Cricket / Second Test: Lewis the light in England's darkness: Defiant century devalued as Kumble underlines India's dominance with five wickets in tourists' follow-on

India . . . . . . . . . . .560-6 dec

England . . . . . . . .286 and 231-8

THE mercury climbed above 100F in the Chepauk Stadium during the second Test here yesterday, but it was still possible to watch England from an unshaded seat and shiver. Plans are already afoot, more than likely, to bring their own smog masks, a doctor and a chef on their next visit here, and there is a certain amount of evidence that an optician might not be a bad idea either.

One of the great ironies of this game is that no fewer than five England players recorded their highest Test scores over the weekend, (although Richard Blakey, on his debut, required only a single) but as everyone bar Devon Malcolm had two innings in which to do so, telegrams of congratulation may not be entirely appropriate.

Following on in three consecutive Tests against a side as ordinary as India is no mean achievement, and on current form, the prospects of making it four in a row in Bombay can scarcely be ruled out. Neither will Sri Lanka offer any escape from this potent cocktail of heat and spin, and the groundsman in Colombo may already have placed an order for a new set of wire brushes.

Even the solitary upbeat note from yesterday's shambles merely went to prove that, at the moment, every silver lining has a cloud. Chris Lewis's maiden Test century contained some magnificent strokeplay, but not only was it made from the relaxation of a hopeless position, it also reinforced the feeling that Lewis will always be a bewilderingly enigmatic cricketer.

'There's only one Chris Lewis' was a predictable enough chant from the here-we-go brigade in the reddening torso stand, ignoring the compelling evidence that there are, on the contrary, two Chris Lewises. He is very much a creature of fluctuating moods - cheery smile one morning, blank look and a grunt the next - and his performances appear to vary depending on whether there is a full moon, or the Milky Way is in alignment with Orion. Yesterday, perhaps not coincidentally, was his 25th birthday.

No one doubts that Lewis has as much natural talent as Ian Botham, not even Botham himself, but his Test averages at the start of this match (24 with the bat, 38 with the ball) may not be entirely from the damned lies school of statistics. He has bowled the occasional outstanding delivery in these two Tests, but has more often looked innocuous, and while he clearly gets irritated at queries over his fitness, so do we all. During India's 560 for 6 declared a thigh strain restricted him to only 11 overs.

England have been unfortunate with illness (although anyone tucking into Chinese prawns on the eve of a Test in Madras can hardly be described as prudent) and they have also been unlucky with the toss. Furthermore, they have not been kindly treated here by one of the umpires, Professor R S Rathore. As far as England are concerned, he was a short-sighted professor on Saturday when he gave three ropey leg-before decisions, and an absent-minded one yesterday when he was busy dispensing seven-ball overs.

There is also some substance for England's suspicions that India's batsmen were none too subtle about how they used their spikes (although for county cricketers this constitutes one of the better examples of pots and kettles) and the wear and tear, natural or otherwise, left several small craters for the home spinners to aim at when England batted.

However, on the few occasions they hit the bull's-eye, the ball did far too much to get anyone out, and England's second-innings performance in losing their first six wickets for 99 runs on a pitch that offered India much less assistance than the one in Calcutta, would have been faintly embarrassing for a club side.

In the first innings, with Alec Stewart and Graeme Hick in the 60's, England declined from 157 for 1 to 220 for 7, and heartening though it was to see Neil Fairbrother's enterprising 83 at least partly offsetting the suspicion that England's best left- handed No 5 was stuck behind a microphone in the Sky TV box, Fairbrother's innings was compiled from every bit as hopeless a position as Lewis's.

When England followed on 278 runs behind, any prospect they had of making a fist of it evaporated when India's mischievous tactic of giving the new ball to two seam bowlers resulted in Kapil Dev, who completed 5,000 Test runs with the bat on Friday, ripping out Stewart and Hick for two ducks to move within 15 victims of Richard Hadlee's 431.

Stewart was palpably leg before; Hick played no sort of shot to give a catch to second slip, and Mike Gatting ought to have completed a hat-trick of zeroes when Kiran More spilled him third ball off Kapil, diving across first slip.

Gatting, though, was soon lbw playing the sweep shot that he knows full well carries a much higher risk with Indian umpires than at home, which, added to being ill, dropping a ludicrously simple catch, and getting himself run out by the fielder at short leg in the first innings, just about summed up his match.

Robin Smith exorcised one or two ghosts against the spinners by making 52 until he pushed a catch to short leg with that distinctively stiff-wristed lunge of his, and fell to Anil Kumble for the third time in the series. Kumble was spied on in South Africa by Keith Fletcher before the series began, and his 'nothing to fear from this bloke' verdict now looks faintly daft.

He was right in a way, as Kumble barely turns it, but perhaps Fletcher should have spent more time spying on his own batsmen. Fairbrother's grotesque slog ballooned to mid-on, and Kumble's third wicket in the space of four overs yesterday involved Blakey offering no stroke to a perfectly straight ball. At this point Mohammad Azharuddin's dubious credentials as a private eye took a further knock when he took Kumble off.

By the time Kumble returned (to dismiss Ian Salisbury with his seventh ball) England had gone from 99 for 6 to 172 for 6, and Lewis was in full cry. The six over long-on off Venkatapathy Raju to reach his century (out of 133) was a massive blow, but sadly, not half as big as the one currently being administered to England's ego.

(Photograph omitted)

MADRAS SCOREBOARD

(Fourth day: India won toss)

INDIA - First Innings 560 for 6 dec (S R Tendulkar 165, N S Sidhu 106, P K Amre 78, Kapil Dev 66no, V G Kambli 59).

