No revenge but it's still so sweet for Vaughan

One might have been tempted to interpret traces of revenge in Michael Vaughan's features at The Oval on Thursday.

There was none there, however. Just the same delight which brought him his previous three Test hundreds of the English summer.

The 27-year-old Yorkshireman, who ended 182 not out as England amassed 336 for two against India on the opening day of the fourth Test, has had a dream run since May and the first test against Sri Lanka at Lord's, when he opened his account with 64 and 115.

It is the Indians, though, who have really suffered as the right-hander, armed with his textbook straight bat, has made a consecutive scores of 0, 100, 197, 61 and 15 before Thursday's display.

He now averages 93.3 in his last seven Tests.

Vaughan is not quite Rahul Dravid yet but there are clear similarities between the two men, both of whom seem to flourish as their sides' batting anchors.

Vaughan was not particularly fond of his Indian opponents at the end of last year when, batting in the third Test in Bangalore, he had reached 64 before becoming only the seventh player in Test history to be dismissed handling the ball.

A disgruntled Vaughan, who had instinctively put out his hand to catch the ball even though it did not seem to be threatening his stumps, later said he had expected the Indians to be "more sporting".

On reflection, though, he admitted that he had been naive to expect such concessions in the heat of battle. There were no hard feelings, he said. Saurav Ganguly's bowlers may be beginning to feel otherwise.

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