White knight

All-rounder's maiden test century boosts England

Indian wicketkeeper Deep Dasgupta looks on as Craig White hits out during his maiden test century. AP

AHMADABAD, India (AP) -- Craig White thrived on three missed chances to post his maiden test century and bolster England on the second day of the second test match against India, which suffered two jolts Wednesday in the western city of Ahmadabad.

Butter-fingered Indian wicketkeeper Deep Dasgupta muffed a stumping chance and spilled an edged shot to enable White to tide over early nerves in his valiant 343-minute knock of 121, which was studded with 12 boundaries and two sixes.

Yorkshire all-rounder White's maiden test century, three days before his 32nd birthday, helped England recover from Tuesday's middle order collapse to score 407 in the first knock.

India then crawled to 71 for two wickets, losing openers Shiv Sundar Das for 41 and Dasgupta for 11.

At the close, Rahul Dravid was unbeaten on five and Sachin Tendulkar on two.

Resuming at his overnight score of 42, White used the sweep shot to good effect in smothering the Indian spinners.

Having survived a missed stumping off Harbhajan Singh when Dasgupta failed to gather the ball, White opened his arms to clout Singh for a six over long-on to complete his 50.

White also benefitted from Anil Kumble's spilled catch at deep square-leg off pace bowler Javagal Srinath as he got three lives in advancing from 44 to 67.

He lifted off-spinner Singh for another six in the afternoon session as the English tail wagged long enough to help White take the total past the 400-run mark.

Singh got his revenge when he castled White with a tweaker that skidded through to tilt the stumps, bringing an end to England's first innings.

White and wicketkeeper-batsman James Foster negotiated the Indian spinners in a battling 105-run partnership for the seventh wicket.

Leg-spinner Kumble broke the stand by having Foster caught by Sachin Tendulkar at mid-on for 40.

Foster struck four boundaries off 119 balls in 161 minutes before Tendulkar leapt in the air to bring off a brilliant catch to signal his departure.

Kumble clean bowled Giles for seven but tailenders Richard Dawson and Matthew Hoggard frustrated the Indians for an hour and a half.

Richard Dawson hung around for 68 minutes to score nine runs. He became Srinath's first victim by edging an outswinger to Dasgupta.

Hoggard remained unbeaten on four in 24 minutes of batting as White successfully farmed the strike.

Indian batsmen continued the slow-scoring trend as only 201 runs were scored in the entire day, while England's bowlers made two breakthroughs.

Dasgupta completed his miserable day by falling into a trap and top-edging a sweep shot against left-arm spinner Giles down skipper Nasser Hussain's throat at short fine-leg. His 17 runs came off 90 balls in 67 minutes.

Stocky opener Das, dropped by Mark Ramprakash off Dawson on 24, failed to get behind a rising outswinger from paceman Andrew Flintoff and edged the ball to Mark Butcher at second slip.

Das' innings lasted 111 minutes and he struck five boundaries from 95 deliveries.

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