Burnout worries after deathly slog

The opening Test ended with the levity of Alastair Cook taking a Test wicket in a match where his captaincy showed encouraging signs but England should be assisted more by their system rather than hindered

Alastair Cook claims his maiden Test wicket

A few years ago, a Test at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium was abandoned and the game re-scheduled for the Recreation Ground a few miles down the road. Despite the ground having fallen into partial disuse - football was played there and goats grazed upon the grass - it still produced a passable Test wicket and an exciting finish.

So a herd of hungry goats produced a better wicket than the monstrosity on which England and India played the first Investec Test at Trent Bridge. The sight of Gary Ballance and Alastair Cook bowling in tandem as five days of cricket proved inadequate to finish even the third innings underlined the futility of this game. The pitch was unbeatable; cricket was the loser.

The match ended in light-hearted manner as Cook indulged himself with a spell of bowling and took the wicket of Ishant Sharma while doing an impression of Bob Willis.

But amid the smiles, there is growing frustration at the obstacles the home team have to endure.

The system is broken. Instead of all facets of the English game pulling in the same direction, the counties are forced to compete to hosts Tests and, having won the right to do so at great expense, are obliged to make the matches last as long as possible in order to maximise tickets and concessionary sales.

Meanwhile, instead of the ECB helping the England team with a manageable schedule and sympathetic pitches, they are instead hampering their ability to perform at their optimum with a relentless schedule designed only to exploit every last pound from broadcast revenue. When you add in the drainage issue, you have a recipe for little other than tedium.

Cricket should not be this way. It is not meant to be primarily a test of perseverance and endurance. Eventually, spectators and players will tire of being fleeced for such poor entertainment. Just as Elvis Presley, who allegedly shot his television after paying for every possible channel and finding there was still "nothing on," found, more does not always equate to better.

And the pitches will go on being awful until someone at the ECB is strong enough to bring the counties and the groundsmen to heel. A better system of allocation and centrally contracted groundsmen would solve many of these problems in an instant.

"That pitch was unique," Cook said diplomatically afterwards. "The only one I can remember that was similar was that Nagpur pitch where we batted out for the draw in 2012.

"Both sides will say you can't read too much into it until we get back to some English conditions where it bounces above knee height. The lads were brilliant. They never once got angry or frustrated about playing India in these conditions.

"The groundsman has put his hand up and said he got it wrong. We asked him a-week-and-a-half ago for a pitch with some pace in it. You're not asking for excessive movement. You just want some pace in it like a good Trent Bridge wicket."

The result stretches England's winless run to nine Tests in succession. While it is nowhere near as long as the bad old days of the 1980s - England went an eye-watering 18 Tests in succession without a win between January 1987 and August 1988 - it is their worst run since 1992-93 when they went 10 Tests in a row without a win.

Yet, between the obvious concerns about the captain's form, another batting collapse, the wicketkeeper's fitness and the ability of Moeen Ali to fulfil the role of lone spinner, there were some encouraging signs in this game for England.

Stuart Broad was impeccable with the ball and impressive with the bat, while James Anderson showed that, given even a hint of assistance from the conditions, he can test a batting line-up that, on the final day at least, appeared timid against the moving ball and under cloudy skies.

Most of all, Cook enjoyed arguably his best game as captain. While his batting form remains a concern - not since May 2013 has he registered a Test score as high as Anderson's here - he fiddled with his field and managed his bowlers impressively in difficult conditions. Many of his problems will melt away once the runs return and, aged 29 and with 25 Test centuries behind him, they surely will.

"I know I need to start scoring runs," Cook admitted. "I haven't done it for a year now and I need to do it. I have to believe that the wheel will turn at some stage. If you suddenly change everything, you are not being true to yourself.

"I've had a couple of chop-ons and been bowled off the thigh pad. It is a testing game and these things happen when you're not in the best of form."

After three Tests on low, slow wickets, England will have only three days to rest and prepare before the next Test starts at Lord's. Anderson and Broad contributed 113 overs in this game and Broad, who left the field an hour before the end, has a long-standing knee problem. Chris Woakes, who was omitted from Warwickshire's Championship team to play Durham on the ECB's order, and Chris Jordan stand by.

Simon Kerrigan will also be withdrawn from Lancashire's game at some stage to ensure he is relatively fresh and could play at Lord's. Moeen has bowled in desperately tough conditions and shown, at times, that he can be a dangerous spinner. But he continues to concede around four-an-over and England may be tempted to trust Kerrigan to give them more control in the field. He is certainly a far better bowler than he showed on his Test debut at The Oval though the pitch at Lord's in unlikely to offer much assistance.

