England Put Their Foot Down After Dravid Clocks Up Double Ton

English Test pitches have rarely been able to demonstrate their fifth-day credentials in recent years. But with the prospect of one more day to come, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, two of the best exponents of the spinners' art in the game, got their teeth into a beautifully sunlit final session yesterday as England, on the defensive for so much of the previous five, responded by finally showing some urgency.

Bowling at something approaching genuine medium pace to compensate for the slowness of the pitch, the pair allowed Michael Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick scant chance to use their feet. But although this surface, ageing nicely now as a properly prepared surface should, has shown good signs of turn if the ball is given air and a chance to dip into the ground, they were unable to make inroads as the England batsmen continued their rollicking form of the first innings.

After four days the game is probably insufficiently well advanced for a result to be forced, although cricket as ever is a game in which "never say never" should be inscribed on the coat of arms.

However, England will resume the final day of the international summer on 114 without loss, an overall lead of 121 after India, painstakingly, had taken their first innings to within seven runs of England's.

Vaughan, confidence oozing from him like sap from a tree in spring, has made 47 to go with his sublime first-innings hundred, and now stands on the threshold of what would be a unique achievement of scoring five Test centuries in an English summer.

In the process he overtook Rahul Dravid as the leading scorer in a series chock full of runs, although the order could shift once more should the Indian bat again today with any success.

At the other end from Vaughan, Trescothick has been beating an uncomplicated tattoo on the middle of his bat as if he has never been away from the crease, never mind being out of action for six weeks or so with a broken thumb.

A thunderous pull to the square-leg boundary brought up his half-century and so far, in two hours at the crease, he has hit nine fours in his 58 to Vaughan's seven.

It had taken Nasser Hussain's footsore bowlers 170 overs of hard slog before Ashley Giles took the final wicket of the innings. All but 18 of the overs were delivered with the immaculate imperturbable Dravid at the crease. He was generally untroubled by any of the bowlers - even Andy Caddick, by a distance the best of the bunch - and having hit precisely 100 on Saturday, was finally run out for his highest Test score, indeed his highest first-class score, of 217. It was a continuation of a remarkable series that required 10 hours of unblinking concentration.

Only when Dermot Reeve presented him with some obscure statistical facts at a tea-time interview was his equilibrium disturbed, and even then he just got his head down and played the next ball on its merits.

None the less, the statistics tell of a batsman of the highest quality (his Test average is now nearly 55) at the peak of his form. This was his third century in successive Test innings, the first batsman to achieve this since the Sri Lankan Aravinda de Silva against India in 1997-98, and the first Indian since Vinod Kambli five years before that. Only Sunil Gavaskar, twice, and Dilip Sardesai have made more in a series than his 602 runs. Of those who have played nine matches against England or more, Don Bradman alone exceeds his average of 75.7.

England tactics of the sort used late on Saturday and at stages yesterday will do little to help them in their quest for the Ashes. These largely consisted of the seamers banging the ball in half way down the pitch and hoping that a batsman would take the bait. With the exception of Sourav Ganguly on Saturday, none did.

Apart from the extreme negative vibes that come from such tactics, it went against bowling logic.

Caddick's two wickets yesterday, and the pair on Friday and Saturday all came from a full length, as did Hoggard's single wicket. The only bowler to profit - if that is the right word - from the bouncer was Cork, the great conundrum, a swing bowler for whom the length ball is merely an occasional variation these days.

In his Sunday column, Hussain wrote of Sanjay Bangar's bowling on Friday that "he kissed the turf, like Martin Bicknell does. That's why Cork at the same pace is playing." On this evidence Cork now is like a very old labrador, all bark and no bite. He kisses the turf only as does the Pope on landing in a new country, right in front of him, and has a good chance of invaliding himself out of the game by fracturing his left foot with a direct hit.

Caddick by contrast was exemplary, deserving of more than 114 for four from 43 overs. As ever he is the enigma, for had he produced this bowling in the helpful conditions at Headingley the series may have been different. The greater the expectation, it seems, the less he is able to respond.