Harbhajan terminates England's innings

For two sessions yesterday, England seemed to have tamed the "Turbanator". Harbhajan Singh, the tall 21-year-old Sikh off-spinner who was given his irresistible nickname while destroying Australia in India last winter, failed to take a wicket in his first 12 overs against England and was forced out of the attack just before tea with figures of none for 45 when Nasser Hussain launched him over extra-cover for six.

He might have muttered: "I'll be back." He was, this time from the Pavilion End, eight overs after the interval, and produced what threatens to be the decisive spell of the series, taking five of the last six wickets for six runs in 45 balls.

As a result, England slumped to 238 all out, and by the close, India had scored 24 runs for the loss of Shiv Sunder Das, who was bowled out by Mark Butcher.

It was not Harbhajan's spin that undid England. Of his victims the last, Matthew Hoggard, was the only one to fall to an off-break. The others were deceived by the Turbanator's Doosra, meaning "other one" across the many languages and dialects of the sub-continent, and receiving its first cricketing airing in Urdu to describe Saqlain Mushtaq's "mystery ball".

Harbhajan's Doosra, like Saqlain's, slides away from the right-hander from an orthodox off-break action - apparently the secret is a middle finger that has gone numb from so much bowling, allowing him to slide it over the ball.

The resulting deviation to off, while only slight, had Mark Ramprakash, Andy Flintoff and Richard Dawson caught off the leading edge and James Foster lbw sweeping, all four playing for off-spin that was simply not there. Two more had Hussain and Craig White dropped by Deep Dasgupta.

"We've been watching a lot of videos of Harbhajan and seen he's bowling straight ones and the odd one that's turning and bouncing," said Marcus Trescothick, who had played him comfortably.

For his team-mates, forewarned had not been sufficiently forearmed. "We're just trying to work it out and see what's happening," Trescothick admitted.

Yet Harbhajan's form since the classic Australia series earlier this year, when he took 32 wickets at 17.03 and hit the runs that clinched the deciding match in Madras, had been far from frightening.

Like the whole India team, the Turbanator clearly prefers playing at home - this was his first Test appearance at his local ground, as he still lives in Jalandhar, three hours to the north of Chandigarh.

India began yesterday with three debutant seam bowlers of three different religions: Tinu Yohannan, a Christian; Iqbal Siddiqui, a Muslim; and the Hindu all-rounder Sanjay Bangar. But it was the Sikh off-spinner in his patka who ruined England's day.