In the longer run, the ECB must look at the conditions in county cricket which are hampering the development of young spinners. Squeezing the first half of the County Championship season into April and May is the most obvious problem, as it allows sides to operate seam-heavy attacks and exploit green pitches.

They may also reflect on the policy of providing new balls to sides after 80 overs, another rule that makes spin increasingly superfluous, and the preponderance of specialist limited-overs 'spinners' who will never threaten in the longer formats.

As with the scheduling and the pitches, the system that is meant to help build a successful England team, is often its greatest impediment. Whoever becomes the ECB's next chief executive - and the likes of Gordon Hollins, Wasim Khan, Steve Elworthy and Richard Gould will be among the most attractive candidates - will have plenty of work ahead of them.

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Dhoni pleased with lower-order resistance

Dhoni surprised with conditions

This is the third overseas Test India have failed to close out, out of their last five. This wasn't as clear-cut an opportunity as Johannesburg and Wellington were, but the disappointments are piling up. Before the series began, Ajit Agarkar questioned India's ability to close out Tests away from home; many an Indian fan shares that doubt. However, MS Dhoni, not for the first time, chose to look at the positives, that the team at least got into a position from which they could force a result.

When asked if it was a big disappointment that from a winning position on day three, India went on to rely on Nos 7 and 8 to save the match, Dhoni said: "That's a part and parcel of the game, and it doesn't really matter who has scored runs or taken wickets because at the end of the day it is a team game and you go with the strategy of winning the game. It doesn't really matter if No. 11 is scoring the runs or No. 7 is scoring the runs. Overall, it is important that we have put runs on the board, and we need to defend that. But plenty of positives we can take out of this game."

One of the positives was the partnership between Ravindra Jadeja and Stuart Binny when India were just 145 ahead with four wickets in hand and two-and-a-half sessions to go. "That was a very important partnership looking at the game because we were not really safe at that time," Dhoni said. "We had at least half a day's play or more at that stage. Had it not been for that partnership we could have struggled to defend the amount of runs we had scored at that stage. That partnership was much needed.

"The other good thing about that partnership is that not many of our players have the experience of batting under pressure and save a Test match if the need arises. Games like this really gives them the exposure and teaches them what really needed to be done. I feel it is nice that some individuals stood up when the pressure was put on us."

Binny was part of an experiment that meant India were playing only five batsmen outside Asia for the first time under Dhoni's captaincy. He wasn't quick at judging how the move went, although he said the only change he felt with batting at No. 6 was that he had to change into his whites earlier than usual.

"The wicket was not suiting Stuart Binny's kind of bowling," Dhoni said. "Jadeja could use the rough on the wicket, so I was not really forced to give too many overs to Binny. So, overall I though it helped me to keep the bowlers fresh. Though Stuart bowled only 10 overs, I felt it was a good effort from his side. As the series progresses, we will watch him as he is someone who can swing the ball well, and can give rest to the other bowlers, and he will be more effective on pitches that offer some assistance to the bowlers."

The pitch was a soul-sapping patch, which annoyed the hosts no end because of its likeness to Indian surfaces, but Dhoni wasn't happy with it either. "I always said that when you come to a country you want to play on wicket that's the specialty of that country," Dhoni said. "You know, there's no fun in going to India and expecting flat wickets where people can score 200 or 250 runs. But it's very good if you score a hundred on a turning track. When you come out of India, you would like the wicket to be slightly quicker."

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Binny's selection does not prove trivial

Why had Stuart Binny been picked in this Test? It was probably not with a match-saving innings in mind, but that's what he produced just when India were threatening to topple apart

Highlights: Binny struck a composed 78 on Test debut to ensure a draw at Trent Bridge

At 3.42pm, Stuart Binny let one Moeen Ali offbreak turn past his inside edge and was given out lbw. Immediately the traffic on the player page of Andy Ganteaume came down. Ganteaume is the only man who was dropped and never picked again after scoring a debut century, although Rodney Redmond had one hundred in one Test but he would have played again barring contact lens problems.

Binny had fallen 22 short of a century on debut after four days of giving the impression India had made a selection error and were playing with 10 men only. It was a century for the taking after the match had been saved and enough time of gentle part-time spin remained, but trivia lovers had to rein in their horses.

