India heading for win despite losing Tendulkar Sachin Tendulkar almost always fires at the MA Chidambaram stadium and Friday was no different. The little master made a fine 68 as India reached 145 for two in the 30th over. His new opening partner Virender Sehwag was also among the runs, scoring a rapid fifty. The Indians, being led for the first time by Anil Kumble, were replying to England’s total of 217. With 120 balls to be bowled and eight wickets in hand, the home team were well on course to notch up the 73 runs required to win the match and secure a 2-1 lead in the six-match series. Earlier in the afternoon, England, who opted to bat, lost their way after an aggressive start. The English openers rattled 42 runs in 6.4 overs before Nick Knight fell. A steady procession of batsmen followed, and this saw England being reduced to 125 for six. Jeremy Snape and Ben Hollioake then staged a mini-recovery, putting on 70 runs for the seventh wicket. But medium-pacer Ajit Agarkar returned to clean up the tail, ending up with impressive figures of four for 34 from his nine overs. It was a poor performance from the visiting batsmen on a very friendly surface.

Hussain: It is a big game for me... It was Nasser Hussain’s first visit to his birthplace after donning the mantle of England captain. And the reception was rousing. The Madras Cricket Club did their bit, marking the occasion by conferring a life-membership on the England captain. Hussain had turned out for them when he made his previous visit to the city as a seventeen-year-old. The England captain moved to Essex in England at the tender age of five. So it was not surprising to hear him say that his loyalties lie with England. "I feel for some people who don't find it such an easy position. I've always been English; I am proud of my roots, proud of my English side, proud of being England captain. Everything I know, all my schoolboy heroes both football and cricket, have been English so there's no sort of worries there," Hussain said. Despite this he admitted that the game at Chennai was special because of the place the city holds in his dad Joe Hussain’s heart. "A lot of who I am, as a man and a cricketer, is down to my dad, Joe. It is a big match for me because it is such a big game for him. I am proud of what he has done for me, and as his roots come from Madras, I am proud to be back there." The failure of the English batsmen to put up even a remotely challenging total, on a batsman-friendly wicket, might though douse Nasser’s hopes of sealing a win on the ground where his cricketing odyssey began.

The message reached him Guess what? Paul Collingwood, the England all-rounder, who was the Man of match at Cuttack, owes his new-found self-confidence to a text message. Collingwood’s first foray into international cricket, during the 2001 NatWest one-day series which also included Pakistan and Australia, did not see him cover himself with glory. After repeated failures, he was forlorn and began to doubt if he was worthy of being an England cricketer. Then came the text message from England’s premier fast bowler Darren Gough. "That message from Darren, a couple of days after the triangular series, really lifted me," Collingwood told the Guardian. "It basically said, 'Colly, your attitude was awesome, don't drop your head’. “ As the match-winning knock at Cuttack proved, he hasn’t.

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