Cricket: Laxman comes to the rescue of his NZ coach

By RICHARD BOOCK

CHANDIGARH - There are times when John Wright must feel like dropping to his knees and kissing the feet of Indian batsman VVS Laxman.

It was Laxman, after all, who saved Wright's skin at Kolkata two years ago, his epic 281 not only averting the follow-on against Australia, but also setting the scene for one of modern cricket's most famous test wins.

And the elegant right-hander was at it again yesterday, first compiling an unbeaten century as India fell just seven runs short of the follow-on mark against New Zealand, and then defying the tourists for most of the day to consign the second test, and the series, to a draw.

Local administrators here are not known for their tolerance when their team lose at home and Wright - the former New Zealand captain and now coach of India - would have almost certainly been in the firing line had the side capitulated on the final day.

The story goes that after the jail-break against Australia in Kolkata, when India levelled the series 1-1 before triumphing in the final test, Wright could barely allow Laxman to walk past him without genuflecting and offering his thanks.

He would have almost certainly felt in a similar mood when stumps were drawn in the test at Mohali late last night, at which stage India had scrambled through to 136 for four, still 70 runs in arrears with Laxman unbeaten on 67 and Yuvraj Singh on five.

Contrary to popular opinion, the final day threw up an absorbing arm-wrestle after a supercharged Daryl Tuffey produced by far his best effort outside New Zealand, taking four first innings wickets and effecting a brilliant run-out, and then shocking the hosts with three strikes before lunch.

Tuffey, whose record away from home is mediocre to say the best, had Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid caught behind, and then produced a peach of an off-cutter to rattle the stumps of Sachin Tendulkar, reducing India to 18 for three.

It was Tendulkar's third failure in four outings against New Zealand, his overall performance of 74 runs at 17.75 ranking as easily the worst series return of his career, not to mention the biggest disappointment of the summer for home fans.

But any thoughts that New Zealand were to gain a series win on Indian soil had to be put on hold as Laxman joined up with Chopra and frustrated the opposition bowlers for the best part of five hours.

If there is a better driver of the ball than Laxman he must be pretty to watch, because the languid 28-year-old was imperial in his execution, mixing a few delightful shots with an impregnable defence and leaving very little to chance.

Chopra, who made his test debut at Ahmedabad, repaid selector Syed Kirmani's faith with a mature innings that dripped with application and graft.

He brought up his second half-century of the match off 159 balls before immediately falling to a bat-pad catch of Paul Wiseman.

Although unable to land the decisive blow in the afternoon, New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming was delighted with the effort of Tuffey in particular and was excited about the way the teams pace attack was shaping up.

"Tuffey has been excellent on this tour," he said.

The other good news for Fleming was that Tuffey's new-ball partner at Mohali, Ian Butler, appears to be coming on in leaps and bounds, and will almost certainly figure alongside Tuffey and Shane Bond during this summer's home series against Pakistan and South Africa.