Dravid's nous puts England on a downer

Wise head and young blade give India fine win at Lord's, reports Mike Selvey.

One moment they are up, the next they are down. For some years it has looked as if the England one-day side have been under the jurisdiction of the Grand Old Duke of York, and Saturday's six-wicket defeat by India at Lord's, following hard on the emphatic 44-run win over Sri Lanka two days before, has done nothing to dispel the impression.

Had Alec Stewart accepted a relatively simple chance offered by Rahul Dravid off Matthew Hoggard when 28, England might have gone on to force a win in what, unusually for one-day internationals, offered a fine match as opposed merely to a tight finish, teetering this way and that throughout another day of fine weather and blistering cricket.

But the chance, low to his right and slipping from both gloves after he had done the hard part in getting to the ball, went begging and Dravid went on to play an immaculately judged unbeaten innings of 73. His unbroken fifth-wicket partnership with India's latest young batting star Yuvraj Singh (young but hardly inexperienced; at the age of 20 he has played more than half the number of one-day internationals that the England captain has) took them to victory with more than an over in hand.

Yuvraj, a left-hander with a huge arc to his striking, finished with 64 not out from 65 balls, the power of his driving stinging hands or leaving off-side fielders for dead.

Having previously taken the wickets of Andy Flintoff, Graham Thorpe and Nasser Hussain with innocuous looking left-arm slow bowling, Yuvraj collected the man-of-the-match award. But Dravid was the architect. If ever there was a stark example of the benefit of experience it was this.

Dravid arrived at the crease in the 23rd over with India 118 for three, soon to become 141 for four. Ashley Giles's excellent spell from the Nursery End throttled the visitors after Virender Sehwag's exuberant 71 from 65 balls of an opening partnership with Sourav Ganguly of 109 in 18 overs had threatened to reduce the game to a no-contest.

But this was Dravid's 172nd match since his debut six years ago, and you learn a bit in that time. Somewhere along the line he would have been at the crease on a slowish pitch with his side, as now, needing 131 to win in 22 overs with six wickets left and he played the game perfectly. Particularly impressive was his judgment of when to take chances and when to rein in, when to go for the big shots and when to work the ball around. And all the while he was shepherding his vibrant young partner through. Yuvraj was brilliant but he and India owe Dravid a debt.

Where a complete all-round performance had given England their win at Trent Bridge, they failed at Lord's on several counts. First, they were unable to capitalise on the start given them by Marcus Trescothick, whose 86 from 78 balls was further confirmation of his status as one of the world's leading players in both forms of the game.

Nasser Hussain at No3 struggled against a Kookaburra white ball that habitually goes soft quickly and, if the bowlers shrewdly take the pace off it, is desperately hard to get away. Flintoff, correctly promoted up the order (one-day cricket demands flexibility, and 153 for two with 23 overs remaining ought to be in his compass when the alternative perhaps is that England's most destructive player does not get to the crease), became Yuvraj's first victim when he holed out to cover having hit three violent boundaries. Against shrewd captaincy from Ganguly and clever bowling, a potentially winning score of about 310 was held back to 271.

In the face of this England failed to make inroads into the Indian innings while the ball was hard. Once Giles, backed by further wonderful catching (it is inconceivable that the scampering, diving, one-handed effort at wide long-on with which James Kirtley removed Ganguly can ever be bettered, it was that spectacular), had pulled them back into the match with three for 39, England lacked the wise heads needed with the ball as Dravid and Yuvraj pushed forward their victory charge.

Hoggard in particular is a concern, if only for the mercurial nature of his performances in the past year and the evident fragility of his confidence, for which the stoutest of hearts cannot compensate.

England missed Darren Gough's nous in this instance, and he may well return against Sri Lanka at Headingley tomorrow. However, if Hoggard is to be a genuine World Cup contender and is to improve by developing skills other than a basic reliance on the ball swinging - and if his confidence is not to be shattered irreparably by being sidelined - then he has to play. There is no substitute for experience. Just ask Rahul Dravid.

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