Mohali Test, Day 3, Close
Wednesday, December 5, 2001

It's a battle of survival for England, but Marcus Trescothick and Mark Butcher have done their bit to infuse confidence in their colleagues watching the proceedings from the pavilion.

The contributions of the openers cannot be underestimated on a third day pitch where the spinners have done the bulk of the bowling. Numerically, it may not be a lot of runs on the board for England, but they are indeed very, very valuable.

Danger for the Englishmen lurks on the fourth morning when there will be a bit of moisture for the spinners to exploit. The two English batsmen did not come to the pitch of the deliveries today, but the ball will hasten off the track tomorrow and not allow the batsmen the same reaction time.

It baffles me why Harbhajan Singh was introduced into the attack from the opposite end to the one at which he caused all the damage in the first innings. It was the same end from which Richard Dawson did the bulk of his bowling, but for some inexplicable reason, Sourav Ganguly brought Anil Kumble on at that end.

England do not have the quality and the depth in their batting to raise realistic hopes of saving the Test, and the first hour tomorrow will be very crucial to their fortunes in the match. And hopefully the captain would show some confidence in Iqbal Siddiqui.

Sanjay Manjrekar, mainstay of the Indian batting in the late '80s and early '90s, was talking to H Natarajan.

More from Manjrekar
A missed opportunity
England show heart

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