisation and everything that is happening, the bosses want you to spend more time at your desk and look less at the television so all of these things play a big role in it. But there's no good reason why Test cricket can't survive or won't survive for the next 2000 games."

The figure lent an already-special match an extra sheen, he said. "You can look at the number and feel good about it, because 2000 is a big number which means the game has survived for a long time, and 100 between India and England means we have a long-term relation with the English side. It's a special game - playing at Lord's is always special - but overall, rather than thinking too much about the numbers, we can just look at the number and be proud. You can't play 100 games against one nation but when you have left cricket you can look back and say you played in the 100th Test between India and England, and 2000 when it comes to the history. We can be proud we are playing but at the same time we need to stick to the basics and enjoy the game."

His counterpart Andrew Strauss, while appreciating the occasion, spoke of the importance of the bottom-line. "It helps in hyping up the series, although I don't think this series needs any hyping because India versus England is two very good sides with some high quality players. The recipe is there for it to be a very entertaining series. The wider context is not something we are focusing on. In any Test series every side is hoping to get a fast start, get ahead and then earn the right over four Tests to win the series. All that other stuff is not for us to concentrate on and will look after itself."

A contest that's equal to the hype

There is a scene in the acclaimed documentary Fire in Babylon in which the great West Indians of the 1970s and 80s reflect on the "Calypso" generation that preceded their rise to world domination. Turning up, giving everyone a good show, then losing in a charming fashion - just as they did on the tied-Test tour of Australia in 1960-61 - was a trait that may have proved endearing, but it was one that Clive Lloyd's mean machine soon made it their mission to banish.

A similar change of mindset has taken hold of India's cricketers in the space of a generation. Twenty-one years ago, almost to the week, these two teams took part in one of the most acclaimed mismatches of all time -the Lord's Test of 1990, when Kiran More's fumble set Graham Gooch on his way to a career-best 333, and England to victory by 247 runs. Along the way, however, India's own calypso qualities captured the English public's imagination - from the impossibly wristy riposte of their captain, Mohammad Azharuddin, through Kapil Dev's four consecutive sixes to save the follow-on, and through an outstanding one-handed running catch from a 17-year-old prodigy, Sachin Tendulkar - who, within a fortnight, would record the first of his 99 not out international centuries.

As Wisden Cricket Monthly's editor, David Frith, wrote at the time, that match played out like a midsummer dream, and two decades on, Tendulkar's enduring presence in India's ranks confirms the other-worldliness of that era. At some stage in the coming days, Tendulkar will march out to the crease for his fifth Test appearance at the game's grandest venue, knowing that he has an opportunity to record arguably the most incredible achievement in one of the greatest sporting careers of them all. Perhaps more importantly, however, he'll be seeking to cement his team's credentials as the most formidable outfit in the modern-day game.

However and wherever it arrives - and he will surely not fall Bradman-esquely short - the romance of Tendulkar's hundredth hundred will be a distant echo of those early days in international cricket. The team of which he remains such a formidable component has changed beyond recognition in the intervening years, in attitude as much as output. These days, India sit atop both Test and one-day trees, and go about their business with a swagger that, like West Indies and Australia before them, reflects their sense of entitlement. They are the game's modern-day galacticos, and they play with expectation where hope once held sway.

Where England are concerned, that attitude is particularly justified. Despite a supposed fallibility outside of Asia, India have not lost at home or away in five series since Rahul Dravid first appeared on the scene in 1996, and despite England's belief that greentops are the key to ending that sequence, their traumatic defeats at Headingley in 2002 and Trent Bridge five years later are potent reminders of the class that resides in their opponents' batting ranks. India have lost just two series out of 15 since their mould-breaking triumph in 2007, and none in the last three years. The financial might of the BCCI is nowadays matched, in no uncertain terms, by an intimidatory on-field clout.

Mind you, England are themselves in a mean streak of Test form, with seven series wins and a draw in eight outings since May 2009, which means that the coming contest ought to be the finest tussle on these shores since the epic Ashes summer of 2005. Then as now, two genuine contenders for the World Test Championship crown are about to go head to head, and if the hype surrounding this series is more muted than one might expect in the circumstances, then that is most likely a reflection of the two teams' obsessions with their principal foes, Australia and Pakistan - against whom they each recorded a memorable triumph in the winter just gone.