At 12.15pm, such trivia was not on anyone's mind. India had somehow managed to get into a position where they were hanging in desperately to save this match. Three specialist batsmen had fallen, and Ravindra Jadeja was batting as if blindfolded with one arm tied behind his back. At effectively 145 for 6, with two-and-a-half sessions to go, India now looked to a man that had been invisible on the field for the first four days. He was brought in to the side to bowl some steady seam and get an extra half batsman in the lower middle order.

Binny played a nervous shot in the first innings to get out for 1, and then looked so innocuous with the ball he bowled only 10 overs in the innings while his role was to bowl 10 in a day. Suddenly he walked in for what the team would have looked at as the most important innings of the Test. Binny was not even playing for his place in the side, for there were no guarantees he would be retained even if he scored a hundred here. He needed to play a team innings. Go on, lad, this could be your last innings; how do you want to be remembered?

Binny might or might not play ever again, but at least he will not be remembered as the selection error in a Test that India made quite a few other errors to lose to England. At various stages India switched off to find themselves trying to save the Test that you would have to play exceptionally poorly to lose.

Binny came in with a mix of nerves and energy. Allowance should be made for the fact that the most incisive spells of James Anderson and Stuart Broad were all but over, but Binny moved positively, showed he could bat, but was also part of two near run-outs. It almost seemed he did not fancy the strike too much at the start of the innings. The first single he took to get off the mark was tight. The next single he took could have been two, but Binny sent Jadeja back. An over later the third he took was a late decision, and Jadeja nearly got run out.

After that, Binny was in, and took the pressure off Jadeja, who had been playing and missing regularly. If Binny is retained, there could be a case for batting him higher in the order. The key part of Binny's innings was the scoring rate and the positive stroke-play. However, it was not based on reckless shots. MS Dhoni's shot to get out - across the line to the first ball bowled by someone other than Anderson or Broad - was reckless and showed clearly he had premeditated to try to hit Liam Plunkett off his rhythm. Binny batted naturally, and was obviously helped along by a flat and slow pitch.

The quality of the innings is hard to tell on such a pitch, but the value of it is obvious. This is only the fourth time out of 17 that India have not begun an England tour with a loss. On the other three occasions India went on to win the series. India will need to improve drastically if they are to keep that pattern going - it will be hard to get such favourable pitches, win the toss, and have good starts in the other Tests of the series - but Binny has - by fulfilling part of his role - made sure it will not be easy to drop him.

It will come down to the conditions at Lord's, and it should also come down to if the team feels Binny could be relied upon on the first four days to provide the main bowlers a break or if the conditions here hampered him in that pursuit.

Even if Binny does not play Test cricket again, it will not be down to attitude. Ganteaume was left out because he allegedly batted too slow despite team instructions and cost West Indies the time they could have used to force a Test win. The team said Ganteaume failed them. Binny, on the other hand, did his team job all right at least on the final day; it was when going for the personal glory that he failed.

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Adams enjoys another Lancashire haul

Nottinghamshire 69 for 1 trail Lancashire 225 (Buttler 52, Adams 4-45) by 156 runs
Scorecard

According to all reports this will be Andre Adams' last season at Trent Bridge. The allrounder celebrates his 39th birthday on Thursday and he has apparently decided to retire on his own terms when people are asking him why, rather than why not.

That seems reasonable enough, yet on the evidence of the first day of this game at Aigburth Mick Newell and Chris Read may be wondering whether their veteran's decision is set in granite. They may even be toying with the idea of persuading him to turn out only against Lancashire, should they and Nottinghamshire be in the same division next year.

Statistics make such a bizarre notion seem almost thinkable. Adams' four wickets on Sunday brought his total against Glen Chapple's side to 29 in the last six innings. He claimed the important scalps of Usman Khawaja and Ashwell Prince, both caught by Steven Mullaney in the slip and gully cordon, as the home side stumbled to 45 for 4 in the first session. Adams then returned after tea to have the in-form Tom Smith pouched by Alex Hales for 32 before ending the innings by bowling Simon Kerrigan for a duck.

So far, so very impressive. Adams swung the ball, kept it up to the batsman and earned his rewards. He has clearly recovered from the calf injuries which have blighted his cricket recently. But he also played a significant role in the field, leaping at mid-off to catch Jos Buttler off Harry Gurney for 52 and then diving from a similar position to grab the fine one-handed snare which removed Kyle Hogg and gave Peter Siddle his first wicket on what will be his last appearance of the season for Nottinghamshire.

