Cricket / Second Test: England must learn lessons of series defeat: Another innings victory for India exposes the tourists' limitations and calls into question their approach to five-day cricket

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

England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .286 and 252

India win by an innings and 22 runs

FREE admission or not, only around 3,000 people turned out for the formality of cheering India across the winning line in the second Test here yesterday, as opposed to close on 30,000 in similar circumstances in Calcutta. The obvious conclusion is that the novelty value of giving England a good hiding is beginning to wear off.

An innings and 22 runs represents England's biggest defeat in 60 years of touring India, and to have transformed an Indian team, who were the butt of 'pathetic, sack-the-lot-of-them' editorials and mocking two-minute silences before their cricket board's meetings, into national heroes in the space of six weeks is no mean achievement. India has not had so much fun since its team won the World Cup in England 10 years ago.

There are doubtless a few firecrackers being set off in England as well at the moment, perhaps not all of them from the Indian community. After the announcement of the tour party in September, it was not only a handful of MCC dissidents who secretly harboured hopes of the team ending up with egg all over their faces. The series is lost, and the odds against a 3-0 scoreline being chiselled on to the tombstone are not terribly high.

There have been all manner of excuses pedalled around, and if the chairman of the selectors, Ted Dexter, was here at the moment, clear-skied Madras would doubtless be blamed for the lads suffering from smog withdrawal symptoms. By contrast, the England captain, Graham Gooch, and his team manager, Keith Fletcher, offered little other than bad cricket at yesterday's post-mortem, although it did not prevent the regular smogscreen of England's domestic structure getting another airing.

Fletcher and Gooch were keen to point out that England's cricketers do not see enough turning pitches in county cricket, and that 'it was very difficult' (Fletcher's words) 'to come to India and have to learn new batting techniques in five weeks.'

However, it is reasonable to assume that four-day cricket is not about to herald a glut of cratered dustbowls and regular explosions from the terraces at places like the County Ground, Derbyshire, and neither should it be beyond the best available batting talent in England (or the selectors' idea of the best available) to cope with three spinners who would barely scrape a living in county cricket.

As for the Test pitches here, neither could remotely be described as a minefield. They have merely offered spinners more assistance than seamers, and Test cricket would be a better game for a few more of the same.

Gooch yesterday conceded the principle of India preparing pitches to suit their own bowlers, and Fletcher - as with Micky Stewart before him - would not be averse to English Test match groundsmen adopting a similar policy.

This, however, begs a number of questions. What are England's bowling strengths nowadays? And why, if one assumes that they are seam and swing, do they have such a poor record at Headingley? Furthermore, why is it then that Keith Boyce, the Headingley groundsman, has been instructed by the Test and County Cricket Board to dig up the square this winter and replace his turf with the identical type of loam used at the non-seamer friendly Oval?

The inference, of course, is that English cricket is no longer run by those who necessarily want to see England win Test matches, but by people with a vested interest in seeing them last five days - namely, the marketing men. Lots of lovely advertisements, and a guaranteed last-day crowd to thrill to the spectacle of parachutists landing on the pitch at lunchtime.

Scarborough, where Devon Malcolm could almost make a century wielding a stick of seaside rock, wins pitch awards almost every year, but as far as bowlers are concerned, they are not quoting Shakespeare when they mutter darkly about a bleeding piece of earth. No, all that the TCCB have learned from this tour, in all probability, is the art of squeezing extra advertising space out of revolving sightscreens.

As for the actual cricketing lessons, more mileage will be gained from exploring the motives behind a squad better equipped to win a one-day international than a Test match, the mistake of choosing four seamers on a slow turner in Calcutta, and the selection of an XI here that left them without a single specialist opener.

There is also the question of a better balanced side - not so much in terms of spinners and seamers, as in time spent working and time spent relaxing. Whether or not he was struck down by a Chinese prawn, one can only wonder at Gooch, having withdrawn from the Vishakhapatnam game on health grounds, spending the best part of three days in the nets in 90F heat, and it was no surprise to see him at yesterday's press conference, fully padded up, and ready to go out for another knock-up.

Gooch's hard work philosophy is basically admirable, but it is not too fanciful to speculate that the captain may now have contracted the kind of medical complaint that renders compulsive joggers beside themselves with remorse if they miss so much as a single morning pounding the pavements. His ill- health might even be down to some little known Indian bug that lives exclusively in cricket nets.