Nevertheless, a contest of this calibre needs no over-egging, and it is strangely refreshing that the cricket has, for once, been left to do much of the talking. If England can win the series by two clear Tests out of four, they will have achieved their stated ambition of becoming the world's No.1 Test side, a position they've not held since Peter May held sway in the early 1950s. That scoreline might be too much to expect, even for a team that condemned Australia to three innings defeats on home soil in the recent Ashes, but there's little doubt that England are primed for the challenge that awaits them - more so, arguably, than their opponents who were a clear second-best in their solitary warm-up against Somerset earlier in the week.

It was not an auspicious arrival, as Somerset racked up a grand total of 685 for 5 in two innings, either side of rolling their opponents for 224. However, there's one particular member of the Indian party who will shrug his shoulders at such events. Throughout his seven-year tenure as England coach, Duncan Fletcher treated warm-up matches with disdain, often using 13 or 14 players in what amounted to glorified nets sessions. It is an attitude that could not be further removed from the approach of his fellow Zimbabwean, Andy Flower who, back in November, treated England's three first-class fixtures in the lead-up to the Ashes as unofficial Tests, and reaped the rewards of his team's intensity.
Fletcher's crossing of the floor promises to be the zestiest subplot of a spicy summer. The manner of his departure in 2007 was bitter in the extreme, and continues to mask the extent to which his efforts laid the foundations of the world-class side that England are now becoming. To judge from recent history, his calm and considered manner will fit well with an Indian dressing room that prefers its coaches in the John Wright/Gary Kirsten backroom mould, even if Dravid admitted they are still getting to grips with his well-disguised sense of humour.

Nevertheless, his credentials as a pure batting coach are not in doubt, with Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pietersen among his keenest disciples in the England team. With that in mind, the insider knowledge he can impart to India's attack could have more bearing on the series than any nuggets of wisdom he can pass on to the likes of Tendulkar, Dravid and VVS Laxman. A trio with 99 Test centuries between them are a bit long in the tooth to learn the merits of the forward press.


It will not have escaped Fletcher's attention that India is the one Test nation that he never managed to beat during his days with England, so it would doubtless grate if Flower were to put that record straight at the first attempt. But despite their common heritage and studious demeanours, the nature of their rivalry is very much a theoretical one. As Flower showed by ducking the victory podium in Sydney back in January, he too prefers his players to hog the limelight.

The key head-to-heads will be on-field ones. Andrew Strauss's twin innings of 78 and 109 not out at Taunton took some of the edge off his duel with Zaheer Khan, even if another cheap left-arm dismissal at Lord's will reawaken the clamour in double-quick time. James Anderson's lateral movement will be starkly complemented by the steepling bounce of Chris Tremlett - two bowlers who have matured beyond recognition since their fitfully impressive performances in 2007, and whose efforts against India's senior batsmen could define the shape of the series.

And then there's England's own run-machines - Alastair Cook, a centurion on debut against India in 2006, and the possessor of six hundreds in his last ten Tests, and Jonathan Trott, whose average after 21 appearances (62.23) exceeds even that of Tendulkar. With Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell in exquisite form in the third Test against Sri Lanka, there's no reason for England to question their right to challenge the world's best - especially given the size of the hole left by Virender Sehwag at the top of India's order. More than any other batsman, his ability and willingness to batter good bowling sets him apart from his peers, and therefore his absence for one, maybe two, Tests is hugely significant.

The restrictions on DRS could also be a major factor, not so much for the decisions that go one way or the other, but for the friction that could be created between two sides that will not need much invitation to get feisty with one another. As England discovered to their cost at Trent Bridge four years ago, when a misplaced jelly bean sparked a diplomatic incident, India's players know how to fight - not only their corner, but their opponent's as well. That Calypso tendency is a thing of the dim and distant past. When battle commences on Thursday, neither side will have any doubt as to the intensity.

Dhoni should have been punished - Harper

Daryl Harper, the former international umpire, has said the ICC's failure to take any action against India captain MS Dhoni for criticising his decisions in the first Test against West Indies reflected the advent of "selective management" in cricket.

This was the chief factor in his decision to retire prematurely from umpiring. He said he felt targeted by the Indian team during the game and was speaking out now on those incidents because the ICC "chose not to".

