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It started India’s way and ended India’s way. Kevin Pietersen’s 15th Test hundred, reeking of swaggering brilliance, had combined with Andrew Flintoff’s determination to bail England out of trouble on an absorbing day in Mohali but their dismissals in fading light swung the advantage right back to the hosts. Pietersen blended solid defence with trademark flashes of audacity to steer England out of choppy waters after two wickets had fallen in five balls. Then, in a manner eerily similar to how they started the day, India nipped out two wickets in successive overs, capping a thrilling end to an entertaining day’s cricket.

This Test looked like it might never go ahead, and some still argue it’s too soon to be playing cricket, but in the end the opening day produced a fascinating start to the short series. Despite a fine century from Andrew Strauss, a brace of wickets apiece for Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan reduced England to 229 for 5 at the close although the surface is threatening to break up later in the game.

Match facts

Big Picture

December 11-15, 2008
Start time 9.30am (0400 GMT)

It’s time for cricket. After all that has transpired since the terror strikes in Mumbai, the game now takes centre stage. Weather permitting , one of the most significant Tests in recent memory is about to be played – with plenty at stake.

Yuvraj Singh has been given one more chance to resurrect his stop-start Test career, after being selected in India’s 15-man squad for the two-Test series against England starting December 11. Yuvraj, who muscled his way back into contention with two successive one-day hundreds against England last month, is expected to take Sourav Ganguly’s place at No. 6.

The selectors have also recalled Pragyan Ojha, the left-arm spinner, and have retained M Vijay and S Badrinath as reserve batsmen. Ojha, yet to make his Test debut, toured Sri Lanka earlier this year, but lost his place to Amit Mishra, who made a strong debut against Australia in New Delhi. Vijay, an opener, was handed a debut in Nagpur against Australia after Gautam Gambhir was banned for one Test.

Yuvraj Singh is the top contender to replace Sourav Ganguly, who retired last month, in the Indian squad for the two-Test series against England, which will be picked in Chennai on Thursday afternoon. Gautam Gambhir, handed a one-Test ban by match referee Chris Broad for elbowing Australia’s Shane Watson during the Delhi Test, will return for the series, scheduled to start in Chennai on December 11.

It is hard to think of Matthew Hayden as a slow starter. He has made his name by destroying opening bowlers and quickly turning shiny new balls into lifeless chunks of worn-out leather. But when it took him six years to make his first seven Test appearances, reaching 100 Tests seemed like an unattainable goal.

He will bring up the milestone at the Adelaide Oval on Friday against New Zealand, eight and a half years after regaining his position permanently. At the time he was already 29, had a mountain of state runs and wondered if his big break would ever come, but in the lead-up to the game he said his eventful career-path was not particularly special.

India are scheduled to play three Tests, five one-dayers and a Twenty20 International during a six-week-long tour that is scheduled to begin from January 5 2009.It is an eagerly awaited series in Pakistan, who have not played a single Test in 2008, but now as the Indian city of Mumbai is rocked with militants attacks which have left more than hundred people died and hundreds of injured, there is no talk of India touring Pakistan.

Whether it’s a contest over 50 overs, 20 overs, or – as it turned out today – 22, India’s one-day cricketers are simply streets ahead of England’s. They duly claimed an unassailable 4-0 lead in the seven-game series thanks to a 19-run victory in a match that was rescued from a soggy grave by some valiant work from the Bangalore groundstaff.

After nearly five hours of rain delays, the contest was minutes away from an abandonment when the umpires decreed that the conditions were fit for play, and as things turned out, their decision proved to be worthwhile. For eight hard-hitting overs, while Owais Shah and Andrew Flintoff were together at the crease, adding 82 for the fourth wicket, England put up the best fight they have shown all series. But in the final analysis, the unbridled flamboyance of India’s batsmen, coupled with the nerveless short-form skills that India’s bowlers have learnt from their time in the IPL, proved decisive.

Big Picture

England were thrashed in Rajkot and comprehensively beaten in Indore but improved their performance in Kanpur. The gap between the teams has narrowed with every game but, at 3-0 to India, the series has reached a stage where England have to win in Bangalore to keep it alive.

India made heavy work of an under-par England total in the first evenly-contested match between the two sides, but edged ahead thanks to a superior run-rate under the Duckworth/Lewis method when bad light curtailed their chase after 40 overs.

Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh produced some fireworks during India’s chase, and that ultimately proved crucial as the umpires were forced to stop play in murky conditions, with India ahead by 16 runs. The toss, scheduled at 8:30 am local, had been put back 45 minutes because of the thick haze and overcast conditions in smoggy Kanpur, but only one over was docked from each innings, and to top it off, the lunch interval was not shortened.