Weather A Dampener

The 35-year-old tweaker had brought himselftantalisingly close to the coveted milestone by picking his 498th scalp on thesecond morning of another weather-marred day in the second Test against Englandtoday.

Kumble's dismissal of overnight batsman PaulCollingwood was the only bright note on an otherwise gloomy day which sawEngland add 37 runs to their overnight score and finish on 200 for five in 65overs.

The match, however, held promise of a thrilling contestbecause one of the unbeaten batsmen at the crease was the charismatic Englandskipper Andrew Flintoff, who had already hit six fours in his entertaining45-ball 26.

Giving the captain company was wicketkeeper-batsmanGeraint Jones on seven.

Only 15 overs were possible in the day as a combinationof bad light and drizzle kept the players off the ground and left the sizeablecrowd at the PCA Stadium disappointed.

It helped matters little that the match began half anearly to make up for the time lost yesterday which was close to two hours.

Frequent inspections by the umpires -- Darrell Hair andSimon Taufel -- were also rendered an exercise in futility as the conditionscould not have warranted any play.

Kumble struck off the second ball of his fifth over, clean bowling first Testcenturion Collingwood with a googly that clipped the bails in a spectacularfashion. The morning strike by India's leading wicket-taker put England firmlyon the backfoot and threatened to spoil their plans of scoring a competitivefirst innings total after having elected to bat.

The visitors, overnight 163 for four, started the dayconfidently with Flintoff deciding to take the attack to the rival camp.

The indomitable all-rounder welcomed debutant MunafPatel with a straight driven four before hitting another in the paceman's nextover.

The stand-in skipper was also unruffled by Kumble, whomanaged to trouble the batsmen on quite a few occasions, slamming him for twoboundaries in one over, including an exquisite straight drive.

But like yesterday, the English batsmen were guilty oflosing their concentration just when looking to settle down.

Collingwood was bamboozled by the Kumble delivery thatstraightened, similar to the one that dismissed Ian Bell yesterday. He made 25with three fours in 185 minutes and 77 balls.

His association with Flintoff for the fifth wicket wasworth 26 runs.

With the clouds refusing to go away, it appears thefate of the match would be in the hands of the weather Gods rather than theteams who were looking to go 1-0 up in the three-Test rubber with a win here.

PTI