Harper, who quit before his scheduled 96th and final Test in Dominica, also revealed an incident that occurred after Praveen Kumar was removed from the attack for repeated running on the pitch. Dhoni, Harper claimed, approached him after that and said "We've had problems with you before, Daryl", which the umpire interpreted as an attempt to intimidate.

Dhoni's more publicised remarks came after the Kingston Test and followed a series of umpiring errors. "If the correct decisions were made the game would have finished much earlier and I would have been in the hotel by now," he said at the post-match press conference. His criticism was described as "unfair" by the ICC general manager of cricket David Richardson, but neither he nor the presiding match referee Jeff Crowe elected to charge the Indian captain.

"That was my opinion [that he should have been censured], those were inappropriate comments," Harper told ESPNcricinfo from Adelaide after sending out a statement on Thursday, in which he explained his side of an episode that saw him heavily criticised in the Indian media. "Any suggestion that if the correct decisions had been made, I would've been in my hotel room a lot earlier, I think that's definitely inappropriate.

"Especially when only one decision in the match would have been reversed had it been a DRS situation. And I read yesterday that I made nine mistakes in the game, so yes I thought it was time someone spoke up because unfortunately the ICC choose not to.

"I think there are other factors afoot that are infringing on the game and I think the game's too valuable to allow that to happen. I'm not a politician, I'm not an administrator, I'm just an umpire, and it seems to me the treatment I was receiving from the Sabina Park Test was telling me that perhaps I shouldn't treat everyone the same way, which is a system that's worked pretty well for a long time.

"Five days passed from the time my Test had finished, until the time I worked my way through an email from the ICC that listed a number of articles coming out of India. It wasn't until then that I realised things were going a bit pear-shaped and I expected the controlling body would do the controlling.

"If it happens on my watch I take care of it, but if it happens post-match - and I didn't know about this for five days - as far as I was concerned it was up to the controlling body to look after that aspect and I don't believe that was happening in any way."

Harper said he felt he had been singled out by Dhoni and his team in response to earlier incidents in which he had pulled up various members of the Indian team up for their on-field behaviour. Praveen Kumar was removed from the Indian attack for repeatedly running on the pitch, while Dhoni was admonished after the close-in fielder Abhinav Mukund charged at Harper's opposite number while appealing for a bat-pad catch.

It seems to me the treatment I was receiving from the Sabina Park Test was telling me that perhaps I shouldn't treat everyone the same way, which is a system that's worked pretty well for a long time.

"Praveen Kumar transgressed a number of times, and TV actually highlighted it with a red mat showing how many times he was running straight down the pitch," Harper said. "One criticism I received on the field was that they thought I was particularly harsh on a player in his first Test match.

"My comment to that would be a Test match is not a warm-up for anything higher, it is the pinnacle form of the game, why should someone playing their first game be any different to someone playing their last? On top of that he had played 52 ODIs for India, so he was hardly a new boy on the block.

"Abhinav, one of the close-in fielders at one stage ran more than halfway up the pitch, charging towards Ian Gould holding the ball, appealing for a bat-pad catch, which Ian turned down. I simply made a point of coming in from square leg and drew Dhoni's attention to the fact he was responsible for his team's behaviour, he was responsible for upholding the spirit of the game.

"He clearly didn't like me admonishing him for that situation, he didn't want to look at me, but I insisted the message had to be received before the next ball was bowled and the game continued. He reluctantly acknowledged I was on the planet and we moved on.

"I've got no doubt that applying the laws of the game in those two situations in particular were quite probably at the base of the criticism, the unwarranted criticism."

Following the Kumar incident, Harper said that Dhoni approached him and said "we've had problems with you before, Daryl", which the umpire interpreted as an attempt to intimidate.

"I decided what he meant was that I was one umpire not influenced by any personalities or teams or boards," said Harper. "He hadn't been able to intimidate me, I think that was part of it."

Harper also criticised the ICC for a lack of support in the face of concerted pressure from India's players and media, which ultimately saw him hounded out of Test cricket a match earlier than he was scheduled to retire during the Caribbean series.

