Century 'wasn't meant to be' says White

Craig White told how he gave what encouragement he could to England fast bowler Steve Harmison, after he was England's last man out in the Trent Bridge Test, leaving White stranded six runs short of his second Test century.

"Firstly he apologised to me but I told him not to worry about it because I thought he had batted very well in his first Test match," said White. "It would have been nice to get a hundred but it's a team game and I backed Harmy to get runs as well - it just wasn't meant to be."

Asked why he took the run which allowed India to target Harmison, he replied: "My initial instinct was to go for the run and then I thought `should I, shouldn't I?' But I decided to go because they are Test runs, they don't come that easy so you can't turn them down. Looking back on it I probably would do it again."

White believes he has lost some of the 'nip' which had returned to his bowling at the Lord's Test.

"It takes me a while to loosen up and unfortunately if you go for a few runs in those first two overs it's not good enough, you get taken off and that's understandable. I am a little bit stiff at the moment whereas at Lord's I was as loose as a goose. See what happens tomorrow, it could be a long day."

White admitted the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar, who is 56 not out, is the crucial one. "He's the start, we have to target him and Rahul Dravid in the morning and try and get a new batsman in. It could take a while but we just have to keep chipping away with the aim to make early inroads."