By IANS
Trent Bridge : One of the interesting sub-plots of the drawn first Test at Lord's was the way England wicketkeeper Matt Prior got under the skin of Indian opener Dinesh Karthik.
"Come on Karthik, let's get the entertainer (Mahendra) Dhoni out here," or "Dhoni wouldn't have played that shot," were regular refrains from behind the stumps during the India second innings on day four.
Prior had done his research and knew that if India's batting continued to falter the way it had in the first innings, Karthik and Dhoni – both wicket-keeper batsmen – might end up competing for one spot.
Karthik was under pressure coming into the series as an unproven if emerging talent with an average of around 32 from 13 Tests, with most of his runs and his only century coming since he was promoted to open the batting.
And the baby-faced opener, far more of an aggressor with willow in hand than a verbal jouster, was clearly unsettled by the constant chirping, reports BBC.
At one point he backed away from a Monty Panesar delivery to make a plea for protection from the umpire.
Former captain Sourav Ganguly angrily told him to get on with it from the other end and rejected several singles to keep his junior partner in the line of fire.
That merely increased the volume of chat from the England fielders, leading Ganguly to speak out at stumps to England skipper Michael Vaughan.
Vaughan was not interested in offering apologies, saying later: "I didn't hear Karthik say anything. It was just a bit of playful banter. You're always trying to put the batsman off, but it was nothing really."
Prior went further and warned of more trials to come.
"You've got to fight fire with fire sometimes and someone's going to sink and someone's going to swim," he said in his BBC Sport column ahead of the second Test.
This was Test cricket and Karthik had to quickly learn to play with the big boys.
Well, the 22-year-old answered his tormentors here Saturday with interest and showed he is quickly mastering English conditions and mind games.
Before the series began the Indian media were concerned about how Karthik, prone to committing himself too early, would cope with any movement through the air and off the seam.
The same approach that had brought rich rewards in the subcontinent, helping him rise rapidly up the pecking order in Tamil Nadu to win recognition at the senior level for India was expected to flounder on these shores.
That suspicion was heightened when he fell cheaply at Lord's in the first innings but the revival began on that tempestuous fourth evening and continued with relish in bowler-friendly conditions in Nottingham.
There was no backing away this time, just a succession of cracking drives off front and back foot, particularly through the covers.
"I spoke to the senior players (after the first Test) like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid," said Karthik. "Ravi Shastri also gave me a lot of confidence and I also spoke to Sunil Gavaskar after the first innings at Lord's.
"It was down to confidence the way I was batting, it was good to play positively, get down the wicket and cut out the swing."
He needed luck to get through some testing spells from James Anderson, Ryan Sidebottom and Chris Tremlett, while Panesar had two strong shouts for leg before against him.
But so good was his judgement and ability to play the ball late, it provoked Anderson and Sidebottom into uncontrolled fury.
This time when his opponents let rip with choice words of advice, the response was a smile and reminder of the score.
And Prior? He could only watch and admire, with little mention of Dhoni and any dilemmas for the Indian selectors.
Karthik deserved a century rather than trudging off first ball after tea caught off bat and pad at short-leg.
Disappointed he may have been but he had silenced the jibes, not least those emanating a few feet from his batting crease.