"I'm disappointed for the game of cricket that management has allowed this to happen. I think there was basically a hive of inactivity in Dubai," he said. "I think it would have been very simple to apply the code of conduct that umpires have to apply on the spur of the moment in every game they umpire.

"There was a five-day period when those [codes] could have been applied - that's enough time to play a whole Test match, let alone make a decision when you're standing behind the stumps. Nothing happened, so I guess someone had to show some leadership when it came to such an important issue for the game's future.

"It's a wonderful game and I don't want to see it going down the tube by selective management. And I am also concerned about the lowering of standards of behaviour. I've never been willing to say 'it's just a sign of the times'. Cricket has survived too long to give in to that sort of behaviour and accept it as part and parcel of the 21st century."

Using the example of the three players charged under the ICC code of conduct in the Kingston Test, Harper said the two West Indians Darren Sammy and Ravi Rampaul had shown far more contrition than the Indian legspinner Amit Mishra, who was also sanctioned.

"Three players were reported, and that's above average. Two of them came into the umpire's room afterwards, and they realised they were wrong in what they'd done," Harper said. "They both apologised profusely, they were humbled, they came in and they expressed their disappointment with their actions, they didn't avoid the issue, they owned up.

"One was reprimanded, Darren Sammy, Ravi Rampaul was fined 10 per cent of his match fee, and those boys were apologetic. In the other case, the first player reported was Amit Mishra, and even on the fourth day of the game he was still adamant that he'd got a bad decision.

"That couldn't be confirmed either way by replays … but regardless of where it came from, for my money that guy missed the point. There's no code of conduct for good decisions or bad decisions. The code of conduct is there to test out the strength of character, and on that occasion his character failed to respond in the appropriate way, and four days later he still hadn't worked out that he'd breached the code of conduct and thought he was quite justified.

"For me that's very sad, and shows a total lack of what the spirit of cricket is all about."

No stranger to controversy or criticism of his decisions, particularly since the introduction of the DRS, Harper had nonetheless officiated in 94 Test matches before he was replaced on the ICC elite panel earlier this year. His tenure was to conclude with two more matches in the West Indies, but ultimately did so a match early after he decided not to stand in the second Test of the series.

"I was going to be on a hiding to nothing if I officiated in Dominica. It would have been all about my performance in my 96th Test," Harper said in his statement. "I'm not sure if any more scrutiny was actually possible. I loved my role but I didn't want to see the focus switch to me when it should centre on the players and the contest.

"In an ICC media release to explain my withdrawal from the third Test, ICC Manager, Cricket Operations David Richardson wrote 'the reality of the situation is that Daryl's statistics show his correct decision percentage in Tests involving India is 96 per cent, which is considerably higher than the international average for top-level umpires'. If this type of support had been forthcoming before the horse had bolted, I would have stayed and officiated in my 96th Test match."

The ICC intend to make a presentation to Harper, recognising his contribution to the game, during the next Test match to be held at the Adelaide Oval, his home ground. It will be played against India.

India take charge on rainless day

India 308 for 6 (Dhoni 65*, Mukund 62, Laxman 56, Raina 50) lead West Indies 204 by 104 runs..

The Windsor Park Stadium in Dominica staged its first full day of Test cricket on which India consolidated their position of strength, albeit after going through a couple of worrying phases against a depleted West Indies attack missing the services of Ravi Rampaul due to a viral infection. Abhinav Mukund and VVS Laxman overcame the pressure inflicted by a fiery opening spell from Fidel Edwards and Darren Sammy to build a platform for a substantial lead, and Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni ensured India stayed on track after a couple of freak dismissals that included some slick wicketkeeping from Carlton Baugh threatened to undermine the hard work.

The weakened hosts would have known they were in for a long ordeal, but they made it difficult for India with an early double-strike. Edwards was dangerous with late swing, yorking M Vijay in his first over of the day and dislodging him off his first ball of the second. He should have had Rahul Dravid, deceiving him twice with his late away movement, but Darren Sammy surprised Dravid with one that nipped back in to bowl him through the gate. Lots of patience and solidity was the need of the hour and Mukund and Laxman showed that to prop up India.