In and around Adams' displays of skill, the rest of the Nottinghamshire attack offered excellent support and Lancashire's first innings total of 225 looked ever more inadequate as the wicket eased in the evening sunshine. Read was no doubt delighted to have won the toss but such strokes of good fortune are only valuable if they are exploited to the full.

Thus it will have pleased Read to see Luke Fletcher strike the first blow when Andrea Agathangelou nicked the seamer to him in the sixth over of the innings, although some in the crowd were probably still musing on the fact that Agathangelou had been preferred to Alex Davies in the Lancashire side. The visitors' fine first hour or so also included the dismissal of Paul Horton, who edged Gurney to Read when tempted by a delivery which was pushed across him in the time-honoured fashion of left-arm seamers.

The repair work effected by Buttler and Steven Croft in bringing their side into lunch on 81 for 4 could not disguise the damage that had been inflicted by an attack which had made the most of early moisture and morning cloud. Even the flurry of shots on the resumption merely excited the home supporters only to disappoint them when Croft departed for 31, his push at a ball from Fletcher only edging the ball to Hales at second slip.

Six overs after that 80-run stand for the fourth wicket ended, Buttler was also on his way back to the great old pavilion when his rather careless drive only found Adams. His departure for a fifty stylishly made off 84 balls was all the more disappointing given that he had reached his half-century off the previous delivery and that he had done most of the hard work preparatory to making a really major, match-defining contribution.

The rest of Lancashire's innings, notably Chapple's 38 and Smith's 32, was filled with brief entertainments which delayed Nottinghamshire progress without affecting the tenor of the day. The home skipper clipped Samit Patel to James Taylor at midwicket and Smith top-edged an attempted pull off Adams, both dismissals being self-inflicted wounds by a side which has suffered far too many of them this summer.

Indeed, despite being 212 for 7 at tea, Lancashire lost their last three wickets to Adams and Siddle for 12 runs in 25 balls and the home fans were left to hope that their bowlers could make significant inroads in the 24 overs that remained.

It was not to be - and again Lancashire's players had only themselves to blame. Although Hogg had Hales lbw for 8, Mullaney was unbeaten on 48 at close of play, by which time he had been dropped three times. Kabir Ali shelled a dolly on mid-on before Horton could not cling on to a two-handed chance at slip and Hogg failed to hold a tough skier running back from mid-off.

All of which means that it will, as they say, be a big first hour in the morning. For Lancashire, this season, it has often been that way. Nottinghamshire, on the other hand, will reckon they have done the groundwork upon which important victories are often based.

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Gayle strikes maiden CPL ton in Tallawahs win

Jamaica Tallawahs 162 for 3 (Gayle 111*) beat St Lucia Zouks 161 for 5 (Davids 56, Russell 2-27) by seven wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Chris Gayle may have struggled through IPL 2014 with 196 runs in nine games, modest figures for his lofty standards, but his poor form in India was a distant memory in Grenada on Saturday as he feasted on a tame St Lucia Zouks bowling attack to score an unbeaten 111 in a seven-wicket win for the Jamaica Tallawahs. Zouks captain Darren Sammy won the toss and elected to bat first, setting a target of 162 but Man-of-the-Match Gayle made easy work of the chase for the defending Caribbean Premier League champions, overhauling the target with an over to spare.

Gayle's carefree demeanour was on display as he arrived at the crease sporting sunglasses underneath his helmet. Based on the evidence of his innings, the trend-setting Jamaican might influence a few more cricketers to wear them while batting after clubbing five fours and 10 sixes in his innings which lasted 63 balls. After getting off the mark with a single, he launched Garey Mathurin over long-on for six in the third over and gave a rude welcome to Shane Shillingford to start the fifth with a near carbon copy blast down the ground.

He brought up his 50 off 30 balls in the ninth over by crushing left-arm spinner Roelof van der Merwe for his sixth six flat and hard into the signage beyond the boundary at long-off. The landmark came up during a 64-run second-wicket stand with Jermaine Blackwood, in which Blackwood contributed eight runs. Blackwood fell off the first ball of the 12th to Shillingford to make it 96 for 2 but the wicket the Zouks needed to turn the match their way eluded their grasp.

Gayle began the 19th over on 99, having added another half-century stand with Adam Voges, and brought up the first century in the CPL with a single to mid-on. After Voges fell two balls later, Gayle hastened the charge to victory with a four and six over midwicket to level the scores, before flicking a single through the same region to finish the match.