ENGLAND - First Innings

(Overnight Friday: 19 for 0)

R A Smith lbw b Kumble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

(100 min, 84 balls, 1 four)

* A J Stewart c sub b Venkatapathy Raju . . . . . . . .74

(312 min, 269 balls, 8 fours)

G A Hick lbw b Chauhan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

(145 min, 122 balls, 11 fours)

M W Gatting run out (Amre / More) . . . . . . . . . . . 2

(16 min, 11 balls)

N H Fairbrother c Kapil Dev b Chauhan . . . . . . . . .83

(198 min, 159 balls, 10 fours, 1 six)

] R J Blakey b Venkatapathy Raju . . . . . . . . . . . .0

(21 min, 17 balls)

C C Lewis c Azharuddin b Venkatapathy Raju . . . . . . .0

(6 min, 7 balls)

I D K Salisbury lbw b Kumble . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

(40 min, 33 balls, 1 four)

P W Jarvis c sub b Venkatapathy Raju . . . . . . . . . .8

(59 min, 49 balls, 1 four)

P C R Tufnell c Azharuddin b Chauhan . . . . . . . . . .2

(25 min, 14 balls)

D E Malcolm not out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0

(8 min, 6 balls)

Extras (b14 lb16 nb2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32

Total (475 min, 127.3 overs) . . . . . . . . . . . . .286

Fall: 1-46 (Smith), 2-157 (Hick), 3-166 (Gatting), 4-175 (Stewart), 5-179 (Blakey), 6-179 (Lewis), 7-220 (Salisbury), 8-277 (Jarvis), 9-279 (Fairbrother), 10-286 (Tufnell).

Bowling: Prabhakar 3-2-7-0 (nb1) (one spell); Kumble 25-9-61-2 (nb2) (4-3-8-0, 6-3-13-1, 7-2-13-0, 1-1-0-0, 7-0-27-1); Chauhan 39.3-16-69-3 (1-0-2-0, 4-2-4-0, 4-0-16-0, 4-0-10-0, 22-13-25-1, 4.3-1-12-2); Venkatapathy Raju 54-21-103-4

(14-9-12-0, 3-1-14-0, 4-0-21-0, 7-2-10-0, 26-9-46-4); Kapil Dev 4-0-11-0 (nb1); Tendulkar 2-1-5-0 (one spell each).

Progress (third day): 50: 103 min, 27.4 overs. Lunch: 93-1 (Stewart 36, Hick 30), 42 overs. 100: 160 min, 44.2 overs. 150: 233 min, 63.4 overs. Tea: 166-3 (Stewart 71, Fairbrother 0), 75 overs. 200: 369 min, 100.3 overs. Close: 221-7 (Fairbrother 38, Jarvis 0), 107 overs. (Fourth day): 250: 420 min, 114.1 overs. Innings closed: 10.50am.

Stewart's 50: 185 min, 162 balls, 7 fours.

Hick's 50: 94 min, 74 balls, 10 fours.

Fairbrother's 50: 138 min, 113 balls, 7 fours.

ENGLAND - Second Innings

R A Smith c Amre b Kumble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56

(103 min, 89 balls, 10 fours)

* A J Stewart lbw b Kapil Dev. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0

(22 min, 8 balls)

G A Hick c Tendulkar b Kapil Dev . . . . . . . . . . . . .0

(8 min, 8 balls)

M W Gatting lbw b Venkatapathy Raju . . . . . . . . . . .19

(50 min, 48 balls, 3 fours)

N H Fairbrother c Prabhakar b Kumble . . . . . . . . . . .9

(46 min, 33 balls, 1 four)

] R J Blakey b Kumble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

(14 min, 13 balls, 1 four)

C C Lewis not out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

(151 min, 125 balls, 14 fours, 2 sixes)

I D K Salisbury b Kumble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

(83 min, 61 balls, 1 four)

P W Jarvis c Tendulkar b Kumble . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

(15 min, 12 balls)

P C R Tufnell not out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

(26 min, 30 balls, 1 four)

Extras (b4 lb5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Total (for 8, 271 min, 71 overs) . . . . . . . . . . . .231

Fall: 1-10 (Stewart), 2-12 (Hick), 3-71 (Gatting), 4-82 (Smith), 5-88 (Blakey), 6-99 (Fairbrother), 7-172 (Salisbury), 8-186 (Jarvis).

Bowling: Prabhakar 3-2-4-0 (one spell); Kapil Dev 11-5-36-2 (7-3-20-2, 4-2-16-0); Venkatapathy Raju 23-3-76-1 (10-1-29-1, 1-0-3-0, 7-2-20-0, 5-0-24-0); Chauhan 16-2-51-0 (10-2-27-0, 5-0-22-0, 1-0-2-0); Kumble 16-5-51-5 (7-2-20-3, 9-3-31-2); Tendulkar 2-1-4-0 (one spell).

Progress (fourth day): Lunch: 12-1 (Smith 11, Hick 0), 7 overs. 50: 70 min, 19 overs. 100: 134 min, 35 overs. Tea: 119-6 (Lewis 20, Salisbury 1), 39 overs. 150: 185 min, 48.5 overs. 200: 242 min, 62.4 overs.

Smith's 50: 88 min, 77 balls, 9 fours.

Lewis's 50: 69 min, 58 balls, 7 fours, 1 six. 100: 134 min, 112 balls, 13 fours, 2 sixes.

Umpires: V K Ramaswamy and R S Rathore.

Boiling blow, page 27