It took some resolve to recover from 18 for 2. Abhinav showed excellent concentration and grafted his way to a maiden half-century that justified his selection for the tour of England. He used his feet well against the variations in length and when Edwards tried to ruffle him with some short balls he was adept at handling them, moving back and tapping it down with soft hands. Opportunities weren't wasted either, as he dispatched Devendra Bishoo's full toss and cracked Edwards behind square leg and past point for successive boundaries. Hopes of a century were cut short when he offered a bat-pad chance off Bishoo, playing a shot that fetched him a fair number of runs today - the whip through square leg.

Laxman took 16 deliveries to get off the mark as the early part of his innings was spent seeing off the fast bowlers. On a big ground and a slow outfield, he rotated the strike well, picking up the pace when Bishoo was introduced into the attack. Boundaries were long, so he picked off singles and twos, playing the ball late, preferring the areas past point and down the ground as the field spread out. Bishoo didn't give too much air but when he did, Laxman caressed him through extra cover. When Bishoo dragged it short, Laxman brought up his half-century pulling him over midwicket. He looked good to build on with Virat Kohli, who had progressed to 30, and Darren Sammy sticking to a leg-stump line on a track robbed of any of its early assistance.

At 168 for 3, West Indies were beginning to look deflated but an opening wasn't far away. They struck against the run of play when Kohli was caught expertly down the leg side by Baugh. What's more, even though the appeal was for a catch, his foot was found to be in the air when Baugh instinctively took off the bails. But nothing could better what followed.

Bowlers can't get more innocuous than Shivnarine Chanderpaul and that was evident when he - handed the ball after Sammy was short of options - lobbed some amiable deliveries so far outside off that Laxman didn't bother chasing them. However, they proved deceptively threatening, even though Chanderpaul - who was bowling for the first time since 2007 - would not have planned them to be. In one of the more bizarre dismissals in Tests, Laxman, having left another of those shockers alone, casually lifted his back leg a touch; Baugh took off the bails at that instant. Laxman's known for his shell-shocked expressions when dismissed - Chennai 2001, Rawalpindi 2004 spring to mind - and this one was right alongside them as he was sent back looking dumbfounded against the unlikeliest of wicket-takers.

West Indies had clawed back to make it 172 for 5. With scores of 0, 15, 2 and 5 in this series, Dhoni was under pressure but against spin, in the company of a fluent Raina and the field spread out, he stepped up to revive India. Boundaries weren't necessary as the pair ran well, working the gaps, nudging and dabbing away with Bishoo and Chanderpaul bowling extended spells.

The West Indies seamers were not at their optimum fitness: Sammy was frequently seen holding his calf muscle while Edwards got some work done on his thigh. That made it easier for India, and Dhoni and Raina took full toll of the opportunities they got. Singles were converted to twos, Raina pulled and drove Bishoo for boundaries to break a long drought while Dhoni cashed in against Edwards towards the end of the day, smacking him through square leg before launching him over mid-off. In the interim, Edwards managed to trap Raina in front off the second new ball but only after the pair had put on a century stand and Raina had notched up his third fifty of the series, helping set up a potentially decisive lead, weather permitting.

Sehwag, Gambhir back in full-strength Test squad

Virender Sehwag, who is yet to fully recover after undergoing surgery on his shoulder, has made it to 17-man India squad for the Test series in England, but will miss the first two weeks of the tour to give him time to recuperate further.

Sachin Tendulkar returned to the squad after skipping the West Indies tour to rest, while Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth made comebacks from injury breaks. Yuvraj Singh, who missed the West Indies tour with a chest infection, also forced his way back into the Test plans following his excellent performance in the World Cup. M Vijay and Virat Kohli, who have so far failed to impress in the West Indies Tests, were dropped, while Suresh Raina's strong show in the same series helped him retain his place.

Abhinav Mukund, who made a dogged 48 in Barbados on Friday, will travel to England as the reserve opener. Wriddhiman Saha was included as the back-up wicketkeeper, edging out Parthiv Patel. Cheteshwar Pujara is yet to recover from the knee injury he picked up in the IPL, and misses out once again.

Munaf Patel made the squad despite missing the first two West Indies Tests with fitness issues. Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar, who have been among the wickets in the Caribbean, round off the pace attack, while Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra make up the spin department.

The tour begins with a three-day warm-up match on July 15, with the first Test starting on July 21 at Lord's.