Henry Davids scored 56 off 38 for the Zouks earlier in the day, forming a solid 69-run second-wicket partnership with Andre Fletcher (27). Davids received good support earlier from Johnson Charles (27) as well before falling with the score on 110.

Captain Sammy came to the crease and provide a strong finish for the Zouks with 29 not out that led the team to 161 for 5. Andre Russell took 2 for 27 for the Tallawahs in the field. The Zouks performance was comfortably stronger than either of the previous two totals posted by the Tridents and Hawksbills batting first in the opening round of games played at the National Cricket Stadium. By the end of the day it was no match for another history-making feat by Gayle.

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Trescothick returns with century

Somerset 366 for 8 (Trescothick 124, Trego 77, Willey 3-74) v Northamptonshire
Scorecard

Marcus Trescothick responded to be dropped from the Somerset T20 side to score his fourth century in eight first-class innings as Somerset marginally had the better of day one with Northamptonshire at Wantage Road.

Trescothick, who was left out of Friday night's narrow victory over Gloucestershire in the NatWest Blast, returned to score his fourth century of the season. He reached the milestone in the final over before the tea interval as he battled through the morning session before flourishing after the break in making 124 out of a total of 366 for 8.

He was given excellent support by Peter Trego who, after being given not out from his very first delivery as Andrew Hall claimed a low catch at first slip off David Willey, contributed 77 to a fifth-wicket partnership of 174.

But there was one black mark on the day for the visitors after Craig Kieswetter was forced to retire hurt with a laceration under his right eye and a suspected broken nose after being hit by a Willey bouncer.

That particular event was part of an incident-packed hour after the lunch break which saw James Hildreth trapped lbw by Willey, Kieswetter felled and Trego reprieved before it all settled down and those doing the batting began to dominate.

On a warm day that encouraged swing throughout and on a pitch that bounced enough to keep the bowlers interested, the first session was edged by the home side who made good inroads into the top order. Chris Jones was the first to go when he loosely drove at Muhammad Azharullah and lost his off stump and there was a similar outcome when Willey cleaned up Nick Compton with a delivery that left him.

Colin Ingram, on his four-day debut for the club, then pulled Olly Stone to Matt Spriegel at square-leg and when the interval arrived the score was 93 for 3.

That had been advanced to 249 for 4 when tea arrived as once everything had calmed down, Trescothick and Trego, who made it to 50 shortly before his partner got to three figures, motored along at five an over.

The home side, who plugged away commendably all day, missed a gilt-edged chance to break the partnership when Kyle Coetzer put down Trego at second slip off Stone but they finally broke through just before when Trescothick, having struck 20 fours, edged Hall to slip.

The second new ball was taken immediately and it accounted for Trego, hit in front by Stone, in the very next over. Craig Overton and Lewis Gregory did not hang around for too long but George Dockrell and Alfonso Thomas saw out the final half an hour without any further setbacks.

"It did quite a bit more than we were expecting," Somerset captain Trescothick said. "The new ball was tricky with wickets in the morning and tonight. "I was delighted because it was really tricky this morning and I didn't feel like I was seeing it very well and then I had to work hard."

As for Kieswetter, Trescothick says that the full extent of the damage is yet to be realised: "He's still being assessed. He'll see people, we're going to pop in and see him in a bit and we'll get to know a bit more after that. It wasn't particularly nice and it was a nasty situation when we were out there."

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Pujara concerned at plans for tail

Pujara: "We need to figure out new plans for tailenders"

Cheteshwar Pujara expressed concern that England's last three wickets added 294 runs after the bowlers had done all the work to have the hosts down at 202 for 3.

He was also disappointed at missing a golden chance to score a century on a flat and slow pitch, and leaving unfinished the task of taking India to absolute safety. He went for a cut on 55, but failed to keep it down and ended up offering a catch to point. But more frustrating was repeatedly failing to get through the tail.

"We will have to think about how to get the tailenders out," Pujara said. "The way they have scored after losing seven wickets, we will have to regroup and have a chat with the bowlers and plan for the next few matches in case the same situation arises. We will definitely need a strategy for the tailenders."

One of the reasons why India struggled with the lower order could have been that they didn't reverse-swing the ball as much as they would have liked. But Pujara said they did the best they could have done.

"I think we did overall get reverse swing," Pujara said. "But at times the ball was not carrying to the slips so there wasn't enough bounce from the wicket to get the reverse-swing going. At times when we did get the reverse, the ball didn't carry. Overall our bowlers did a good job. If you look at it we got the first seven wickets early. That is what we target, to get the top order as early as possible. Otherwise they batted well, and you have to give credit to them."