Maybe England's batsmen spend so much time surrounded by netting that they are gripped by terminal agoraphobia when they actually get out into the middle.

In this environment, England have looked little short of inept, and the home team required only 35 more minutes to capture the tourists' final two wickets yesterday. Phil Tufnell (as did Graeme Hick, Neil Fairbrother, Chris Lewis and Richard Blakey) finished with a career-best Test score, but England were rather hoping for something from him with the ball rather than the bat.

So far, India's spinners have a combined analysis of 392.5-141-795- 34, and while Hick has taken six wickets, England's two specialists, Tufnell and Ian Salisbury, are currently registering 3 for 363. So much for all that pre-tour tub- thumping about beating India at their own game.

MADRAS SCOREBOARD

(India won toss)

INDIA - First Innings

M Prabhakar c Blakey b Lewis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

(74 min, 60 balls, 1 four)

N S Sidhu c Hick b Jarvis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .106

(403 min, 273 balls, 9 fours)

V G Kambli lbw b Hick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59

(142 min, 94 balls, 6 fours)

S R Tendulkar c and b Salisbury . . . . . . . . . . . . .165

(361 min, 296 balls, 24 fours, 1 six)

* M Azharuddin c Smith b Jarvis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

(25 min, 14 balls, 1 four)

P K Amre c Jarvis b Salisbury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78

(198 min, 154 balls, 8 fours, 1 six)

Kapil Dev not out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66

(107 min, 75 balls, 8 fours, 1 six)

] K S More not out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26

(58 min, 44 balls, 3 fours, 1 five)

Extras (lb10 w2 nb15) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

Total (for 6 dec, 690 min, 165 overs) . . . . . . .560

Did not bat: A R Kumble, R K Chauhan, Venkatapathy Raju.

Fall: 1-41 (Prabhakar), 2-149 (Kambli),

3-296 (Sidhu), 4-324 (Azharuddin), 5-442 (Tendulkar), 6-499 (Amre).

Bowling: Malcolm 27-7-87-0 (nb1 w2) (6-3-12-0, 5-2-9-0, 5-0-10-0, 5-1-21-0, 4-1-16-0, 2-0-19-0); Jarvis 28-7-72-2 (3-0-15-0, 6-2-5-0, 5-2-19-0, 4-0-8-0, 7-2-21-23-1-4-0); Lewis 11-1-40-1 (nb5) (8-1-25-1, 3-0-15-0); Tufnell 41-3-132-0 (nb12) (1-0-5-0, 8-0-35-0, 9-0-22-0, 2-0-10-0, 12-3-28-0, 9-0-32-0); Hick 29-2-77-1 (18-1-51-1, 5-0-8-0, 6-1-18-0); Salisbury 29-1-142-2 (9-1-39-0, 1-0-1-0, 4-0-20-0, 15-0-82-2).

ENGLAND - First Innings

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 Venkat 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 (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).

ENGLAND - Second Innings

(Overnight: 231 for 8)

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 c and b Kumble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .117

(170 min, 140 balls, 15 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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

(62 min, 61 balls, 3 fours)

D E Malcolm c sub b Venkatapathy Raju . . . . . . . . . .0

(16 min, 15 balls)

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

Total (307 min, 81.1 overs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .252

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), 9-241 (Lewis), 10-252 (Malcolm).

Bowling: Prabhakar 3-2-4-0 (one spell); Kapil Dev 11-5-36-2 (7-3-20-2, 4-2-16-0); Venkatapathy Raju 23.1-3-76-2 (10-1-29-1, 1-0-3-0, 7-2-20-0, 5-0-24-0, 0.1-0-0-1); Chauhan 21-4-59-0 (10-2-27-0, 5-0-22-0, 6-2-10-0); Kumble 21-7-64-6 (7-2-20-3, 14-5-44-3); Tendulkar 2-1-4-0 (one spell).

Progress (fifth day): 250: 306 min, 81 overs. Innings closed: 9.51am.

Umpires: V K Ramaswamy and R S Rathore.

Man of the match: S R Tendulkar.

INDIA WIN BY AN INNINGS

AND 22 RUNS

Such's class problem, page 25

(Photographs omitted)