Swann’s off to a real flier
Graeme Swann sat in his hotel room in Mumbai and watched an unknown and unpronounceable Australian give him hope that he may yet realise his dream of playing Test cricket.
Before terror wreaked havoc in that hotel, Swann’s tour of India started with him watching the end of the India-Australia Test series on television as Jason Krejza took an astonishing 12 wickets on his debut in Nagpur a month ago. Krejza’s collection may not have saved the series for Australia, but it did inspire Swann, a fellow off-spinner.
“It gives you great hope to see another finger spinner doing so well because there aren’t many of usplaying international cricket these days,” said Swann. “It gave me hope coming into this series and it did me no harm in getting a match here.”
The seed of an idea that Indian batsmen, having learnt to cope with the mysteries of Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan, might be susceptible to good old-fashioned off-spin was planted – and then blossomed in Chennai yesterday.
I was determined to enjoy whatever happened in this game
Swann’s two wickets with his third and sixth balls in Test cricket opened the door on India’s innings to England, who could barely believe their good fortune that here was a Test they could win despite everything.
India, rattled, became victims of their own ambition, playing shots encouraged in the one-day arena and stumbling to 155-6 by the end of the second day, still 161 runs behind England’s first innings on a crumbling pitch.
Swann, at 29, is realistic enough to accept that whatever he achieves in the two Tests in India, his opportunities are likely to be limited. There are not many occasions when England play two slow bowlers and Monty Panesar currently enjoys the ranking of England’s No1 spinner.
Also in the wings is Adil Rashid, a leg-spinner being fast-tracked to the Test team. Swann said last night: “I was determined to enjoy whatever happened in this game.
"I am not stupid, I realise finger-spinners don’t get a great chance in Test cricket, especially in England, so I was going to enjoy every minute.”
Swann enjoys modest success with Nottinghamshire, and with tours of the Caribbean and South Africa, where pace bowling will dominate, to come next year, it is quite possible he will have a long wait for another Test opportunity after India.
That should make his moment in the sun yesterday all the more special to one of cricket’s more colourful characters who had been written off by former England coach Duncan Fletcher after his debut tour nine years ago.
Despite the taunting of Harbhajan Singh about England’s dour approach on day one, it was those traditional English virtues which put them in a position to take a one-nil lead in this two-Test series against a team that has just put Australia to the sword.
India appeared complacent in the morning as they tried to work their way through England’s last five wickets.
They did not bother to take the second new ball, instead letting their spinners toil away. It was almost as if they believed that whatever England could score, they could easily top it, having hammered their opponents in the recent one-day series.
They were wrong. The 87 runs the lower order added yesterday included only three boundaries but could prove priceless, Matt Prior justifying his selection as wicketkeeper with an expertly compiled 53 not out.
Virender Sehwag, who caused so much damage in the one-dayers, chopped Jimmy Anderson on to his stumps, and just before tea Kevin Pietersen introduced Swann to devastating effect.
Gautam Gambhir paid the price for padding up, Rahul Dravid was beaten by one that spat back at him, both lbw decisions by Daryl Harper being borderline but not outrageous.
In his next six overs Swann was milked by the batsmen but he had already done the damage and the rest of the attack stoked up the pressure.
Panesar looked as surprised as anyone when he grabbed a smart return catch from VVS Laxman, and Andrew Flintoff did the same to dismiss Sachin Tendulkar, who was gaining ominous momentum.
The only worry for England was that Steve Harmison had to have a scan last night after twisting his right knee in his fourth over, although he looked happy enough when he had Yuvraj Singh caught at slip by Flintoff to cap a great day for Swann and the ugly ducklings.