Pujara said he knew it was going to be hard work on this pitch. "We knew it wouldn't be easy to get them out because we also added more than 100 for the last wicket," he said. "They batted really well. Credit to them. Especially Joe Root. He didn't allow James Anderson to come to strike for the first three-four balls, and their plan worked out. I think it was obviously disappointing. We got seven early wickets, and then the lower order batted well for them."

Root and Anderson added a world-record 198 for the 10th wicket, which Anderson said was aided by the flatness of the pitch. It could be seen the pitch didn't have much in it even when India batted. Which is what will make Pujara kick himself even more. "I was disappointed at the way I got out," he said. "I should have batted more responsibly. It was almost evening, and the game was about to be over for the day, and we had just lost Vijay. I should have played a little more carefully. The ball bounced a little more than I expected, and I couldn't control it."

India now lead by 128 with seven wickets in hand, and a day's play on a slow low pitch to go. It is not surprising that they are not thinking in terms of a declaration now. "We just need to bat well in the first session," Pujara said. "Then we can take a call."

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England could turn to Kerrigan at Lord's

After a hard slog on a lifeless wicket and similarly docile conditions expected at Lord's, England may recall the Lancashire spinner to inject a bit of bite into their bowling attack

'Root told me to milk it' - Anderson

Thomas Hardy probably was not thinking of the Trent Bridge pitch when he wrote that "happiness is but a mere episode in the general drama of pain" but it is a line that seems appropriate nevertheless.

A match that has, at times, looked close to sinking into a persistent vegetative state was briefly roused from its stupor by the joyous partnership between James Anderson and Joe Root. For the second time in 367 days, Trent Bridge witnessed a new world record tenth-wicket stand. Ashton Agar's place in history has already been largely obscured.

Not only has this Test given us a world record, two century stands for the 10th wicket for the first time and a record score by an England No. 11, but it also provided Anderson with his maiden first-class 50.

He later admitted he was not quite sure how to acknowledge the applause upon reaching the milestone. While Joe Root urged him to "milk it," Anderson somewhat sheepishly raised his bat. "I've seen people point their bat at the dressing room, so I did that," he said afterwards.

"I knew that if I was ever going to get 50, it would be on a wicket like this," Anderson admitted. "The short ball wasn't that dangerous.

"We just wanted to eat into the time left in the game and chip away at their lead. We knew it would be tiring for their bowlers to keep banging the ball in on a turgid pitch. It's very hard to get people out on that pitch if they play straight."

While this was all new territory for Anderson - he once made 49 as an opening batsman for Burnley against Todmorden - he has contributed with the bat previously for England. Without his rear-guard effort at Cardiff in 2009 - he and Monty Panesar survived the final 69 balls to secure a draw - England might not have won back the Ashes and, even as recently as the previous Test at Headingley, he was distraught after coming within two deliveries of saving the game after 81 minutes of defiance.

"Not a lot is expected of me," Anderson said. "My batting isn't the reason I'm selected. But I've had a few triumphs and I work hard at it. After the disappointment at Leeds, it has made me cherish this all the more."

There are several possible conclusions from such a freak stand and such a freak match. The first might be that neither side has the potent bowling attack it might like, though it would be harsh to judge anyone on this lifeless track. Even the greats, the likes of Shane Warne, Richard Hadlee, Wasim Akram or Malcolm Marshall, would have struggled.

It might be used to criticise the captains, too. And while it is true that India appeared to persist with the short-ball long after it had become clear that it would not work - and long after the full ball had accounted for most of England's top-order - such criticism is largely facile. This was a surface that rendered most plans futile. Anderson did, for a while, look suspect against Ishant Sharma and, as the ball softened, there was little swing and no seam or spin to help the bowlers.

Most of all, it should lead to the conclusion that this is a wretched cricket pitch. It rewards neither good strokeplay nor skilful bowling. It rewards attrition, discipline and patience. Such qualities will always have a place in Test cricket, but if the game favours them more than it does flair and skill, it will face an uphill challenge to persuade spectators to spend £70 on tickets.

It should lead to some reflection on the absurdity of a sport that takes the time to legislate against spectators bringing branded water to global events or the size of advertising logos on the back of players' bats but seems unable to solve an issue as fundamental as the playing surface.