The squad: MS Dhoni (capt/wk), Gautam Gambhir (vice-capt), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Abhinav Mukund, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra, Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar

Solid India rule out defeat, set for victory push

India batted West Indies out of the game through a cautious second-innings effort on the fourth day. Only 90 minutes were lost to rain, a vast improvement on the previous two days, but scoring remained difficult on a difficult track with ample bounce and seam movement. West Indies were thwarted by two rookies - Abhinav Mukund and Virat Kohli - and two veterans - Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. At some time during the Dravid-Laxman association, the hosts resigned themselves to waiting for a declaration.

The declaration wasn't quite on India's mind on the fourth day; they needed to make sure they got into a position of safety first. Looking at just the scorecard, it might be easy to criticise India's pace - 206 runs added in 83.2 overs - but on the lively pitch that must have also retained moisture, under overcast skies, with low bounce creeping in, and on a heavy outfield, they couldn't quite afford to be casual.

That batting wouldn't be easy was clear from the first 10 minutes or so, when Ravi Rampaul removed M Vijay with a late outswinger. Another low score wasn't a great result for Vijay a day before selection for the England tour.

Dravid had similar problems with away swing and extra bounce, but he managed to keep the ball down with soft hands and an angled bat, getting eight runs off two deliveries that could have easily taken his wicket early on. The bottom hand kept coming off the bat as Rampaul got the ball to rear up from a length. Dravid was 9 off 32 when he flicked uppishly towards square leg, but the replays couldn't conclusively prove that Adrian Barath completed a clean catch. Nor did the replays prove otherwise.

While Dravid remained solid after that shot, Abhinav gave a better account of himself than he did in Jamaica. As Sunil Gavaskar observed, he made an adjustment to his technique, preferring moving back and across to the forward press that was a feature of his batting in Jamaica. He wasn't completely comfortable, but he didn't back away from the menacing bounce. He copped one on the helmet, but otherwise picked runs off deflections. Once in, he played a good-looking cover-drive off the comparatively slower Darren Sammy, and was good square on off side against the quicker bowlers too.

Fidel Edwards, though, softened him up with bouncers after lunch. After he managed to get out of the line of two accurate bouncers, both kicking off a length, Abhinav got one with his name on it. This time he dropped the bottom hand, but the ball had the top hand on its mind, denying him what would have been a maiden international fifty.

That brought together the old firm of Dravid and Laxman, who denied the bowlers until they started bowling well outside off. Laxman, who scored 85 in the first innings, looked hardly in any trouble. He was welcomed with a searing bouncer, but the next one he pulled away for four.

The ball still misbehaved, the bat handles still kept getting jammed, the bats still kept getting beaten, but the outside edges were not to be found. Inch by inch, the partnership aggregate went to 3,682 runs, No. 11 on the all-time list. Unsurprisingly a ridiculously misjudged single provided West Indies the only chance during their 65-run partnership, but the throw from cover missed the stumps. Dravid was 32 then, India 111. By the time the next chance arrived, through a fastish offcutter from Edwards, Dravid had reached 55, and India 154.

Then came a spell of play Kohli will look back at with much satisfaction. Edwards to Kohli so far in the series has featured bouncers, fuller ones, blown kisses, patted backs. Edwards resumed much of the same. Two slips, a gully, a forward short leg and a backward short leg awaited as Edwards bowled bouncers in the vicinity of 90mph. The first few weren't quite accurate, and Kohli avoided them. At the other end, incredibly Kohli was allowed to bat with a long-off in place. He still was in no hurry, and was still on a pair when Edwards started afresh. This bouncer was accurate, jumped towards Kohli's throat, hit the handle, and fell just wide of the diving forward short leg. Eighteen balls on a pair. A near catch. Laxman walked up, said something, patted Kohli's back. Next ball bouncer. Back in the crease. Pull. Six.

This series is the first time in Kohli's career that he has been made to look a bit out of place, but he fought with discipline to come back unbeaten on 25 off 97. After testing him at the start of the innings, West Indies were too quick to spread the fields, and didn't even take the new ball in the evening, an acceptance that only one team could now force a result.

Walking back with Kohli was Laxman, whom West Indies failed to ruffle. The pair had helped give India an opportunity to score quick runs on the fifth morning and allow their bowlers to have a crack at West Indies in the chase.