England must be wary of terrific Kumble, says Collingwood

JUST an hour’s play was possible yesterday on the second day of the second Test between India and England in Mohali due to bad light and rain.

In the 14.3 overs bowled at the start of the day, the tourists progressed from 163-4 to 200-5, with Paul Collingwood the man out.

England will have to be watchful against Anil Kumble it would seem, however, given the turn and bounce he extracted from a leg-stump line to beat Collingwood’s tentative prod. Kumble is now only two wickets shy of becoming only the fifth man in Test history, and first Indian, to reach the 500-mark.

Collingwood has certainly got a close look at Kumble during the tour to date and compares the 35-year-old favourably with fellow spinners Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan.

“He’s a world-class bowler, who is hard to face on any wicket. It was a pretty good ball but I have to be critical of myself,” said Collingwood. “I maybe could have got a little further out to it.

“I have faced quite a lot of Kumble in one-day internationals as well but when you come up against him in his own backyard he is difficult to contend with.

“That’s the same for any of those three, they have all got their strengths, whether it be turning the ball massively like Warne and Murali or having the accuracy like Kumble does.

“He is the one bowler who is going to bowl a lot of overs at us so the main thing is to stay pretty patient with him.”

The Durham man departed for 25 in the tenth over of the morning and Geraint Jones (7) and skipper Andrew Flintoff (26) saw England through to the first drinks break, when they accepted the light offer from Australian umpires Darrell Hair and Simon Taufel.

Flintoff had been in fine form, hitting five boundaries in the morning session and driving seamers Munaf Patel and Irfan Pathan with great power to the fence.

But he was denied a chance to maintain the momentum as steady rain made further play impossible and with more bad weather forecast for today, it looks increasingly likely that the teams will head to Mumbai for next week’s third and final Test all-square.