The partnership made the game safe, but hard work remains for England. With three days between Tests, India may well be persuaded to keep England in the field for most of the final day and only consider a declaration in the last hour with a view to testing Alastair Cook's poor run of form.

In an effort to inject a bit of bite into the bowling attack, Simon Kerrigan will be called into the 14-man England squad for the second Investec Test which starts at Lord's on Thursday and will be named at stumps on Sunday.

Kerrigan, the 25-year-old Lancashire left-arm spinner, made his Test debut at The Oval last year but was dropped after bowling eight nervous overs. He remains the brightest long-term spin prospect in the county game and, at his best, bowls with the pace and aggression to sustain a long career at this level. But whether recalling him for a Test at Lord's - where the pitch is again expected to provide precious little assistance to bowlers of any description - will do his rehabilitation any favours remains to be seen. But if England are looking for an experienced, short-term, reliable and expendable spin option, they might consider the likes of Gareth Batty.

There might also be a case for a new wicketkeeper. It would be harsh to drop Matt Prior after a match in which he was generally kept well in desperately testing conditions, in which he was incorrectly given out and after a career in which he has served England so well but, with his body creaking, his keeping appears to have deteriorated. While none of the chances he has missed in this game - Dhoni on 50 in the first innings and Mural Vijay on 0 and 23 in the second - compare to the simple effort he missed at Headingley off Kumar Sangakkara, the fact is that on such benign surfaces, the value of every chance is increased.

The England camp insist he will be fine to keep on the final day, but the sight of him leaving the ground in a sling due to a sore hand underlined the chastened state in which he currently finds himself.

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Ishant's rewards for the dirty work

Ishant Sharma is an odd sort of 'attack leader', averaging over 37 in Test cricket and not given the new ball, but extracting England's middle order on a docile pitch showed why he is persisted with

Agarkar: Bhuvneshwar swung the ball consistently

Taking the third question in his press conference, Ishant Sharma stropped mid-answer and nearly let out a shriek. "I'm sorry, I'm cramping," he said. A Test player cramping in a press conference. In enough discomfort to stop answering a question. It was an endearing moment. It was also one thing that we can be absolutely sure about with Ishant. He goes out on the field, and leaves everything there.

The cramping immediately took you back to the 59th over of the innings. Ishant was in the middle of an intense spell, and fielding at long leg. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was bowling at the other end, and as had been the case until then with Mohammed Shami and him, was releasing the pressure.

The second ball had been short and cut away for four, the fourth was too full and on the pads. Ian Bell clipped it through midwicket, but Ishant - who had already bowled five overs in that spell and would bowl two more - gave the chase his all, and nearly made it. He even put in a dive, but could not prevent the boundary. Had he not gone hard at this ball, he would have been excused, but that would not be Ishant. With the bat, with the ball, in the field, Ishant is the ultimate team man, ready to, as Dhoni demanded of his players back in 2007, run through a wall.

That, though, does not, and should not, sum Ishant up. He has a beautiful run-up yet often his wrist is not behind the ball. He can go months without looking threatening yet takes wickets in a bunch. He has ordinary statistics yet is persisted with by the team, for which he gets a lot of ridicule from the Indian fans; both "unlucky" and "lucky" are adjectives used in a pejorative sense for Ishant. He has all the physical attributes of a good fast bowler - he is tall, he is strong, he is fit and hardly gets injured - yet somehow it has never come together for a consistent period of time.

Popular assessment - and it could be wrong - is that Ishant is the least smart of Indian quicks yet the most experienced. A nicer way to say that is, he does not overthink. That sometimes is an asset for an Indian fast bowler. You have to bowl a lot of dirty overs or dirty pitches at dirty times. If you overthink, pitches will demoralise you. Every bowler has at some point tried to not bowl a certain kind of overs. Ishant, though, does not. This is different from being an "honest trier".

No one will argue against Ishant's stats, but part of why he is persisted with is because he does not complain about those dirty overs. He was India's best bowler in New Zealand yet did not get the new ball here. The leader of the attack, as Zaheer Khan wanted him to be, coming in when India had tried the plan A, and seen it fail. Ishant was introduced at a time he has become used to: when nothing was working for India.

India knew they were not going to burst through England on this pitch, they had to bowl dry and wait for mistakes. India did manage those dry periods in the first hour - seven runs off the first 38 balls - but they were releasing the pressure. Following those 38 balls, Shami was picked away for fours square on both the on and off sides in one over. Shami actually kept bowling too straight. It was getting dirty on a dirty pitch, and India called on "the leader of the attack".

