da luck： Dileep Premachandran comes up with the plays of the fifth day of the Lord’s Test between England and India
da bet esporte： Dileep Premachandran at Lord's23-Jul-2007
Show Pony Dhoni shows his class and forms a formidable partnership with the rain as India hold on for a draw © Getty Images
Show Pony Dhoni?: That’s what some have taken to calling India’swicketkeeper in these parts. As much as the Fab Four who are no longerfab, Mahendra Singh Dhoni had a whole lot to prove when he walked to the crease thismorning. His first-innings dismissal had been a shocker, his keepingpatchy, and his technique remains among the most ungainly you’ll see atthis level. But what Dhoni has is heart, and an ability to adapt, and heshowed that with an innings that spanned 159 balls. There was plenty offlirtation with Dame Fortune, as edges evaded fielders, but he stuckaround for the denouement, rotating the strike and thumping the oddboundary. India’s hero.Sledge of the day: Gamesmanship standards have undoubtedlydeclined, with coarseness and crudity almost completely replacing humour.Matt Prior came up with a gem though soon after Dhoni had arrived in themiddle on a filthy, grey morning. “Yuvraj is looking brilliant in thenets, isn’t he Dhoni?” he piped up. Not quite in the Eddo Brandes-GlennMcGrath- biscuit category, but well worth a chuckle.The big trees also fall: After a calamitous start, India werestarting to dream of a miracle when VVS Laxman and Dhoni stepped up thescoring after lunch. On came Chris Tremlett, who had looked both incisiveand innocuous on Test debut. A magnificent full delivery that cut backappreciably crept through Laxman’s defence and pegged back the stumps.Laxman’s pose was a familiar depressing one, keeling over like a treeattacked by a chainsaw.So near, and yet so very far: Just before the players went off forbad light, Monty Panesar had a huge appeal against Sreesanth. SteveBucknor, who doesn’t get too many Christmas cards from Indian fans,pondered long and hard, as he’s prone to, but the finger never went up.Replays showed that it might have clipped the top of middle stump. Afortuitous escape for India, though they would argue that there were insuch a mess mainly because Rahul Dravid didn’t get any benefit of doubt.Timing, timing: Unlike the Australians, the English have seldomseen the best of Laxman. But in one Tremlett over, there were twosignature strokes, little more than wafts of the bat that sentback-of-length deliveries through point. The fielders gave chase, but evenwith the ball going up the slope, it was futile.The forgotten man: One of those watching his former team-matesstrive to save the Test was Aakash Chopra, the Delhi opener who onceforged such an effective combination with Virender Sehwag. Not even acontender despite his experience of English league cricket, Chopra couldonly watch anxiously and hope for rain. Like this Indian team, he had seenbetter days, most notably in Australia and Pakistan in the 2003-04 season.Omens and all that: India’s record at the ground some callheadquarters is pitiful, but they can take encouragement from their greatescape here. In 1986, when they won the series, Dilip Vengsarkar’s 126 andKapil Dev’s relentlessly accurate swing bowling set up a five-wicket win.And going back even further to 1971, the defiance of Eknath Solkar stavedoff defeat, with India finishing on 145 for 8 in pursuit of 183. A monthlater they went to the Oval and clinched the series, with Chandrasekhar’sMill-Reef deliveries wreaking havoc.