Dar plays spoilsport, mars Tendulkar's Lord's swansong

LORD’S: India’s performance at Lord’s was like that of a group of wonderful choir boys who find their vocal chords suddenly stricken by paralysis. There was much opening and shutting of mouths, as it were, but no sound emerged.

After the tumultuous game at the Oval on Saturday, this was an anti-climactic end to the series. England’s seven- wicket victory was so emphatic as to be facile. India were never in the game after being bowled out for 187 on a pitch full of runs, and the target was reached with almost 14 overs to spare.

Frankly, India were at least 100 runs short of a winning score, and 60 runs less to give themselves even a decent fighting chance. True, India were hard hit by an appaling decision against Sachin Tendulkar just when he looked like making his final appearance at Lord’s a memorable one. But with no real devil in the pitch, the collapse of the Indian batting in spite of the decision against Tendulkar was unexpected.

In the quest to stamp their authority early in the match, the batsmen were guilty of wanton strokeplay. Too many shots, many of them loose shots, meant that the England bowlers could keep their hopes of wickets constantly alive.

Rahul Dravid’s decision to bat first was based on the premise that batting was his strong suit, and that he could expect 300 runs from his line-up. In the event, they failed him, garnering a little over half of what the captain would have liked.

Ganguly set the tenor for the mindless display with a succession of airy-fairy shots, and this trend continued, despite Dravid’s dismissal for a blob to the best delivery of the match, and the adverse decision against Tendulkar, ruled caught behind when the ball had clearly missed the outside edge.

Flintoff’s return had given the bowling extra edge, and with Anderson rediscovering his bowling rhythm, England’s bowling needed to be watched carefully, partnerships had to be built, the slogging had to be deferred to the very end. India’s tactics seemed to follow this order in reverse, and but for Dhoni’s half century, the team may have folded up for just over 100.

Early strikes by RP Singh raised some hopes, and Bell was again dismissed after a rousing start. But clearly the score was too meagre to defend. Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood put the pitch, and the Indian batting in proper perspective while posting aggressive half centuries in taking their side to victory.

India had created an opportunity to win the trophy with some terrific, and hard work over a tension-filled week, only to surrender everything in two hours of mindless cricket.