"I didn't think about all these things," Ishant said when asked if Zaheer's expectations made any difference. "It's just that I have played some more matches than the others. But we are all in the same age group. I am not the kind of person who really shows it to the team that I am the leader of the fast bowling attack. Obviously, when I am on the field, I share my experience that I have gathered through all the Test matches, and it helps me and them."

The difference showed in the bowling, though. There were few soft leaves, only 22 in 22 overs, which is a remarkable stat and vital on this pitch. You either bowl dry and consistently wide outside off to a seven-two field, which reduces your chances of getting wickets, or go at the batsman without straying too straight. Ishant chose the latter. He hit the pitch hard, which exploited whatever uneven bounce there was to be exploited, and crucially bowled fuller than usual.

"I have played enough matches to understand the length to bowl on different surfaces," Ishant said of the adjustment he made. "Sometimes it will get reverse, so it's about knowing the surface and the batsman you are bowling at to get the right length."

Another significant aspect of his bowling was the use of the short ball. Liam Plunkett bowled a lot of them, the other England quicks hardly did. Ishant, though, used it but sparingly. It surprised the batsmen, and this pitch was hardly the kind where you can take your eyes off and duck. Sam Robson was hit on the glove when fending, Moeen Ali when ducking. Moeen was caught off that short ball, Robson later fell to a fuller ball.

Ishant had the intensity and the variation to once again go through those dirty overs. Usually he goes for runs at such times, and his stats get worse. Today on a pitch that suits him, he got the wickets that triggered a collapse, and can still give India a big lead. Listening to him you know it did not happen by accident. As usual, though, the question remains where Ishant goes from here. You can rest assured, though, that he will not be bothered about the cramps.

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Blake, Tredwell keep Kent alive

Kent 149 for 9 (Blake 53, Beer 3-18) beat Sussex 146 for 9 (Jordan 37, Harmison 3-35) by three runs
Scorecard

Disappointment can often be a good motivator and in a week when he lost his Test spot, Chris Jordan almost managed to haul Sussex across the line in the T20 Blast. If truth be told, it was a bitty showing from Jordan and embodied a slapdash performance from Sussex as their faint hopes of T20 Blast progression ended.

If Jordan had hoped for a competent homecoming on the back of his England omission, Kent were in no mood to bestow him handouts. The name on the back of the shirt counts for little on the county circuit and although his 37 brought Sussex to within a blow of victory, a couple of overzealous overs proved decisive and irreparable.

Straying onto the leg side more often or not, he was picked off with ease and when he returned in the 17th over of Kent's stodgy innings, the subsequent six deliveries changed the dynamic of the game.

His additional zip gave Ben Brown, the Sussex wicketkeeper, little chance with a steep bouncer that proved too quick for anyone and then Alex Blake tucked into successive sixes, who scored an unbeaten fifty, one of which came off a no-ball to lift Kent towards a target that had looked improbable when they slouched to 77 for 6; 38 came off Jordan's three overs.

In the end, their 149 for 9 was just enough despite Jordan's late hitting. Requiring 17 off the final over, a towering blow over long-off kept the Hove crowd on the edge of their seats before he could only pick out the fielder with a couple of deliveries remaining. His, and indeed Sussex's, race was run.

Kent, however, still harbour hopes of progression. Having gone six games without a victory in the South Group, few would have given them a sniff as they toiled on a slow surface. Will Beer, predominately deployed in the shortest-format, wreaked havoc with a competent display of leg spin as the top-order subsided with little fight, Daniel Bell Drummond - who underpinned the Powerplay overs with 34 - apart.

Fabian Cowdrey missed a straight one from Beer before Stefan Piolet took all the pace off to outwit Darren Stevens next over. That only provided the platform for Blake. A well-organised left-hander, he batted without any inhibitions on a track that required a clear mind and convincing strokes. He struck five sixes, including the two off Jordan that gave Kent the impetus, to give his bowlers something to defend. Beer, who finished with career best figures of 3 for 18, was unable to put his feet up.

Much like Kent's batting order, the hosts flopped in the face of the battery of slower bowlers Rob Key had little hesitation in deploying. Such are the idiosyncrasies of the loan system that James Tredwell, who was in the home dressing room during the week, played a major part in foiling his part-time team-mates.

He nonchalantly had Yasir Arafat caught and bowled, just as the game threatened to swing back in Sussex's favour, before cold water was poured over Jordan's fireworks.

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