India's Test hint

India 417-8dec drew with Worcestershire 200-6

For a touring team mauled in a Test match, there couldn't be a better place to find solace and recuperation than beside the Severn, at New Road, under the benign gaze of Worcester's famed cathedral.

Unfortunately for India, to whom this match offered the only opportunity to sort out their problems before the second Test, starting on Thursday, the weather betrayed them.

Not a ball was bowled on the first two days. Play on Friday proceeded unimpaired, but yesterday a violent thunder storm and bad light compelled an abandonment with 51 overs remaining. However, the Indians did take significant profit from the soggy draw, in that their little champion, Sachin Tendulkar, returned to form on Friday. Without his 169 off 246 balls, India's total would have been less than respectable.

Tendulkar, whose three previous first-class scores were three, 16 and 12, came in to face a hat-trick ball from off-spinner Gareth Batty and saw another wicket fall almost instantly.

The team's circumstances, as much as his own, required that Tendulkar play a long innings and he tailored it accordingly, remaining at the wicket for five hours.

His performance must have been particularly reassuring because, Andy Bichel apart, Worcestershire's attack was at full strength, and the pitch did pose some questions by way of uneven bounce.

There was still some juice in the pitch when Worcestershire batted yesterday, but India had to toil for their successes. The first one, which did not come until the score was 84, was a gift, with Anurag Singh, who had played with panache, wafting at Sourav Ganguly's loosener. His opening partner, Stephen Peters, made a very assured half century.

Ganguly relied largely on his seam bowlers, which could be taken as a hint that the balance of the attack at Trent Bridge will be unchanged. Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was given only two overs before lunch and did not get on again until the thirty-seventh over. He trapped Graeme Hick lbw after a subdued 27 in 116 minutes.